Date: Fri, 16 Mar 2007 07:29:07 -0400 From: alex@schnarff.com To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Should I Upgrade 5.4 -> 6.2? Message-ID: <20070316072907.3qjda836884cg08g@mail.schnarff.com> In-Reply-To: <20070316051445.GA93327@xor.obsecurity.org> References: <20070315164706.4fy8vlmhw00kk4s8@mail.schnarff.com> <20070315210957.GF71936@gizmo.acns.msu.edu> <20070315211624.GA89114@xor.obsecurity.org> <45FA1325.6020409@u.washington.edu> <20070316051445.GA93327@xor.obsecurity.org>
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Quoting Kris Kennaway <kris@obsecurity.org>: > On Thu, Mar 15, 2007 at 08:46:45PM -0700, Garrett Cooper wrote: >> Kris Kennaway wrote: >> >On Thu, Mar 15, 2007 at 05:09:57PM -0400, Jerry McAllister wrote: >> >>On Thu, Mar 15, 2007 at 04:47:06PM -0400, alex@schnarff.com wrote: >> >> >> >>>First off, I want to thank the people who responded to my thread >> >>>"Stability Issues on a 5.4-RELEASE box" a couple of weeks ago; after >> >>>disabling hyperthreading, getting a clean run of Memtest back, and >> >>>doing some serious fsck'ing of the disks, the box appears to now be >> >>>completely stable. I'm still not sure which of the above fixed the >> >>>problem...but I'll take a stable system at this point. :-) >> >>> >> >>>That said, in that thread I had asked about the advisability of >> >>>upgrading to 6.2, and it was intelligently pointed out that doing so in >> >>>pursuit of stability was a bad idea. Now that the box is stable, >> >>>though, I'm back to the same question: should I make the upgrade, and >> >>>if so, how should I do it? >> >>> >> >>>My primary driver for doing so would be to keep current enough that I'm >> >>>still getting security and other patches on a regular basis, and that I >> >>>can upgrade my applications from ports as necessary. If this is not an >> >>>issue, then my only remaining concern would be that it's usually easier >> >>>to get support on lists like this if you're running a modern version of >> >>>the OS (that's certainly the case with the OpenBSD folks). >> >>> >> >>>My primary concern with upgrading is that the box is in Portland, OR, >> >>>and I'm in Arlington, VA...and while the ISP is friendly, I doubt that >> >>>I could count on them for major system recovery if I botch something >> >>>during the upgrade. My other worry is that I don't want to break >> >>>existing apps if possible (the main one I'm concerned about is >> >>>Zope/Plone). This is a production box with moderate traffic, and it >> >>>would be a problem if there was extensive downtime. >> >>> >> >>>Is it worth upgrading? If so, what's the best way to do so -- CVSup, or >> >>>some other way? Are there any major caveats if I do choose to upgrade >> >>>(or choose to stay with the existing OS)? >> >>You should if you can reasonably do it, for the reasons you give plus >> >>improvements in performance and in some utilities. >> >> >> >>My sentiment is usually to do a clean install over major version numbers. >> >>It tends to leave less dross laying around. but I do not have to worry >> >>about down times very much, a couple of hours at night is not terribly >> >>noticable in my stuff. It does require more time down to do a clean >> >>from scratch install. But, I think you can get away with a cvsup >> >>upgrade from 5.4 to 6.2. Then your downtime is just the reboot and >> >>stuff at single user (mergemaster), plus probably some for upgrading >> >>various ports. >> > >> >Yes, a source upgrade from 5.x to 6.x (followed by portupgrade -fa) >> >isn't too bad. As with any upgrade you do need a recovery strategy >> >though. >> > >> >Kris >> >> I agree with both Kris and Jerry. Besides, if you run 6.2 you're running >> a supported version of FreeBSD whereas 5.4 isn't supported anymore (5.5 >> is the last supported version in the legacy 5.x branch). Plus there are >> slight improvements from 5.x to 6.x. > > s/slight/major/ ;) Thanks everyone for the replies. Lucky for me, I just had a benefactor pop up and offer to pay for a new machine, which will allow me to lay the OS down cleanly and then use the existing system as a backup/test lab in the future. So thank heavens, the point is essentially moot. :-) Alex Kirk
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