Finish upgrading remote server without physically being there?

[Warren Block]

On Wed, 2 Mar 2011, Damien Fleuriot wrote:

> Dropping to single user is not strictly necessary, in fact I never do.
>
> buildworld
> buildkernel
> installkernel
> reboot
> mergemaster -p
> installworld
> mergemaster -F
> rebuild your ports
> reboot

Some of these steps are best practices.  If you're lucky and don't have 
a major change in sources, some can be eliminated or simplified. 
'mergemaster -p' I never use, nor the boot to single-user and manually 
mount filesystems.

buildkernel and installkernel can be combined with the "kernel" target.

The reboot after an installkernel is optional but needed to test the new 
kernel before doing an installworld.

'mergemaster -Ui' is what I use after installworld.

Rebuilding ports is only necessary when you're changing major versions 
(FreeBSD 7->8).

Summing all that up, it's possible to update in one session, with only 
one reboot.  Whether that's a good idea at any given time depends on a 
bunch of things.