Looking for advice before upgrading 5.1-p17 to 5.3-p1

[Bill Moran]

Hey all.

I've got a machine I'm hoping to upgrad per the subject line this weekend.

This machine is 6 hours from me.  I'm doing a remote upgrade via ssh, and
if I screw up and have to call the colo facil, it's going to cost me big
$$$.

Does anyone have and stories, good or bad, regarding making a jump like
this?  Any advice or particular gotchas to watch out for?

Considering the massive jump in technology, is it even possible to boot
a 5.3 kernel on a 5.1 userland?  Do I need to do the entire process before
rebooting, or can I upgrade just the kernel and make sure it actually
boots before installing world?  Keep in mind that I have to do all this
via ssh, so if sshd doesn't start after a reboot, I'm in a world of hurt.

Advice?

-- 
Bill Moran
Potential Technologies
http://www.potentialtech.com