Date: Sat, 17 Mar 2007 08:05:09 -0500 From: Bob Hall <rjhjr@cox.net> To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Should I Upgrade 5.4 -> 6.2? Message-ID: <20070317130508.GA25538@kongemord.krig.net> 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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On Fri, Mar 16, 2007 at 01:14:45AM -0400, Kris Kennaway wrote: > 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/ ;) Well sed.
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