Date: Sun, 19 Apr 2009 18:43:26 +0100 From: Matthew Seaman <m.seaman@infracaninophile.co.uk> To: Glen Barber <glen.j.barber@gmail.com> Cc: John Almberg <jalmberg@identry.com>, freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Upgrading from 6.3 to 7.1 -- how dangerous? Message-ID: <49EB62BE.8080406@infracaninophile.co.uk> In-Reply-To: <4ad871310904191012r2c0d8bcarbc43729c65d43708@mail.gmail.com> References: <FC65C191-F3D0-4DA3-95F3-7C4065E8C00C@identry.com> <4ad871310904191012r2c0d8bcarbc43729c65d43708@mail.gmail.com>
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Glen Barber wrote:
> On Sun, Apr 19, 2009 at 1:06 PM, John Almberg <jalmberg@identry.com> wr=
ote:
>> I need to upgrade a live, production server from 6.3 to 7.1. I can't a=
fford
>> to have any troubles with this server. I have Absolute FreeBSD and a f=
ew
>> other BSD books, and the upgrade process looks fairly straightforward.=
>> That's the theory...
>=20
> Wise man (who I won't name to keep his identity private) once said:
> "In theory, there is no difference between practice and theory. In
> practice, there is."
>=20
>> Real world question: how scared should I be?
I've done several 6.x to 7.x upgrades on live systems. There are some tr=
icky
bits, but once you have been through the process it's fairly routine.
One big gotcha is that in oder to upgrade all the ports, you first need t=
o
make sure that the software you're using and any dependencies it has are =
all
up to date too. For portmaster this is not a problem, as it is a shell s=
cript
with no dependencies except on the base system. For portupgrade, you sho=
uld=20
delete portupgrade and all of it's dependencies (some or all of: ruby, ru=
by-bdb,
bdb, openssl -- depending on your configuration choices) and then reinsta=
ll
by:
# cd /usr/ports/port-mgmt/portupgrade
# make install
>> I've thought about setting up a dummy server, just to practice on. Is =
this a
>> good idea? Or am I just a nervous Nellie?
>>
>=20
> Get a test box to do this on first. :)
Absolutely. A dummy run before the real thing is a really good idea.
One great benefit of using a test server is that you can also use it as
a package building machine (assuming it's the same CPU architecture of co=
urse).
Being able to upgrade all the installed software by installing pre-compil=
ed
and tested packages will a) save you a lot of time when you have to have =
your
production server out of action to work on it and b) it lets you discover=
all
those little glitches and tweaks that you will need to deal with *before*=
you
have to do it for real.
If you do have a spare server with appropriate capabilities, one approach=
=20
that you might consider is building a duplicate upgraded system image on =
the
spare machine and then simply swapping hard drives with your production b=
ox.
That is probably about the minimum time impact on production service[*] f=
or
you to do this sort of upgrade and it has the really useful benefit that
there is a simple back-out path should things not work out. Just swap th=
e
old disks back in.
Cheers,
Matthew
[*] Well, modulo time required for disks to resynchronise if you're using=
mirroring and can't swap both halves of the mirror simultaneously. For t=
he
whole RAID 1 thing to be effective your server /should/ run pretty much
normally while this is going on though.
--=20
Dr Matthew J Seaman MA, D.Phil. 7 Priory Courtyard
Flat 3
PGP: http://www.infracaninophile.co.uk/pgpkey Ramsgate
Kent, CT11 9PW
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