Upgrading Freebsd 5.4 release to 5.4 stable
Hi, We have 12 servers running freebsd. They are basically web servers having cpanel control panel. All these server are running FreeBSD 5.4 Release as of now. Now are thinking of upgrading it to 5.4 Stable Please let me know the merits and demerits of the same. Do you feel it is good move to upgrade to the stable version. If it is suggested that I go for the upgrade which mode would suit the servers ? Awaiting all your valuable suggestions ... -- Jayesh Jayan The box said Requires Windows 95, NT, or better, so I installed Linux. Visit my homepage @ http://www.jayeshjayan.com ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Upgrading Freebsd 5.4 release to 5.4 stable
Jayesh Jayan wrote: Hi, We have 12 servers running freebsd. They are basically web servers having cpanel control panel. All these server are running FreeBSD 5.4 Release as of now. Now are thinking of upgrading it to 5.4 Stable Please let me know the merits and demerits of the same. Do you feel it is good move to upgrade to the stable version. The question is, will you ever go to 6.X ? I'd think that if they last very long, the answer might well be yes. 5.5 will be the last RELEASE on the RELENG_5 branch. Moving to -STABLE might keep you closer to the targets in your future; consider someone who right now wants to get from 4.11 to 6.0 --- they have to make one rather tricky jump to, what, 5.2.1(?), RTFMG, and then hope that they don't need another intermediate bump to get *smoothly* to wherever RELENG_6 might be ATM. By keeping up a tad, you might be setting yourself up for smoother transitions in the future. YMMV, and all that. Have you considered simply tracking RELENG_5_4 (aka security branch)? Should be very little risk involved, and a smooth transition to 5.5 or 6.X. Since you have a dozen servers, you might do well to set up a testbed machine and try everything out before touching your production boxes. But then, if you run 12 servers, you're probably already thinking about that. If it is suggested that I go for the upgrade which mode would suit the servers ? Mode?? Meaning, how to go about this process? Are they all identical? Are you using a GENERIC or identical kernel config on all? If so, it should be easy on you to do the make buildworld and make buildkernel steps on your testbed, export /usr/obj via NFS to your production machines, and simply have them mount this share and do the make installkernel and make installworld steps. IOW, just like the manual, but you do the hard work only once. Awaiting all your valuable suggestions ... -- Jayesh Jayan Heh. I doubt it was that valuable. Good luck! Kevin Kinsey -- Who to himself is law no law doth need, offends no law, and is a king indeed. -- George Chapman ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Upgrading Freebsd 5.4 release to 5.4 stable
That was valuable in deed The 12 server are all identical but the problem is that the test machine which we will be using is not of the same class as that of the server. Then all the server run a custom built kernel and not the generic one. By mode I meant how to go about doing this process. Is it better to go the cvs way or the binary way ? Currently we have not yet thought of freebsd 6.0, we are thinking of making the servers bit more stable with the stable version We came to this conclusion because our servers do have a problem were the server gets rebooted automatically with put any reason ( I couldn't get any from the logs ) This issue is there with all the servers but the one server suffers the most ( having a real bad uptime which is max of 2 days ) I hope to get more data on the same so that the transition is done smoothly On 2/23/06, Kevin Kinsey [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Jayesh Jayan wrote: Hi, We have 12 servers running freebsd. They are basically web servers having cpanel control panel. All these server are running FreeBSD 5.4 Release as of now. Now are thinking of upgrading it to 5.4 Stable Please let me know the merits and demerits of the same. Do you feel it is good move to upgrade to the stable version. The question is, will you ever go to 6.X ? I'd think that if they last very long, the answer might well be yes. 5.5 will be the last RELEASE on the RELENG_5 branch. Moving to -STABLE might keep you closer to the targets in your future; consider someone who right now wants to get from 4.11 to 6.0 --- they have to make one rather tricky jump to, what, 5.2.1(?), RTFMG, and then hope that they don't need another intermediate bump to get *smoothly* to wherever RELENG_6 might be ATM. By keeping up a tad, you might be setting yourself up for smoother transitions in the future. YMMV, and all that. Have you considered simply tracking RELENG_5_4 (aka security branch)? Should be very little risk involved, and a smooth transition to 5.5 or 6.X . Since you have a dozen servers, you might do well to set up a testbed machine and try everything out before touching your production boxes. But then, if you run 12 servers, you're probably already thinking about that. If it is suggested that I go for the upgrade which mode would suit the servers ? Mode?? Meaning, how to go about this process? Are they all identical? Are you using a GENERIC or identical kernel config on all? If so, it should be easy on you to do the make buildworld and make buildkernel steps on your testbed, export /usr/obj via NFS to your production machines, and simply have them mount this share and do the make installkernel and make installworld steps. IOW, just like the manual, but you do the hard work only once. Awaiting all your valuable suggestions ... -- Jayesh Jayan Heh. I doubt it was that valuable. Good luck! Kevin Kinsey -- Who to himself is law no law doth need, offends no law, and is a king indeed. -- George Chapman -- Jayesh Jayan The box said Requires Windows 95, NT, or better, so I installed Linux. Visit my homepage @ http://www.jayeshjayan.com ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Upgrading Freebsd 5.4 release to 5.4 stable
Hi, We have 12 servers running freebsd. They are basically web servers having cpanel control panel. All these server are running FreeBSD 5.4 Release as of now. Now are thinking of upgrading it to 5.4 Stable Hmmm. I wouldn't call that an upgrade really. Except for a few possibly meaningful security patches, it is the same thing. You might well be much better served by upgrading to V6.0 or even waiting a couple of weeks and going to V6.1. It is scheduled for March 20 and it looks like things are pretty much keeping to schedule. Please let me know the merits and demerits of the same. Do you feel it is good move to upgrade to the stable version. The stable version is really sort of an interim collection of the development version. It is generally felt to be stable with a general sense that everything will work together, but not necessarily ready to be considered a release which is a formally tested collection that generally also has the more active ports built and tested against it by the port maintainers. The stable version is only a little bit more together than the 'current' version which is really just a daily snapshot of the development tree with no particular assurance that everything works together - though FreeBSD is well enough put together that current tends to be workable. If you are determined to stick with 5.xxx for some reason, then go for 5.5 which is scheduled for April 3 or track RELENG_5 to get its latest security updates. But, I think you should move to 6.1 or at least RELENG_6.Do a complete fresh clean install of 6.1 and then start tracking the RELENG_6. If it is suggested that I go for the upgrade which mode would suit the servers ? I don't know what you mean by mode. jerry Awaiting all your valuable suggestions ... -- Jayesh Jayan The box said Requires Windows 95, NT, or better, so I installed FreeBSD. Visit my homepage @ http://www.jayeshjayan.com ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Upgrading Freebsd 5.4 release to 5.4 stable
By mode I meant -- binary upgrade or cvs mode On 2/23/06, Jerry McAllister [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Hi, We have 12 servers running freebsd. They are basically web servers having cpanel control panel. All these server are running FreeBSD 5.4 Release as of now. Now are thinking of upgrading it to 5.4 Stable Hmmm. I wouldn't call that an upgrade really. Except for a few possibly meaningful security patches, it is the same thing. You might well be much better served by upgrading to V6.0 or even waiting a couple of weeks and going to V6.1. It is scheduled for March 20 and it looks like things are pretty much keeping to schedule. Please let me know the merits and demerits of the same. Do you feel it is good move to upgrade to the stable version. The stable version is really sort of an interim collection of the development version. It is generally felt to be stable with a general sense that everything will work together, but not necessarily ready to be considered a release which is a formally tested collection that generally also has the more active ports built and tested against it by the port maintainers. The stable version is only a little bit more together than the 'current' version which is really just a daily snapshot of the development tree with no particular assurance that everything works together - though FreeBSD is well enough put together that current tends to be workable. If you are determined to stick with 5.xxx for some reason, then go for 5.5 which is scheduled for April 3 or track RELENG_5 to get its latest security updates. But, I think you should move to 6.1 or at least RELENG_6.Do a complete fresh clean install of 6.1 and then start tracking the RELENG_6. If it is suggested that I go for the upgrade which mode would suit the servers ? I don't know what you mean by mode. jerry Awaiting all your valuable suggestions ... -- Jayesh Jayan The box said Requires Windows 95, NT, or better, so I installed FreeBSD. Visit my homepage @ http://www.jayeshjayan.com -- Jayesh Jayan The box said Requires Windows 95, NT, or better, so I installed Linux. Visit my homepage @ http://www.jayeshjayan.com ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Upgrading Freebsd 5.4 release to 5.4 stable
By mode I meant -- binary upgrade or cvs mode If you go to V-6.xxx as suggested, then do a fresh install, that includes wiping the disk and freshly building the slices and partitions/file systems. Of course, do the appropriate backups first and verify them at least a little. If you are just doing a move to RELENG_5 then use CVS. jerry On 2/23/06, Jerry McAllister [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Hi, We have 12 servers running freebsd. They are basically web servers having cpanel control panel. All these server are running FreeBSD 5.4 Release as of now. Now are thinking of upgrading it to 5.4 Stable Hmmm. I wouldn't call that an upgrade really. Except for a few possibly meaningful security patches, it is the same thing. You might well be much better served by upgrading to V6.0 or even waiting a couple of weeks and going to V6.1. It is scheduled for March 20 and it looks like things are pretty much keeping to schedule. Please let me know the merits and demerits of the same. Do you feel it is good move to upgrade to the stable version. The stable version is really sort of an interim collection of the development version. It is generally felt to be stable with a general sense that everything will work together, but not necessarily ready to be considered a release which is a formally tested collection that generally also has the more active ports built and tested against it by the port maintainers. The stable version is only a little bit more together than the 'current' version which is really just a daily snapshot of the development tree wit= h no particular assurance that everything works together - though FreeBSD i= s well enough put together that current tends to be workable. If you are determined to stick with 5.xxx for some reason, then go for 5.5 which is scheduled for April 3 or track RELENG_5 to get its latest security updates. But, I think you should move to 6.1 or at least RELENG_6.Do a complete fresh clean install of 6.1 and then start tracking the RELENG_6. If it is suggested that I go for the upgrade which mode would suit the servers ? I don't know what you mean by mode. jerry Awaiting all your valuable suggestions ... -- Jayesh Jayan The box said Requires Windows 95, NT, or better, so I installed FreeBSD. Visit my homepage @ http://www.jayeshjayan.com -- Jayesh Jayan The box said Requires Windows 95, NT, or better, so I installed Linux. Visit my homepage @ http://www.jayeshjayan.com --=_Part_6303_26685538.1140706669115 Content-Type: text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Content-Disposition: inline brBy mode I meant -- gt; binary upgrade or cvs modebrbrbrdivspa= n class=3Dgmail_quoteOn 2/23/06, b class=3Dgmail_sendernameJerry McA= llister/b lt;a href=3Dmailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED][EMAIL PROTECTED] .cl.msu.edu /agt; wrote:/spanblockquote class=3Dgmail_quote style=3Dborder-lef= t: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1= ex;gt;brgt; Hi,brgt;brgt; We have 12 servers running freebsd. T= hey are basically web servers having brgt; cpanel control panel.brgt;brgt; All these server are running= FreeBSD 5.4 Release as of now. Now are thinkingbrgt; of upgrading it to= 5.4 Stablebrgt;brbrHmmm.nbsp;nbsp; I wouldn't call that an upgrad= e really. brExcept for a few possibly meaningful security patches, it isbrthe sam= e thing.brbrYou might well be much better served by upgrading to V6.0 o= r evenbrwaiting a couple of weeks and going to V6.1.nbsp;nbsp; It is sc= heduled brfor March 20 and it looks like things are pretty much keepingbrto sch= edule.brbrgt;brgt; Please let me know the merits and demerits of th= e same. Do you feel it isbrgt; good move to upgrade to the stable versio= n. brbrThe stable version is really sort of an interim collection ofbrth= e development version.nbsp;nbsp; It is generally felt to be quot;stable= quot; with abrgeneral sense that everything will work together, but not n= ecessarily brready to be considered a quot;releasequot; which is a formally tested= collectionbrthat generally also has the more active ports built and test= ed againstbrit by the port maintainers.brbrThe stable version is only= a little bit more together than the 'current' brversion which is really just a daily snapshot of the development tree w= ithbrno particular assurance that everything works together - though Free= BSD isbrwell enough put together that current tends to be workable.br brIf you are determined to stick with 5.xxx for some reason, then gobrf= or 5.5 which is scheduled for April 3 or track RELENG_5 to get itsbrlates= t security updates.nbsp;nbsp; But, I think you should move to 6.1 orbra= t least RELENG_6.nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;Do a complete fresh clean install = of=20 6.1 andbrthen start
Re: Upgrading Freebsd 5.4 release to 5.4 stable
That was valuable in deed The 12 server are all identical but the problem is that the test machine which we will be using is not of the same class as that of the server. Then all the server run a custom built kernel and not the generic one. By mode I meant how to go about doing this process. Is it better to go the cvs way or the binary way ? Currently we have not yet thought of freebsd 6.0, we are thinking of making the servers bit more stable with the stable version See, this is a misunderstanding of the way the word 'stable' is being used in regards to the FreeBSD versions. It is stable only in relation to the 'current' development track which is in almost complete flux as people work on it daily. But in comparrison to the RELEASE verion a STABLE version is not as stable (though it is usually pretty good). It is sort of an interim version with security patches and some of the new things that are being worked on. We came to this conclusion because our servers do have a problem were the server gets rebooted automatically with put any reason ( I couldn't get any from the logs ) This is probably not related to the OS level at all. It is most likely some hardware or power stability issue, but could be some software thing if storage space or memory table space or some such is running out. This issue is there with all the servers but the one server suffers the most ( having a real bad uptime which is max of 2 days ) Any possibility you have something going that has a memory leak? jerry I hope to get more data on the same so that the transition is done smoothly ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Upgrading Freebsd 5.4 release to 5.4 stable
All are Dell Poweredge servers with identical specification. I did check the message logs an couldn't find any problem What are the other aspects which I need to check so as to find a solution. On 2/23/06, Jerry McAllister [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: That was valuable in deed The 12 server are all identical but the problem is that the test machine which we will be using is not of the same class as that of the server. Then all the server run a custom built kernel and not the generic one. By mode I meant how to go about doing this process. Is it better to go the cvs way or the binary way ? Currently we have not yet thought of freebsd 6.0, we are thinking of making the servers bit more stable with the stable version See, this is a misunderstanding of the way the word 'stable' is being used in regards to the FreeBSD versions. It is stable only in relation to the 'current' development track which is in almost complete flux as people work on it daily. But in comparrison to the RELEASE verion a STABLE version is not as stable (though it is usually pretty good). It is sort of an interim version with security patches and some of the new things that are being worked on. We came to this conclusion because our servers do have a problem were the server gets rebooted automatically with put any reason ( I couldn't get any from the logs ) This is probably not related to the OS level at all. It is most likely some hardware or power stability issue, but could be some software thing if storage space or memory table space or some such is running out. This issue is there with all the servers but the one server suffers the most ( having a real bad uptime which is max of 2 days ) Any possibility you have something going that has a memory leak? jerry I hope to get more data on the same so that the transition is done smoothly -- Jayesh Jayan The box said Requires Windows 95, NT, or better, so I installed Linux. Visit my homepage @ http://www.jayeshjayan.com ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Upgrading Freebsd 5.4 release to 5.4 stable
On 2/23/06, Jayesh Jayan [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: All are Dell Poweredge servers with identical specification. I did check the message logs an couldn't find any problem What are the other aspects which I need to check so as to find a solution. I've had FreeBSD 5.4 randomly reboot on high quality hardware... Intel made board, Intel chipset, Intel CPU, Intel approved RAM, and a Beefy 550W Fortron active PFC power supply. In hindsight, as I sit here running 6.0-RELEASE and 6.1-PRERELEASE on my systems, the FreeBSD 5.x series was slow and buggy as hell. I don't fault the developers or the release engineering team, they did the best they could with a system that needed to be massively reworked to stay relevant. Anyways, After FreeBSD 5.5 is release the 5.x series will be officially put down, like a rabid dog and we will deny that it ever existed, like Netscape 5 :-). This means that you have two options, upgrade to 6.x or upgrade to 6.x. If It were up to me then I would just skip 6.0-RELEASE and go straight to 6.1-PRERELEASE (RELENG_6), then cvsup to RELENG_6_1 when it's officially released. Where possible I would wipe the system and install a fresh copy, if not possible then I would do a cvsup upgrade. Be sure to run a 'mergemaster -p' and then when you run the standard mergemaster don't blindly hit i because at some point in the stage it will ask you to install a new version of passwd and group. -- BSD Podcasts @ http://bsdtalk.blogspot.com/ ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Upgrading Freebsd 5.4 release to 5.4 stable
On 2/23/06, Jayesh Jayan [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: That was valuable in deed The 12 server are all identical but the problem is that the test machine which we will be using is not of the same class as that of the server. Then all the server run a custom built kernel and not the generic one. You can still follow Kevins advise: If so, it should be easy on you to do the make buildworld and make buildkernel steps on your testbed, export /usr/obj via NFS to your production machines, and simply have them mount this share and do the make installkernel and make installworld steps. IOW, just like the manual, but you do the hard work only once. 1. Download and Install FreeBSD 6.1-BETA2 (Install the Developer Distribution Set) 2. Cvsup with RELENG_6 (to get most current version of 6.1-PRERELEASE) 3. cd /usr/src; make buildworld; make buildkernel (The generic kernel) 4. tarball /usr/obj 5. finish installing world/kern using the standard protocol. 6. test your apps and tweak your test servers settings to your liking, when you've got everything to your liking... 7. copy over your custom kernel from a production server and merge the changes with the new 6.1 generic kernel to make a new custom kernel. 8. build this kernel: cd /usr/src/sys/i386/conf; config KERNFILE; cd ../compile/KERNFILE; make cleandepend; make depend; make 9. tarball the kernel build directory /usr/src/sys/i386/compile/KERNFILE 10. copy over to one of the lesser used / non critical production servers the two tarball files and expand them. 11. finish the standard buildworld/kern starting at make installkernel 12 test the system. 13. cd /usr/src/sys/i386/compile/KERNFILE; make install; reboot 14. now use this production server as your new test system. copy over from the old test system the /usr/src and /usr/ports directory and any other stuff you need, like the custom kernel config file etc. 15. cd /usr/src; nice +20 make KERNCONF=KERNFILE buildkernel 16. tarball /usr/obj 17. copy this to all the servers 18. finish the standard buildworld/kern starting at make installkernel etc. don't forget to build and/or rebuild all the new ports into packages to install on the servers sorry, I don't have time to finish editing this message so this will have to do, got to run... -- BSD Podcasts @ http://bsdtalk.blogspot.com/ ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
