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Best way to dist-upgrade?
I always do it by migrating to a new vps with the newer distro. Simple rsync + dumps or a software reinstall.
I've had way to many issues with kernels breaking (Xen / digitalocean) or other crap after an upgrade like non working software (Ubuntu) or packages that got removed from the repo's (Ubuntu). With a migration I at least still have a working setup without having to restore a backup...
How do you upgrade? (OS distro, not cms or other software on top)
Comments
make sure you on ubuntu LTS
Having backup is always prefered before upgrading
With a dev environment that replicates the production server as closely as possible -- same virtualization, same distro, same apps, same config.
I prefer software reinstall. It is slower, but when I bumped into problem, it is easier to trace.
As usual, before reinstalling I keep useful scripts handy.
Debian never had issues. Ubuntu, I just rebuild them from scratch. Ubuntu seems to always break itself.
@Mun said:
Same happened until I sticked with the LTS version. Also never had problems with Debian.
The best answer is "replication" if you don't like to reinstall things, even in auto mode (where scripts do your job).
I upgraded a Ubuntu 11.10 (production server) to 12.04.4 a few weeks ago and didn't run into any major issues, had to recompile a few Python modules. That's all.
I expected far worse to happen..
I did mine on a DNS server, and from then on couldn't use service bind9 stop as it was fully broke, eventually just made it into a debian box.
New VPS with a fresh system and just rsync the data.
It's always good to have a fresh system and you get time to refresh your procedures in case of an incident.