src update without console access

[Per Engelbrecht]

Hi Patrik

Maybe I didn't make myself clear, if so, sorry.
It's not the update/install procedure itself that's causing the problem
at all.

When running 'installworld',  'mergemaster -p' and 'mergemaster' the
server needs to be in single-user mode.
That is not possible for out customers! They often sit on the other side
of the world on a ssh connection and in single-user mode you don't
have ssh.That's the problem!

I use BSD only (Open, Free and a single Net) for our infracture/setup
(bgp, dns, ntp, mail et al.) in our datacenter. No problem - I have
consol access all the time for the things I can't do via ssh.

At first we only offered Tux-boxes. Now we offer fbsd boxes as well. Now
these customers need to update their servers from any location.

respectfully
/per
per at xterm.dk



>> The problem is that customers don't have console access while in
>> single-user mode ! (can't run installworld, mergemaster)
>> I've tested an upgrade from a running system (killing
>> sendmail first, no
>> attached users) with poor result ..  'mergemaster -p' and
>> 'mergemaster'
>> only found a diff in /etc/motd and 'uname -a' didn't show any
>> system changes after a reboot.
>
> I've ran FreeBSD for quite some time and usaly you dont need acual
> console access to the server to update it. The only problem I've
> ran into so far is updating from FreeBSD 5.0 to 5.2.1 .. for some
> reason the tcsh update didnt work and crunched the whole
> installation... anyways... Normally I simply run
> mergemaster -p
> make buildworld
> make buildkernel [KERNCONF="XYZ"]
> make installkernel [KERNCONF="XYZ"]
> make installworld
> mergemaster
> reboot
>
> which usally works very good..
> But there are no guarantee that this wont crash the system to a
> non-working state where the only solution is a complete re-install.
>
>> In obsd I'm used to run a "clean" cvs, building and installing
>> from a running system. I can't expect customers to go through that
>>
>> procedure so
>> I was hoping that any you guys could help me with a solution for
>> the customers?
>
> As far as I know there are no other options.. you might want to
> take a look at the port "security/freebsd-update" I've not used it
> myself tho. You can find information about it here
> <http://www.daemonology.net/freebsd-update>.
>
> Best Regards,
> Patrik
>
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