Date: 11 Jan 2002 10:37:16 -0600 From: James McNaughton <jtm63@enteract.com> To: Christopher Schulte <schulte+freebsd@nospam.schulte.org> Cc: Per olof Ljungmark <peo@intersonic.se>, freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Updating remote machine Message-ID: <86u1tsetdv.fsf@jamestown.21stcentury.net> In-Reply-To: <5.1.0.14.0.20020104115958.035740d8@pop3s.schulte.org> References: <5.1.0.14.0.20020104115958.035740d8@pop3s.schulte.org>
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Christopher Schulte <schulte+freebsd@nospam.schulte.org> writes:
> At 06:58 PM 1/4/2002 +0100, Per olof Ljungmark wrote:
> >Hi all,
> >
> >We have a remote FBSD4.3 machina that I would like to upgrade to 4.4_STABLE.
> >While the handbook says you need single user mode to install world I was
> >wondering if it is still possible to shut down most processes (except sshd)
> >and do it in normal mode?
>
> Possible? Yes. I've done it many times with machines located far
> from my physical reach.
>
> Kill as many processes as possible, even the listening sshd....
>
> Have a backup plan in case it fails.
>
> I think I posted my experiences with this a while back to -STABLE or
> -QUESTIONS... Check the archives.
>
> >Thanks,
>
> -c
I updated my machine without going to single user with
success. However it was in the same room as I was (it's a headless
firewall). The way I did it is:
1. make buildworld
2. make buildkernel KERNCONF=$Your_fave_kernel_file
3. make installkernel KERNCONF=$Your_fave_kernel_file
4. make installworld
5. mergemaster
6. shutdown -r now
I *DO* *NOT* guarantee this will work for you. My reasoning behind
this order was that if I installed the kernel before the world and
rebooted, it might not come up multiuser and then I'd have no network
access to the machine. Also, if there were significant configuration
changes such as new system user/group names (and there were) it might
not come up multi user either. I also reasoned that as all active
system processes were already in memory that replacing the binaries on
disk wouldn't hurt in the short time it took to finish this work.
N.B. that I was tired and sleepy as I was running mergemaster and --
while creating a merged rc.network -- totally hosed my ipfw rules. I
was just lucky that they were hosed in such a way that the machine was
left open on the inside interface. I was able to restore my rc.network
from backup and it all worked out.
So, it is possible to do this. I'd say that it takes a lot of sack to
do it at a remote location and if it was an important server where a
long period of down-time (as you get on a plane and fly to the location
to fix it) is not acceptable it shouldn't be done remotely.
BTW I used rlogin (local network) and ran screen on the remote machine
so the buildworld and buildkernel could continue uninterupted.
>
>
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