[CentOS] EL 6 rollout strategies? (Scientific Linux)

[Ljubomir Ljubojevic]

Chuck Munro wrote:
> 
> On 05/07/2011 09:00 AM, Benjamin Smith wrote:
>> I was wondering what feedback might be offered by the CentOS community on their
>> experiences using Scientific Linux?
>>
>> I'm a long-time Centos user, and am basically happy with CentOS. I understand
>> there are delays getting EL 6 out.  We have been long anxious to roll out EL 6
>> as soon as it's ready, but our time window for rollout is looming and we will
>> need to act. (for business reasons, we need to rollout over summer, before Aug
>> 1, we need to start regression testing now!)
>>
>> I was once a WhiteBox Enterprise Linux user and switched to CentOS 4 without
>> issue, and am assuming that I might need to do something similar if we decide
>> to go this route.
>>
>> Any feedback is appreciated!
> 
> I had to complete a new VM Host machine before CentOS-6 was ready, so I 
> used SL-6 as the underpinnings.  It simply worked, once I ironed out a 
> couple of unrelated hardware issues.  It auto-updates and lets me know 
> when that's been done, but it doesn't reboot unless I want to, so 
> there's little risk in allowing the updates.  Auto-update can be 
> disabled if you prefer.
> 
> So far it has been flawless.  It's managing two very large software 
> RAID-6 arrays and 7 Guest VMs on a dual-Xeon Supermicro motherboard.
> 
> All of the VM Guest OS's are CentOS-5.6 which works well for my 
> applications.  I may or may not upgrade the Guests to C6, depending on 
> need.  CentOS has been so reliable that I'm reluctant to move to a 
> different platform.  I've used Ubuntu Server and it works well, but I'm 
> more familiar with the RHEL way of doing things so I'll stick with CentOS.
> 
> One thing I don't know much about is an in-place upgrade of C5 to C6. 
> There are some under-the-hood differences that must be taken into 
> account, which I haven't looked into.
> 
> YMMV,
> Chuck

in-place upgrade of C5 to C6 will be most likely impossible. To many 
changes of how thing work.

Ljubomir