learning to buildworld

[Paul Schmehl]

--On April 24, 2006 11:02:18 AM -0500 Jonathan Horne <jhorne at dfwlp.com> 
wrote:

> i have begun spending a good deal of time researching and practicing the
> buildworld process on my dev boxes.  i want to make sure i have the entire
> process down pat, before i attempt it on my production server.
>
> the handbook states that i should:
>
> make buildworld
> make buildkernel
> make installkernel
>
> and then reboot to single usermode.  the installworld comes while in
> single user mode, and my production server would see quite a bit of
> downtime over this.  handbook says to, in sigle user mode:
>
> mergemaster -p
> make installworld
> mergemaster
> reboot
>
> ive seen several articles on the net, and of course, no one agrees on the
> exact steps to take to update your system.  my question is, is it safe to
> 'mergemaster' and 'make installworld' while still up and running?  or do i
> just need to bite the downtime-bullet, and put it in single user?
>
I have done the complete process remotely, over ssh, without problems. 
*However*, that is not the recommended procedure *and* I was doing it on a 
new install where, if it failed, I could simply start over.  I wouldn't 
recommend it for production systems that are remotely located.  The price 
you pay for going to the server and using single-user mode is less than the 
price you pay for doing it remotely *and* having it fail.

Paul Schmehl (pauls at utdallas.edu)
Adjunct Information Security Officer
University of Texas at Dallas
AVIEN Founding Member
http://www.utdallas.edu/