And the time’s arrived. I own a server from 2006, and since i’m an aficionado of SuSE Linux because of its philosophy, i don’t want to change OS on my server.
The question is… how much painful can be upgrading to the last version of openSuSE? I don’t have physical access to the server, since it’s a virtual server, located in Germany (i’m from Italy, and don’t want to go to Germany just to install an OS, even if i would love it 
) so i think i would have to upgrade with NFS… i don’t even have a GUI (well, i actually use YaST to configure everything via shell, so it’s a sort of gui) and, the most important thing, i run PLESK on my server. I NEED to have Plesk for the administration of my customers and domains but in this upgrade i CAN’T lose any data, from the database (MYSql) to the ones in the web folders.
In other words, i need to upgrade from SuSE Linux 10.0 to OpenSUSE 11.2 without lossing any data.
I am upgrading because i need the latest version of PHP, Apache and MYSql, and for security reasons too.
So… don’t blame me for the length of the post (and for my english too!).
Many thanks in advance!
Cheers from Italy!
If I were you I would get another virtual server, install 11.2 on that, migrate the apps to it, test that it works, then do a cutover. I would not do an in-place update, even if it were possible.
Also because the support lifetime of openSUSE distros is 20 months, you might want to consider the enterprise SUSE offerings.