On Wed, Feb 05, 2003 at 03:20:32AM +0100, Johannes Angeldorff wrote: > I am happy to use FreeBSD for web, mail and applications serving. But > when I come to the question about how to upgrade to a newer FreeBSD > version, I really could need your expertise! > > We have two FreeBSD 4.5 boxes. Both boxes have been installed with > FreeBSD 4.5 from CD, and then tweaked with reconfigured kernels and a > few applications installed, mainly qmail (replacing sendmail), > mod-php, mysql, pico and a few more. Both boxes have around 25 users > each. Both boxes have tweaked settings in /etc/rc.conf and some other > /etc/-files. > > My question is, if anyone can give a hint on how to upgrade safely > from FreeBSD 4.5 to FreeBSD 5.0...? > > If we download FreeBSD 5.0 and install it on our FreeBSD 4.5 boxes, > what will we have to do? Is there risk that all settings, contents > and installed applications will be erased?
First of all, FreeBSD-5.0 isn't ready to be used on production systems yet. It won't be ready for that until the RELENG_5 tags are laid down and 5-STABLE is created, and that won't happen for some months yet. If these boxes are generating income for you, or if any of their users are relying on them to provide vital services, then you should stop and think really carefully before you go ahead with upgrading to 5.0. This page: http://www.freebsd.org/releases/5.0R/early-adopter.html has a good discussion of the pros and cons. You may well be better served by upgrading to the latest 4-STABLE or 4.7-RELEASE-pN version. You might even consider 4.5-RELEASE-pN if you'ld prefer minimal changes. However, there have been some nasty security bugs present in 4.5-RELEASE that have been fixed in RELENG_4 and also RELENG_4_6 and RELENG_4_7, which are the supported release branches, but those fixes may not have been back-ported to RELENG_4_5 or earlier. If all this RELENG_x_y stuff seems like gibberish to you, read appendix A6 of the handbook: http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/cvs-tags.html If you haven't ever updated a FreeBSD system before, upgrading to one of those versions will provide you with useful experience when it comes to doing the rather harder 4.x to 5.0 jump. General instructions for performing the update may be found in /usr/src/UPDATING, but that pre-supposes you've managed to download the appropriate versions of the sources. The most popular method for getting hold of the up-to-date sources is discussed in appendix A5 of the handbook: http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/cvsup.html On the other hand, take a look at the 'To upgrade from 4.x-stable to current' section near the end of: http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/cvsweb.cgi/src/UPDATING?rev=1.239&content-type=text/x-cvsweb-markup It's certainly possible to do what you ask without having to blow away all of your existing configuration, given certain caveats. If you're sure that's what you want to do, then get yourself some good backups and go for it. Good luck. Matthew -- Dr Matthew J Seaman MA, D.Phil. 26 The Paddocks Savill Way PGP: http://www.infracaninophile.co.uk/pgpkey Marlow Tel: +44 1628 476614 Bucks., SL7 1TH UK To Unsubscribe: send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
