On Sat, 2005-01-22 at 04:13 -0600, Johnny Hughes wrote:
Although upgrades are supported by the Red Hat Enterprise Linux family on x86 processors, you are more likely to have a consistent experience by backing up your data and then installing this release of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3.93 over your previous Red Hat Enterprise Linux installation.
Substitute CentOS-4Beta and CentOS-3.x and I agree with that statement.
However, before you chose to upgrade your system, there are a few things you should keep in mind:
* Individual package configuration files may or may not work after performing an upgrade due to changes in various configuration file formats or layouts. * If you have one of Red Hat's layered products (such as the Cluster Suite) installed, it may need to be manually upgraded after the Red Hat Enterprise Linux upgrade has been completed. * Third party or ISV applications may not work correctly following the upgrade.
I agree with that too ... it applies to CentOS upgrades to CentOS-4.0
Caution
As software evolves, configuration file formats can change. It is very important to carefully compare your original configuration files to the new files before integrating your changes.
Note
It is always a good idea to back up any data that you have on your systems. For example, if you are upgrading or creating a dual-boot system, you should back up any data you wish to keep on your hard drive (s). Mistakes do happen and can result in the loss of all of your data.
If you still choose to perform a traditional upgrade, type the following command at the installation boot prompt:
linux upgradeany
I, like redhat, also think that backing up your data and doing a reinstall and then moving your data over is the best and most reliable solution.