Release engineering confusion

[Chad Leigh -- Shire.Net LLC]

On Nov 16, 2005, at 5:45 PM, Steve Bertrand wrote:

>
>
>>>>> In production (at an ISP), what is the best to
>>>> follow...RELENGX_X or
>>>>> RELENG_X? I have 4.x, 5.x boxes in production, and this
>> 6.x box is
>>>>> being prepared for the same.
>>>>
>>>> See the Handbook:
>>>>
>>>> 20.2.2.2 Who Needs FreeBSD-STABLE?
>>>
>>> Thank you. However, that entire page out of the handbook
>> pretty much
>>> clarifies that a production environment should *not* track either
>>> STABLE or CURRENT.
>>>
>>> So I'm assuming I'm best off with RELENG_6_0 etc, etc? Does anyone
>>> here actually run STABLE or CURRENT in a production
>> environment? I've
>>> personally had the most luck with RELENG_4 which is still
>> my main box,
>>> but now my curiosity has got the best of me.
>>
>>
>> I generally track -RELEASE but my production boxes are currently at
>> 5.4-STABLE from a while ago since there was an issue I was trying to
>> fix and was hoping someone had put a patch in to fix whatever my
>> issue was :-)  My issue has not shown up since and my boxes
>> have been
>> working fine.
>>
>> But in general I play it conservative and track -RELEASE
>
> Thanks Chad,
>
> Do you 'sup and build in a devel lab first, or do you perform your
> upgrades in real-time, and if something fails go from there?

Major version changes I try and do in a lab first and make sure all  
is good.  -RELEASE patch levels I do live and have never had an  
issue.  The current switch to -STABLE was also live since I was in a  
bind trying to figure out why I was getting a hanging machine...

Chad

>
> I've found it to be ok when something fails (only lived with FBSD  
> since
> 4.5), as usually it fails during build (which doesn't cause downtime),
> and after the reboot after installkernel (which can be reverted by  
> using
> your backup of your previous kernel, or if you don't make a direct
> backup, essentially kernel.old) that you can get back up and running
> very quickly.
>
> Steve
>

---
Chad Leigh -- Shire.Net LLC
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