Upgrade production 11.1 to 11.4?

I have had a look round and so far the consensus seems to be that you cannot upgrade a 11.1 system to 11.4, is that right?

I have a small server running for a charity, it runs Oracle Apex, Kerio Connect and acts as a file server using Samba. It has KDE4 on it. The reason for upgrading would be to continue to receive updates for the OS.

Has anyone any advice on where to start with this or whether it is a dead loss?

Thanks

Graham

I wouldn’t waste the time and do a regular reinstall.

I recommend using a different distribution for a server (CentOS for example), for the support cycles of openSUSE are pretty limited. I even stronger recommend not to use a GUI like KDE on a server, it’s a huge security risk. A server should be managed via command line only (except when there’s no connection to the internet anyway).

That depends on the exact meaning of “upgrade”. When your data is on file systems independent of the root file system (or if you can off-load that data from the root file system to restore later), you can reinstall the OS and the application software and then, theoreticaly, it should run. But I do not know if the applications you mention are available for 11.4 . Also those applications could have new versions in the meantime and that might mean configuration changes or even data conversion (worse case scenario :wink: ).

Using an upgrade path like changing your 11.1 repos to 11.4 ones and doing zypper dup might be feasable (though 11.1 to 11.4 is a bit of a big step), but they require the same actions (saving application/user data and checking if the applications match with 11.4) as above.

In all, depending on how much down-time the customer allowes you, testing of the new situation on another piece of hardware or in a VM might not be bad to avoid surpises.

You have also some option to stick with 11.1 if you want. Have a look at
Evergreen

http://www.rosenauer.org/blog/2011/01/03/opensuse-project-evergreen/
http://www.rosenauer.org/blog/2011/04/17/evergreen-status-after-some-months/
http://de.opensuse.org/Evergreen

It is not that you are really forced to update. But you have to decide
yourself if evergreen is an option for you.


PC: oS 11.3 64 bit | Intel Core2 Quad Q8300@2.50GHz | KDE 4.6.2 | GeForce
9600 GT | 4GB Ram
Eee PC 1201n: oS 11.4 64 bit | Intel Atom 330@1.60GHz | KDE 4.6.0 | nVidia
ION | 3GB Ram

Hi,

Thanks for the replies, actually the screen stays locked on the GUI and all management is done via command line. The applications should be happy with an upgraded OS, it is just whether it is worth the effort of upgrading SUSE. I also agree re: Centos, something I use for my servers without a GUI.

I think I might just keep at 11.1 until the server is retired, there is always evergreen I guess for the updates!

Graham

grbrown wrote:

>
> I have had a look round and so far the consensus seems to be that you
> cannot upgrade a 11.1 system to 11.4, is that right?
>
> I have a small server running for a charity, it runs Oracle Apex, Kerio
> Connect and acts as a file server using Samba. It has KDE4 on it. The
> reason for upgrading would be to continue to receive updates for the
> OS.
>
> Has anyone any advice on where to start with this or whether it is a
> dead loss?

I was fairly successful doing the update route 11.1 -> 11.4. My reason for
trying the update was similar to what you face: lots of 3rd party programs
that would need re-installing and configuring. That configuration can be
more tedious that the update/upgrade, especially if you have a serious
Oracle instance to deal with (make sure you have the config for that
server!)

Assuming you have good, tested backups AND your /home is on a separate
partition/disk, I would try the update route. If that makes a mess, restore
from backup and try the new install. Backups are the key to any
upgrade/update - they let you start over when things go South.


Will Honea

@Will Honea
Maybe you could explain a little bit what you mean with “update”. I mean, it is a general term but the OP likes to get a technical advice IMHO. I know a few possibilities:
. The one mentioned above: changing repos and zypper dup;
. using the “update” possibility at the beginning of the intall DVD;
. other?
Which one did you use successfull?

On 2011-04-28 14:36, grbrown wrote:
>
> I have had a look round and so far the consensus seems to be that you
> cannot upgrade a 11.1 system to 11.4, is that right?

If you asked me, no. >:-)

> I have a small server running for a charity, it runs Oracle Apex, Kerio
> Connect and acts as a file server using Samba. It has KDE4 on it. The
> reason for upgrading would be to continue to receive updates for the
> OS.
>
> Has anyone any advice on where to start with this or whether it is a
> dead loss?

You can certainly upgrade. You always can. I always do.

But, you have to be aware of things.

The problems found on an upgrade are different of those on a new install,
and can require a bit more expertise or patience.

Note: a zypper dup upgrade is not supported across two or more versions. It
has been reported to work, but it is almost chance. However, a
DVD-boot-upgrade is supported, at least from 11.1 to 11.3, or 11.2 to 11.4.

You might want to consider a two step dvd-boot-upgrade. Or try a direct
dvd-boot-upgrade, following the recommendations.

Recommendations:

Do a full backup. And I mean it. It has to be good enough to restore the
machine to a working state if things go wrong. It can be used to restore
and try again, or to try a fresh install instead with a backup of the
previous install for reference and retrieval.

Try a small fresh install on a spare partition of the same machine. It is
used as a recovery system, as a try out of the target system features and
problems, and as a source of “new” configuration for the upgraded system.
Do not attempt the upgrade till this works.

For example: video system is very different in 11.1 and 11.4. If the video
doesn’t work after the upgrade, you can use the other partition configuration.

There maybe other things I have forgotten but explained many times.

Read the book.

> http://doc.opensuse.org/products/opensuse/openSUSE/opensuse-reference/cha.update.html

After an upgrade there are many configuration files that are changed and
many not changed. Many of those (both types) require revision. The script
“rcrpmconfigcheck” generates a file with a list of configuration files you
have to review. Example:

Telcontar:~ # rcrpmconfigcheck
Searching for unresolved configuration files done
Please check the following files (see /var/adm/rpmconfigcheck):
/etc/clamd.conf.rpmnew
/etc/freshclam.conf.rpmnew
/etc/zypp/zypp.conf.rpmnew

This is a tedious task that needs to be done.

Another method for servers requires having two installs in two sets of
partitions. One is the current sytem, on the other set you install 11.4.
When you have it working with all the services you need (which may take
days), you switch default boot to that set. You do not delete the other set
till you need to do another upgrade, hopefully in a year or two.

What you can not do on a server system is a fresh install replacing the
current install.


Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 11.2 x86_64 “Emerald” at Telcontar)

hcvv wrote:

> Maybe you could explain a little bit what you mean with “update”. I
> mean, it is a general term but the OP likes to get a technical advice
> IMHO. I know a few possibilities:
> . The one mentioned above: changing repos and zypper dup;
> . using the “update” possibility at the beginning of the intall DVD;
> . other?
> Which one did you use successfull?

My bad - slip of the fingers. That should be “upgrade”, not “update”. I
use both of the methods you list - depending on downlink speed and whether I
have the DVD handy.

My point was the an UPGRADE preserving the /home (on a separate
partition/disk) is really pretty safe if you have a good, working backup of
root partition as you can always restore it and start over with nothing lost
except your time.

In practice, I keep sandbox copies of my current systems on a separate
machine and test major upgrades on that before I ever touch the running
(production) machines. Belt and suspenders approach learned over more years
than I like to think about.


Will Honea