Hi All,
I've a question on upgrading Centos with the least downtime...
I've a centos 4.6 machine, hosting my local Centos respository. I'd like to upgrade the OS to 5.1
I've practised in a VMware machine upgrading it by booting from a CD, but I wondered if YUM could do it, whilst keeping the rest of the machine "alive".
Am I better to shutdown and upgrade, or is yum really *that* good?
Thanks,
Adrian
On Fri, May 30, 2008 at 07:51:24AM -0700, Adrian Marsh wrote:
Hi All,
I’ve a question on upgrading Centos with the least downtime…
I’ve a centos 4.6 machine, hosting my local Centos respository. I’d like to upgrade the OS to 5.1
I’ve practised in a VMware machine upgrading it by booting from a CD, but I wondered if YUM could do it, whilst keeping the rest of the machine “alive”.
Am I better to shutdown and upgrade, or is yum really *that* good?
I believe the 4.x -> 5.x path via yum is doable but actually tends to be a bit of work (I think I recall a rather detailed forum post describing the procedure).
I think the anaconda (from CD) method would probably be your smoothest option.
Ray
Found a thread here that seems to suggest it's the only way:
http://www.centos.org/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=11128&forum=3 7
Oh Well..
Thanks anyway..
Adrian
Adrian Marsh wrote:
Hi All,
I've a question on upgrading Centos with the least downtime...
The best way to accomoplish this is to backup all data and not upgrade the install at all. That is how Red Hat recommends that you do it for RHEL and how CentOS recommends it be done as well.
I've a centos 4.6 machine, hosting my local Centos respository. I'd like to upgrade the OS to 5.1
I've practised in a VMware machine upgrading it by booting from a CD, but I wondered if YUM could do it, whilst keeping the rest of the machine "alive".
This method is the best of the upgrade methods, but it will leave behind old packages and several configuration files will not work and will need attention.
See this link for the upstream recommendation:
http://www.centos.org/docs/5/html/5.1/Installation_Guide/ch-upgrade-x86.html
You might spend less total time upgrading (including troubleshooting of things with problems) if you backup data and just reinstall. I know it sounds like I am crazy ... but it is easier :D
Am I better to shutdown and upgrade, or is yum really *that* good?
Yum upgrades are the hardest to do, and are NOT recommended or supported. They can be accomplished in stages, however it is easy to get a non-bootable system.
I did the upgrade dance with yum once when going from Fedora 5 to 7. It worked, but took a lot of time and left a helluva' lot of obscure lib-failures and stuff. I eventually got it working but I never felt sure it wouldn't fail on me whenever. After running the upgraded system for a month or so w/o any problems, I decided to do a fresh install from scratch with CentOS5 and clear all FUD I had left.
Yum -upgrades works, but you'll potentially spend a lot of time clearing and fixing problems afterwards. You want a quick install, do a fresh one. Don't forget to backup your data first though.
-----Original Message----- From: centos-bounces@centos.org [mailto:centos-bounces@centos.org] On Behalf Of Johnny Hughes Sent: Friday, May 30, 2008 5:07 PM To: CentOS mailing list Subject: Re: [CentOS] Fastest 4.6 -> 5.1 upgrade path
Yum upgrades are the hardest to do, and are NOT recommended or supported. They can be accomplished in stages, however it is easy to get a non-bootable system.
On Fri, May 30, 2008 at 8:16 AM, Sorin Srbu sorin.srbu@gmail.com wrote:
I did the upgrade dance with yum once when going from Fedora 5 to 7. It worked, but took a lot of time and left a helluva' lot of obscure lib-failures and stuff. I eventually got it working but I never felt sure it wouldn't fail on me whenever. After running the upgraded system for a month or so w/o any problems, I decided to do a fresh install from scratch with CentOS5 and clear all FUD I had left.
Yum -upgrades works, but you'll potentially spend a lot of time clearing and fixing problems afterwards. You want a quick install, do a fresh one. Don't forget to backup your data first though.
I upgrade between minor releases, and that seems to work fairly well. But for any major release, I'd go for a clean install.
mhr
Couldn't agree more. Personally I wanted to see what the fuss was all about. I certainly got my hands full... 8-)
-----Original Message----- From: centos-bounces@centos.org [mailto:centos-bounces@centos.org] On Behalf Of MHR Sent: Friday, May 30, 2008 8:06 PM To: CentOS mailing list Subject: Re: [CentOS] Fastest 4.6 -> 5.1 upgrade path
On Fri, May 30, 2008 at 8:16 AM, Sorin Srbu sorin.srbu@gmail.com wrote:
I did the upgrade dance with yum once when going from Fedora 5 to 7. It worked, but took a lot of time and left a helluva' lot of obscure
lib-failures
and stuff. I eventually got it working but I never felt sure it wouldn't
fail
on me whenever. After running the upgraded system for a month or so w/o any problems, I decided to do a fresh install from scratch with CentOS5 and
clear
all FUD I had left.
Yum -upgrades works, but you'll potentially spend a lot of time clearing and fixing problems afterwards. You want a quick install, do a fresh one. Don't forget to backup your data first though.
I upgrade between minor releases, and that seems to work fairly well. But for any major release, I'd go for a clean install.
-
Adrian Marsh -
Johnny Hughes -
MHR -
Ray Van Dolson -
Sorin Srbu