Upgrading Freebsd 5.4 release to 5.4 stable

[Kevin Kinsey]

Jayesh Jayan wrote:

>Hi,
>
>We have 12 servers running freebsd. They are basically web servers having
>cpanel control panel.
>
>All these server are running FreeBSD 5.4 Release as of now. Now are thinking
>of upgrading it to 5.4 Stable
>
>
>Please let me know the merits and demerits of the same. Do you feel it is
>good move to upgrade to the stable version.
>  
>

The question is, will you ever go to 6.X ?  I'd think that if they last
very long, the answer might well be "yes".  5.5 will be the last RELEASE
on the RELENG_5 branch.  Moving to -STABLE might keep you closer
to the targets in your future; consider someone who right now wants
to get from 4.11 to 6.0 --- they have to make one rather tricky jump
to, what, 5.2.1(?), RTFMG, and then hope that they don't need another
intermediate bump to get *smoothly* to wherever RELENG_6 might be ATM.

By "keeping up" a tad, you might be setting yourself up for smoother
transitions in the future.  YMMV, and all that.

Have you considered simply tracking RELENG_5_4 (aka "security branch")?
Should be very little risk involved, and a smooth transition to 5.5 or 6.X.

Since you have a dozen servers, you might do well to set up a "testbed"
machine and try everything out before touching your production boxes.

But then, if you run 12 servers, you're probably already thinking about
that.

>If it is suggested that I go for the upgrade which mode would suit the
>servers ?
>  
>

"Mode"??  Meaning, how to go about this process?  Are
they all identical?  Are you using a GENERIC or identical
kernel config on all?

If so, it should be easy on you to do the "make buildworld"
and "make buildkernel" steps on your testbed, export /usr/obj
via NFS to your production machines, and simply have them
mount this share and do the "make installkernel" and "make
installworld" steps.  IOW, just like the manual, but you do the
hard work only once.


>Awaiting all your valuable suggestions ...
>
>--
>Jayesh Jayan
>  
>

Heh.  I doubt it was that valuable.  Good luck!

Kevin Kinsey

-- 
Who to himself is law no law doth need,
offends no law, and is a king indeed.
		-- George Chapman