[CentOS] CentOS upgrade in Xen domU?

[Johnny Hughes]

Mike Edwards wrote:
> Thank you for the reply, Alain.
> 
> Since CentOS doesn't have a recommended on-line upgrade path (why?!), I
> figured I'd go with the recommended path of using the installer.  To
> that end, I was wondering if I was missing something (boot option,
> perhaps?) that would tell anaconda to bypass the partition check, and
> just get on with the install.
> 
> I eventually gave up after several hours of frustration, and followed
> a HowTo on the CentOS site written by someone upgrading from the 4.4
> server install to 5.0.
> 
> I still repeat my earlier question - why should a modern installer,
> with the existence (and popularity!) of LVM and Xen, refuse to operate
> on disks when it cannot find a partition table?  It seems upstream is
> severely limiting their install options in this case.

I don't think that upgrading a Xen VM from el4 to el5 was even on their
scope at the time of the 5.0 release.

EL4 did not even have xen support at the release time of el5 (it was at
version el4.4) ... xen support for el4 did not come until el4.5 (which
was after the 5.0 release).

CentOS does not even really recommend that you use the anaconda
installer to upgrade ... we RECOMMEND that you do a clean install and
then move over all you data and configuration files, as does upstream:

http://www.centos.org/docs/5/html/Installation_Guide-en-US/ch-upgrade-x86.html

Specifically:

"While upgrading from <product_name> version 4 Update 4 is supported,
you are more likely to have a consistent experience by backing up your
data and then installing this release of <product_name> 5 over your
previous <product_name> installation."

You were (if using a CentOS DomU) trying to upgrade from 4.5 to 5.0 ...
which is NOT supported, but will work for all except the DomU's.

When 5.1 is released, I would expect that this will work better.

<snip>

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