Upgrading very old installation

[Matthew Seaman]

On 15/07/2011 13:20, Jaime Kikpole wrote:
> I'm running a FreeBSD 6.x server that hasn't been updated in about 1.5 years.
> 
> atlas:~>uname -mprs
> FreeBSD 6.4-RELEASE-p8 i386 i386
> 
> What is the recommended way to upgrade it to something current?
> Should I upgrade it to the most recent 6.x and then to 7.x and then to
> 8.x?  Or should I use a more direct route, upgrading it straight to
> the 8-RELEASE branch?

You'll almost certainly find it quicker and less painful to just
reinstall using an up to date version of FreeBSD.  Personally, I'd go
and buy a new hard drive for the machine, install the latest OS and
applications on that and then copy over data etc.  It helps if you can
have both drives mounted in the same machine at once.

There are variations on this theme -- for instance if your server has
mirrored HDDs then you can split the mirror, re-install on one half,
reconcile configurations, data, user accounts between the two halves
and ultimately resynch the old drive to the new one.

The big advantage of this sort of approach is that you get your new
install up and running and tested before you need to commit to the
potentially irreversible step of overwriting your last copy of the old one.

	Cheers,

	Matthew

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

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