Upgrading Kernel on a Remote Server

[Camilo Reyes]

I don't have much experience with this other than once I ran a server from home and remotely ssh'ed to it to do maintenance. One of the things I learned from that experience was that you can easily patch your services any time there is a new threat, all you have to do is patch your code, recompile, and restart service. If you are not sure it will ever come back up when you restart, you can leave it patched and restart it when you are more comfortable. When it comes to the kernel, don't upgrade it unless it's ABSOLUTELY necessary because you have to reboot each time; unless of course, some genius out there has figured out a way to do it without a reboot.

Just my two cents,

Camilo
"Bono Vince Malum"

> Date: Thu, 5 Jun 2008 12:35:43 -0400
> From: Sean Cavanaugh 
> Subject: RE: Upgrading Kernel on a Remote Server
> To: 
> Message-ID: 
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
> 
> 
> > Date: Thu, 5 Jun 2008 12:15:44 -0400
> > From: schiz0phrenic21 at gmail.com
> > To: Freebsd-questions at freebsd.org
> > CC: 
> > Subject: Upgrading Kernel on a Remote Server
> > 
> > Hey,
> > 
> > I recently ordered a FreeBSD server from a hosting company. This would
> > be the first time I do not have physical access to a FreeBSD system.
> > I'm looking for any hints/tricks/suggestions for managing and
> > upgrading it safely (as in, not locking myself out or having boot
> > errors). The host does not offer KVM/IP or serial port access.
> > 
> > The host is installing 6.3-RELEASE. I'd like to upgrade to
> > 7.0-RELEASE, as well as compile in some kernel options for various
> > things. What's the best way to do this on a remote system, minimizing
> > compiling a bad kernel and causing it not to boot? I wouldn't have
> > access to single user mode or anything.
> > 
> > Thanks for any suggestions/help/etc,
> > ~Steve
> 
> do you have control of the whole box? most places I know that have online 
> hosting like that run you inside a jail as a VPS style system.
> 
> to answer your original comments, I would say to contact their tech support 
> department and see if you can coordinate with them to have it upgraded to 7.0. 
> If they dont support it, then you are going to be on your own with the install 
> and may have to have them reimage it if you get a bad install. Some places will 
> be willing to do a local base install for your or at least help get over any 
> hurdles with upgrading.
> 
> -Sean