From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Fri Dec 17 03:11:01 2004 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 8CB4C16A4CE for ; Fri, 17 Dec 2004 03:11:01 +0000 (GMT) Received: from quark.cs.earlham.edu (cs.earlham.edu [159.28.230.3]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 254DC43D48 for ; Fri, 17 Dec 2004 03:11:01 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from skylar@cs.earlham.edu) Received: from [192.168.0.11] (CPE-24-166-129-93.new.rr.com [24.166.129.93]) (authenticated bits=0) by quark.cs.earlham.edu (8.13.1/8.12.9) with ESMTP id iBH3AtZH043548 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA bits=256 verify=NO); Thu, 16 Dec 2004 22:10:56 -0500 (EST) (envelope-from skylar@cs.earlham.edu) Message-ID: <41C24E39.6060801@cs.earlham.edu> Date: Thu, 16 Dec 2004 22:10:49 -0500 From: Skylar Thompson Organization: Earlham College Computer Science Department User-Agent: Mozilla Thunderbird 1.0 (X11/20041206) X-Accept-Language: en-us, en MIME-Version: 1.0 To: LeKhoi References: <41C11AA3.10406@mac.com> In-Reply-To: X-Enigmail-Version: 0.89.5.0 X-Enigmail-Supports: pgp-inline, pgp-mime Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.9 required=8.0 tests=AWL,BAYES_00 autolearn=ham version=3.0.1 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.0.1 (2004-10-22) on quark.cs.earlham.edu X-Earlham-CS-Dept-MailScanner-Information: Please contact the ISP for more information X-Earlham-CS-Dept-MailScanner: Found to be clean X-MailScanner-From: skylar@cs.earlham.edu cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: why must boot in single mode. X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 17 Dec 2004 03:11:01 -0000 -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 LeKhoi wrote: | Hi Chuck and Kris | | I am also interesting in the scenario. Some FreeBSD boxes are being | used for webserving in a production environment from data centres. | | | If this upgrading procedures is in question and is forced to reboot | into single user mode (which is not practical as I am not in the | data centre) then is there a way that we could upgrade the box | safely remotely? Even if we need to shut down the server. I guess I have a few things to say to this, based on personal experience: 1. If the box works, why upgrade? All you really need to do is apply individual security patches, which does not require single-user mode. 2. If you do need to upgrade, then you should count on requiring single-user mode if anything goes wrong. 3. Many boxen in data centers, even low-end boxen like Poweredges and Proliants, have either integrated remote-management modules or options for them. Even if they don't have that, the BIOS of any real server will support redirection to a serial port that will allow you to use a modem to dial-in to the console. Even if it can't do that, decent KVM switches will have that kind of functionality. Any of these will allow you to get a remote console for work with the BIOS/single-user mode. - -- - -- Skylar Thompson (skylar@cs.earlham.edu) - -- http://www.cs.earlham.edu/~skylar/ -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.2.4 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Using GnuPG with Thunderbird - http://enigmail.mozdev.org iD8DBQFBwk4wsc4yyULgN4YRApFqAKCXgGSsYBIFkAL5hgUpCu6V2akUiACfWJvp VfxM/Lpnx1F7rDi/1QCHuFE= =0vrR -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----