Major Version Upgrade 4.11 to 5.x

[Matthew Seaman]

listvj wrote:
> I'm interested in upgrading from 4.11 to 5.x.  I currently track 4.x
> stable using cvsup, but I've never done a major version upgrade.
> 
> First, should I bother?  My hardware has dual pentium 1.13 processors
> with 1G ram (I'm considering maxing it out at 4).  I host email and web
> sites for a few domains on this machine and I have four jails configured
> on it which will have to be upgraded too.  I have users counting
> particularly on mail service not being down for too long.
> 
> Other than the obvious advice to start with a good backup, can anyone
> tell me:
> 
> 1)  Will I gain a major benefit from upgrading
> 2)  Where should I look for instructions / advice on upgrading
> 3)  Also any general advice from personal experience.
> 4)  Just how risky is this?

Uh -- why upgrade to a branch (5.x) that has already had it's last
release and is worse performing than both 4.x and 6.x?  You should
really be looking at upgrading to 6.2-RELEASE just as soon as it
comes out (Real Soon Now).

As for risk -- for various reasons you will be better off doing a
clean install of 6.x and rebuilding your server from the ground up.
It's no more risky than installing any other server -- unless you
have some legacy binary-only application that you absolutely have
to run, it is virtually certain to succeed.

You biggest problem would seem to be the downtime required to do
the update -- if you can manage it, probably the least consumer
impact method is building the upgraded system on fresh disks on a
scratch box, and then finishing the upgrade by a disk-swap.  Which
also has the added benefit that you have a ready-made back out
path.

	Cheers,

	Matthew 

-- 
Dr Matthew J Seaman MA, D.Phil.                       7 Priory Courtyard
                                                      Flat 3
PGP: http://www.infracaninophile.co.uk/pgpkey         Ramsgate
                                                      Kent, CT11 9PW

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