From owner-freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Nov 10 09:11:54 2005 Return-Path: X-Original-To: stable@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 1138816A41F for ; Thu, 10 Nov 2005 09:11:54 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from rwatson@FreeBSD.org) Received: from cyrus.watson.org (cyrus.watson.org [209.31.154.42]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id B554543D45 for ; Thu, 10 Nov 2005 09:11:53 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from rwatson@FreeBSD.org) Received: from fledge.watson.org (fledge.watson.org [209.31.154.41]) by cyrus.watson.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 4BF3B46B7C; Thu, 10 Nov 2005 04:11:53 -0500 (EST) Date: Thu, 10 Nov 2005 09:11:53 +0000 (GMT) From: Robert Watson X-X-Sender: robert@fledge.watson.org To: Ronald Klop In-Reply-To: Message-ID: <20051110090912.C33260@fledge.watson.org> References: <4372256F.2020800@kernel32.de> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed Cc: stable@freebsd.org, Pete French , Marian Hettwer , Claus Guttesen Subject: Re: upgrading 5.4 -> 6.0 without reinstalling. safe ? X-BeenThere: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Production branch of FreeBSD source code List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 10 Nov 2005 09:11:54 -0000 On Wed, 9 Nov 2005, Ronald Klop wrote: >> PS.: Just did an upgrade remote from 5.4-RELEASE to 6.0-RELEASE without >> any problems. Steps taken as described above ;) > > How do you reboot into single-usermode from remote? (Rebooting isn't > really the problem, working in single-usermode is.) Typically, using a serial console which allows you to specify the boot flags and access the console remotely. A serial console is an invaluable tool for remote administration in the event of upgrades, hardware failures, etc, especially if your box supports remote bios and raid management using a serial port but not a command line tool. It is possible to do upgrades without single user mode, but it comes with risks -- if you do this, you want to make sure that you've shut down any important services, and blocked logins by users. Otherwise applications may keel over as shared objects are replaced (generally, pluggable ones), configuration files change, programs start and stop working for windows as they are replaced, etc. This is not a recommended approach, and I don't promise it will work, but I've done remote upgrades on multiuser but quiesced systems many, many times without problems. Robert N M Watson