Date: Tue, 3 Apr 2001 00:32:53 -0500 From: Ben Weaver <bweaver@tranquility.net> To: jesse reynolds <jesse@va.com.au> Cc: Alex Charalabidis <alex@wnm.net>, freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: can FreeBSD apply security updates without making world? Message-ID: <20010403003253.E49468@tranquility.net> In-Reply-To: <a05010425b6edcb048553@[10.0.1.52]>; from jesse@va.com.au on Mon, Apr 02, 2001 at 04:25:02PM %2B1000 References: <Pine.BSF.4.32.0104020059490.53369-100000@earth.wnm.net> <a05010425b6edcb048553@[10.0.1.52]>
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###On Mon, Apr 02, 2001 at 04:25:02PM +1000, jesse reynolds wrote: [snip] > I'm too scared to upgrade the OS on a production server. Do you think > I shouldn't be? ... can I do it by remote? :-) It's best to be there in person in case something breaks if at all possible. [snip] > Cool. Well i'd like to upgrade, but would need to migrate all the web > applications off this server (and the DNS) before upgrading the OS, > as I'm scared about killing the server. > > Maybe there are better stragegies for upgrading OS's on remote > production servers? One strategy I've found _very_ useful is to set up an entirely seperate box and install the version of FreeBSD you want on it. Then, install all of the software you need onto the new box. Next, tweak the config files, compile a new kernel, etc. and migrate your data from the old server to the new one. Make sure nothing (like scripts and such) is broken in the new environment. When you're happy with how everything works, swap the boxes. If there's user-data on the server, you will need to schedule a little downtime and move the user-data from the old server to the new during the down time just before you swap them. If you do it right, there's hardly any down time at all. This works really well if you want to upgrade the hardware at the same time. If you want to keep using your existing hardware in production, just get some new hard drives, build the new server on them in "any old box", then just swap the hard drives instead of the whole box. If you do it this way, be sure to build your kernel with the hardware on the real server in mind and make sure you make enough swap space for the amount of memory you have on the real server during the install. Good luck! -Ben To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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