Upgrade guidance
Hello everyone! I wanted to pose this question to everyone as I wasn't sure the best way to proceed. I have a few machines here at work (development, testing and Production machines) that need to be upgraded to the latest version of Fedora (FC9). The machines are all presently running FC6. I am basically wondering what the best way to go about upgrading these machines would be considering they are a few versions behind? I don't want to assume that going directly from FC6 to FC9 is the best course when I don't know for sure. Any guidance you can provide is greatly appreciated. Also, at present, none of the machines have a monitor hooked up as they are in a rack in a server room. All work is done remotely on these machines, but I do have physical access to them if need be. Thank you for your time and any help given. Best regards, Jeff Kirkland ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: Upgrade guidance
On Mon, Oct 20, 2008 at 9:03 AM, Jefferson Kirkland [EMAIL PROTECTED]wrote: Hello everyone! I wanted to pose this question to everyone as I wasn't sure the best way to proceed. I have a few machines here at work (development, testing and Production machines) that need to be upgraded to the latest version of Fedora (FC9). The machines are all presently running FC6. I am basically wondering what the best way to go about upgrading these machines would be considering they are a few versions behind? I don't want to assume that going directly from FC6 to FC9 is the best course when I don't know for sure. Any guidance you can provide is greatly appreciated. Also, at present, none of the machines have a monitor hooked up as they are in a rack in a server room. All work is done remotely on these machines, but I do have physical access to them if need be. Thank you for your time and any help given. Best regards, Jeff Kirkland Just a quick follow up. I have done some research already and see that htere is a yumupgrade option. I am a little weary about it due to the large difference in versions and also that its kind of like doing a bios upgrade in that you DO NOT power off or stop the upgrade in any way. Again, just looking for guidance in the best direction. Thanks! Regards, Jeff ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
[GNHLUG] NHRuby meeting TOMORROW, Oct 21: Rails plugins, REST applications.
Tomorrow night's NHRuby.org meeting will include two great talks: * Nick Plante will be talking about the Rails Plugin system. The Rails plugin system allows you to add powerful features to your applications by altering or enhancing key pieces of the framework. Plugins tend to be easy to use and can save precious development cycles, freeing you to focus on the elements that make your project truly unique. Although plug-ins are often dead simple to use, authoring them is not always quite as straightforward. Nick's presentation will give developers an overview of the Rails plugin architecture and the hooks that are provided for creating your own. We'll take a look at the genesis of a typical plugin, and see how we can extract and generalize our code, repackaging it in a modular way such that it can be reused across projects and redistributed within the Rails community. Along the way, we'll also learn a thing or two about Ruby metaprogramming practices, and examine strategies for testing and redistributing plugin code. * Brian Turnbull will be giving an introduction to RESTful web services as a follow-up to his HTTP talk last month. REpresentational State Transfer is the theoretical underpinnings of HTTP/1.1. This talk will explain what REST is, present examples of existing web services using REST, and also covers the practical application of REST and the Atom Publishing Protocol in creating a web service. WHEN: Tuesday, October 21, 2008. 7-9 PM. WHERE: RMC Research Offices, 1000 Market Street, Portsmouth, NH. For a map and driving directions, see our wiki site: http://wiki.nhruby.org/index.php/Upcoming_meetings Regards, Scott -- Scott Garman sgarman at zenlinux dot com ___ gnhlug-announce mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-announce/ ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: Upgrade guidance
On Oct 20, 2008, at 09:15, Jefferson Kirkland wrote: I have done some research already and see that htere is a yumupgrade option. I usually use yum upgrade between consecutive major versions but have never been successful leapfrogging major versions with it. In theory you can though. In sufficiently complex scenarios I've bit the bullet and yum upgraded multiple times in succession, but only when that's easier than a reinstall preserving /home and /usr/local. The major reason to do it this way is the lack of downtime. Fedora 9 does need a reboot eventually to get Upstart fully going, and one of them (fc6, fc7?) switched block devices from /dev/hd* to /dev/sd*, so watch out for that. Google 'yumupgradefaq' for the page with all the tips and tricks. If you're going to do multiple machine upgrades this way, you're best off creating local repository mirrors. 'cobbler reposync' makes this fairly painless. Three machines seems to be about the data transfer tipping point, and even with fewer if you trickle in updates an argument can be made for the less-bursty nature of that. -Bill - Bill McGonigle, Owner Work: 603.448.4440 BFC Computing, LLC Home: 603.448.1668 [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cell: 603.252.2606 http://www.bfccomputing.com/Page: 603.442.1833 Blog: http://blog.bfccomputing.com/ VCard: http://bfccomputing.com/vcard/bill.vcf ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: Upgrade guidance
On Mon, Oct 20, 2008 at 9:03 AM, Jefferson Kirkland [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I have a few machines here at work (development, testing and Production machines) that need to be upgraded to the latest version of Fedora (FC9). The machines are all presently running FC6. #ifdef MAKE_THINGS_EVEN_MORE_COMPLICATED What's driving the upgrade request? Just the desire to remain current with updates, or something else? FC6 was released Oct 2006 and has been unmaintained for roughly a year already. If you're upgrading just to get back on a maintained release and would rather you didn't have to, CentOS/RHEL is prolly more appropriate for your needs.If so, you may want to consider a lateral migration to CentOS/RHEL. The much longer release cycle means you need to do base system upgrades much less often. You'll be going through some upheaval anyway, so this would be the time to do it. It may even be possible for CentOS to run an automated upgrade from Fedora. Fedora is basically the old Red Hat Linux product, and I know CentOS at least used to be able to upgrade a system from RHL. This is just speculation on my part, though. If you want to go to FC9 because you need some new features in that release, then CentOS/RHEL is probably *not* you. To get that long release cycle and stable software configuration, CentOS/RHEL sacrifice staying current with the latest and greatest upstream features. For the most part, you get security and bugfixes only. Sometimes features are backported, but that's the exception, not the rule. #endif I don't want to assume that going directly from FC6 to FC9 is the best course when I don't know for sure. Any guidance you can provide is greatly appreciated. As mentioned above, FC6 is unmaintained for about a year now. I would speculate that the FC6 - FC9 scenario hasn't been well tested by the Fedora people (if at all). (Maybe someone here knows better and can speak more definitively.) So you may run into unexpected problems. And even if the distribution does its job perfectly, FC6 to FC9 is a significant change anyway, so you're likely going to see breakage just from things like major changes in upstream packages. Do you have any third-party (i.e., not Fedora) packages installed? If so, you'll want to test those with an FC9 system before deployment. You'll likely need to rebuild from source, and/or obtain updated builds from a packager. There may also be dependency issues (if third-party packagers depend on things not in FC9). Also, at present, none of the machines have a monitor hooked up as they are in a rack in a server room. All work is done remotely on these machines, but I do have physical access to them if need be. Depending on how many installations you have and how strict a configuration management policy you follow, you may want to just plan on being hands-on. If there are 10s or more of the same config, automation is worth it, but if this is just a bunch of one-off's, not so much. Unless you have sophisticated remote management tools (remove console and CD). One approach to consider would be pre-configuring tarchives or disk images of an upgraded system, and then just blow away the software directories/partitions for deployment. Again, it depends on specifics of the environment. On Mon, Oct 20, 2008 at 9:15 AM, Jefferson Kirkland [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I have done some research already and see that htere is a yumupgrade option. In theory doing a live upgrade (yum to upgrade the running system) is not official supported. The bootable installer (CD, DVD, net boot, etc.) is the only official way to do things. However, I've been told the live upgrade does work very well in most cases, and basically just does the same thing the bootable installer does. From what I've seen, that is indeed the case: The bootable installer mainly relies on the scripts in the packages to handle migration of stuff. However again, I'm not sure most cases includes jumping several releases. Fedora people tend to like to keep up-to-date with the latest and greatest packages, and so the delta for a yum upgrade on a live system would be smaller. They might not have your scenario in mind. However again again, as stated above, I'm not sure FC6 - FC9 is well tested anyway, so you may be in that boat either way. The best thing to do is probably to reproduce your existing FC6 systems in a test/simulation environment, and see how it goes. I am a little weary about it due to the large difference in versions and also that its kind of like doing a bios upgrade in that you DO NOT power off or stop the upgrade in any way. If you're upgrading the base system, that will be the case regardless of how you do it. You're talking about ripping and replacing major components (kernel, system/C library, etc.). If that gets interrupted, you're hosed. I've seen it happen, and it ain't pretty. So make backups. Test them, too, so you're prepared
Re: Upgrade guidance
On Mon, 2008-10-20 at 12:33 -0400, Bill McGonigle wrote: On Oct 20, 2008, at 09:15, Jefferson Kirkland wrote: I have done some research already and see that htere is a yumupgrade option. I usually use yum upgrade between consecutive major versions but have never been successful leapfrogging major versions with it. In theory you can though. Due to an installer regression in Fedora 9 that has yet to be fixed for F10 (installer pukes on Samsung hard drives that have a '/' in their model name), I had to install F8 on a box last week, and opted to go straight to rawhide from there. It worked fine after sorting out some things manually to get the sysvinit to upstart bits right, but was certainly not entirely straight-forward, and this was a minimal install to begin with. So yeah, FC6 straight to F9... Not recommended, unless you *really* know what you're doing. Incremental upgrades from 6 to 7 to 8 to 9 might be less pain and suffering. In sufficiently complex scenarios I've bit the bullet and yum upgraded multiple times in succession, but only when that's easier than a reinstall preserving /home and /usr/local. The major reason to do it this way is the lack of downtime. Fedora 9 does need a reboot eventually to get Upstart fully going, and one of them (fc6, fc7?) switched block devices from /dev/hd* to /dev/sd*, so watch out for that. Google 'yumupgradefaq' for the page with all the tips and tricks. If you're going to do multiple machine upgrades this way, you're best off creating local repository mirrors. 'cobbler reposync' makes this fairly painless. Three machines seems to be about the data transfer tipping point, and even with fewer if you trickle in updates an argument can be made for the less-bursty nature of that. Good suggestions here. Another thing I recommend for a live upgrade is doing the upgrade in bits and pieces -- don't do the entire yum upgrade in one big transaction, break it up into bite-sized chunks. For example, with desktop boxes, I like to hit yum, xorg, gnome, kernel, glibc and gcc in their own little groups (yum upgrade foo\*), then maybe a few other groupings, before a final yum upgrade. Makes it easier to see where things run afoul w/an upgrade if you do it a little at a time. -- Jarod Wilson [EMAIL PROTECTED] ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Old rackmount equipment?
Hey all, I'm looking for old, not necessarily functional rackmount equipment to fill a rack with for some airflow experiments I'm doing, and I was wondering if anyone had junk lying around that would qualify. Anything I can bolt into a rack will do, from shelves to token-ring switches. Bonus points if I can plug it in and it produces heat (but not fire, preferably.) Thanks! --DTVZ ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: Old rackmount equipment?
On Mon, Oct 20, 2008 at 2:22 PM, Drew Van Zandt [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I'm looking for old, not necessarily functional rackmount equipment to fill a rack with for some airflow experiments I'm doing ... Cardboard? :) Bonus points if I can plug it in and it produces heat (but not fire, preferably.) Sheet metal and space heater? :) -- Ben ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: Old rackmount equipment?
The closer to a real, functioning rack it is, the more useful the results will be. I have a couple of elderly 1U servers that will be involved, but want more real stuff before I go tossing in things that *I THINK* will act enough like servers or whatever to produce useful results. I do not trust faked equipment to act like real equipment. --DTVZ On Mon, Oct 20, 2008 at 2:54 PM, Ben Scott [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: On Mon, Oct 20, 2008 at 2:22 PM, Drew Van Zandt [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I'm looking for old, not necessarily functional rackmount equipment to fill a rack with for some airflow experiments I'm doing ... Cardboard? :) Bonus points if I can plug it in and it produces heat (but not fire, preferably.) Sheet metal and space heater? :) -- Ben ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/ ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: Old rackmount equipment?
On Mon, Oct 20, 2008 at 3:01 PM, Drew Van Zandt [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I do not trust faked equipment to act like real equipment. Reasonable. I was being (mostly) facetious. :) I do that a lot. Gets me into trouble sometimes. :) -- Ben ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: Old rackmount equipment?
On Mon, 20 Oct 2008 15:41:27 -0400 Ben Scott [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I was being (mostly) facetious. :) I do that a lot. Gets me into trouble sometimes. :) Confess Ben. You just cannot bear to part with all that old hardware. -- Ed Lawson Ham Callsign: K1VP PGP Key ID: 1591EAD3 PGP Key Fingerprint: 79A1 CDC3 EF3D 7F93 1D28 2D42 58E4 2287 1591 EAD3 ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: Old rackmount equipment?
On Mon, Oct 20, 2008 at 03:47:39PM -0400, Ed lawson wrote: Confess Ben. You just cannot bear to part with all that old hardware. Old? Old? Its not old. Its ah.. um... Its mature ... (like some of us... ;-) ) Jeff Kinz -- ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: Old rackmount equipment?
On Mon, Oct 20, 2008 at 3:47 PM, Ed lawson [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Confess Ben. You just cannot bear to part with all that old hardware. Well, there is an old APC Smart-UPS 1250 I have that I'm *sure* I can restore to working if I can just figure out how to get the batteries out. Sure, it's been sitting in a corner for four years now, but I'll get around to it *real soon now* really... ;-) Heck, Drew: You're welcome to borrow it, so long as I get it back eventually. The electronics work, it just can't hold a load because the batteries are too old. But it powers up, generates heat and light, and can even pass current. Rack mount, maybe 5U, maybe 12 inches deep. -- Ben ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: Old rackmount equipment?
I've got two things you're free to take off my hands: 1. 1U Cobalt RaQ3i with a bad power supply. I have another with a good power supply you can borrow, but I'll want to get that one back. 2. 2U Synaptic Managed Hub (16 ports of 10Mbps fury, yes I said Hub, not switch) Let me know. The stuff's in Tyngsboro. -N On Monday 20 October 2008 14:22, Drew Van Zandt wrote: Hey all, I'm looking for old, not necessarily functional rackmount equipment to fill a rack with for some airflow experiments I'm doing, and I was wondering if anyone had junk lying around that would qualify. Anything I can bolt into a rack will do, from shelves to token-ring switches. Bonus points if I can plug it in and it produces heat (but not fire, preferably.) Thanks! --DTVZ ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: Upgrade guidance
Oh, I forgot to mention, here's a little script I wrote to help me find the cruft that a yum upgrade somehow manages to leave behind on occasion (imperfect Obsoletes: I assume): http://tinyurl.com/6pfeaf -Bill - Bill McGonigle, Owner Work: 603.448.4440 BFC Computing, LLC Home: 603.448.1668 [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cell: 603.252.2606 http://www.bfccomputing.com/Page: 603.442.1833 Blog: http://blog.bfccomputing.com/ VCard: http://bfccomputing.com/vcard/bill.vcf ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: Old rackmount equipment?
On Oct 20, 2008, at 14:22, Drew Van Zandt wrote: and I was wondering if anyone had junk lying around that would qualify If you can find the right place to advertise, this is a we don't have to pay the recycler for 500lbs of gear? for a company/ university doing a big/routine upgrade (the amount of stuff that gets junked because it's off contract is amazing). That's worth 30 cents a pound around here. You may have to show proof of Darik's Boot and Nuke, though; you'd be surprised how many companies trust their recyclers. -Bill - Bill McGonigle, Owner Work: 603.448.4440 BFC Computing, LLC Home: 603.448.1668 [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cell: 603.252.2606 http://www.bfccomputing.com/Page: 603.442.1833 Blog: http://blog.bfccomputing.com/ VCard: http://bfccomputing.com/vcard/bill.vcf ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: Old rackmount equipment?
On Monday 20 October 2008 14:22, Drew Van Zandt wrote: Hey all, I'm looking for old, not necessarily functional rackmount equipment to fill a rack with for some airflow experiments I'm doing, and I was wondering if anyone had junk lying around that would qualify. Anything I can bolt into a rack will do, from shelves to token-ring switches. Bonus points if I can plug it in and it produces heat (but not fire, preferably.) I have two 5.75 STD-bus card cages (cards, but requires +12V, +5V), one 9 chassis (can be powered, has Nixie tubes!), one 7.5 rack-mounted 6809 computer (can be powered), and another 7.5 racked 6809 computer that can be powered. All these things draw lots of power. They are in Nashua. You are welcome to have them for free if they suit. Jim Kuzdrall ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
OT: P4 1U rackmount server for sale.
I have a 1U rackmount server for sale that is Linux-compatible if anyone is interested. Details: * SuperMicro model 5013C-T with P4SCE motherboard * Intel P4 2.4 GHz with HT, 1 MB cache * 1 GB of DDR 333 MHz RAM (2x512 MB Crucial brand matched sticks in dual-channel mode) * Dual Seagate 120GB ST3120827AS SATA hard drives in removable bays (though I wouldn't recommend hot-swapping SATA drives, this does make it easy to remove and replace them) * CD-ROM and floppy drive * Passes memtest with zero errors * I have all the original mounting hardware, including the sliding rails. Ditto for the user manual. * Very clean, not dusty and in nearly new cosmetic condition * Compatible with CentOS v4 and v5 (that's what I've run on it in the past) $100 cash takes it. It's available for pickup in the Rochester or Newmarket NH areas. Please contact me off-list with questions or to arrange pickup. Thanks, Scott -- Scott Garman sgarman at zenlinux dot com ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: Upgrade guidance
On Mon, Oct 20, 2008 at 8:08 PM, Bill McGonigle [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Oh, I forgot to mention, here's a little script I wrote to help me find the cruft that a yum upgrade somehow manages to leave behind on occasion (imperfect Obsoletes: I assume): (... Google ...) /me is mildly surprised to learn there is no standard Unix text tool to give the intersection of two files. -- Ben ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
