Re: Ancient FreeBSD update path

[krad]

Back everything up. Forget about upgrading you are making your life harder.
Do a ZFS install with BE's then port your apps. It will be quicker less
prone to errors and you will end up with a better system in the end. If the
system is a bit of a rats nest, then this would be the ideal time to
document all its quirks, and tidy up. If it really is that hairy consider
running the old applications in jails ontop of a new pristine OS build.

If its on hardware consider new kit as well if its an important service, or
consolidate it into a jail on something else.

On 20 January 2018 at 01:16, Bakul Shah  wrote:

> On Fri, 19 Jan 2018 13:28:41 +0100 Andrea Brancatelli <
> abrancate...@schema31.it> wrote:
> Andrea Brancatelli writes:
> > Hello guys.
> >
> > I have a couple of ancient FreeBSD install that I have to bring into
> > this century (read either 10.4 or 11.1) :-)
> >
> > I'm talking about a FreeBSD 8.0-RELEASE-p4 and a couple of FreeBSD
> > 9.3-RELEASE-p53.
> >
> > What upgrade strategy would you suggest?
> >
> > Direct jump into the future (8 -> 11)? Progressive steps (8 -> 9 -> 10
> > -> 11)? Boiling water on the HDs? :-)
> >
> > Thanks, any suggestion in more than welcome.
>
> Incremental update will take a long time and if something gets
> messed up in the middle, you will be much worse off. You may
> also not find relevant packages any more for an EOLed release.
> And you may have to solve problems that no longer exist on
> newer packages.
>
> What I would do is to make a backup of everything, make a list
> of installed packages and config files, and do a fresh install
> of the latest release. Then get the critical packages working.
> Then add others as needed.
>
> If possible do this on a separate machine so that you can
> check config/program behavior on the original machine.  When
> you are satisfied, either switch to the other machine or copy
> things back to the original. When one of my computers was
> starting to fall apart, I did this with an inexpensive used
> thinkpad.
>
> One more thing to consider: your ancient machine hardware may
> need to be maintenance/repais/replacement.  A fully
> operational second (temporary) machine gives you a chance to
> try to do maintenace such as remove dust and cat hair
> carefully, check fans and replace them if needed, replace
> disks if older than 4 years, etc.
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Re: Ancient FreeBSD update path

[Bakul Shah]

On Fri, 19 Jan 2018 13:28:41 +0100 Andrea Brancatelli 
 wrote:
Andrea Brancatelli writes:
> Hello guys. 
> 
> I have a couple of ancient FreeBSD install that I have to bring into
> this century (read either 10.4 or 11.1) :-) 
> 
> I'm talking about a FreeBSD 8.0-RELEASE-p4 and a couple of FreeBSD
> 9.3-RELEASE-p53. 
> 
> What upgrade strategy would you suggest? 
> 
> Direct jump into the future (8 -> 11)? Progressive steps (8 -> 9 -> 10
> -> 11)? Boiling water on the HDs? :-) 
> 
> Thanks, any suggestion in more than welcome.

Incremental update will take a long time and if something gets
messed up in the middle, you will be much worse off. You may
also not find relevant packages any more for an EOLed release.
And you may have to solve problems that no longer exist on
newer packages.

What I would do is to make a backup of everything, make a list
of installed packages and config files, and do a fresh install
of the latest release. Then get the critical packages working.
Then add others as needed.

If possible do this on a separate machine so that you can
check config/program behavior on the original machine.  When
you are satisfied, either switch to the other machine or copy
things back to the original. When one of my computers was
starting to fall apart, I did this with an inexpensive used
thinkpad.

One more thing to consider: your ancient machine hardware may
need to be maintenance/repais/replacement.  A fully
operational second (temporary) machine gives you a chance to
try to do maintenace such as remove dust and cat hair
carefully, check fans and replace them if needed, replace
disks if older than 4 years, etc.
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Re: Ancient FreeBSD update path

[Don Lewis]

On 19 Jan, Mathieu Arnold wrote:
> On Fri, Jan 19, 2018 at 01:28:41PM +0100, Andrea Brancatelli wrote:
>> Hello guys. 
>> 
>> I have a couple of ancient FreeBSD install that I have to bring into
>> this century (read either 10.4 or 11.1) :-) 
>> 
>> I'm talking about a FreeBSD 8.0-RELEASE-p4 and a couple of FreeBSD
>> 9.3-RELEASE-p53. 
>> 
>> What upgrade strategy would you suggest? 
>> 
>> Direct jump into the future (8 -> 11)? Progressive steps (8 -> 9 -> 10
>> -> 11)? Boiling water on the HDs? :-) 
>> 
>> Thanks, any suggestion in more than welcome.
> 
> The *supported* upgrade strategy is to upgrade to the latest version of
> your current branch, and jump from latest version to latest version.  So
> 8.4 -> 9.3 -> 10.4 -> 11.1. (Note that you can stay at 10.4, it still is
> supported.)

Only until October 31, 2018.  At this point I'd go all the way to 11.1
to avoid going through the pain of another major OS version upgrade in
the nearish future.

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Re: Ancient FreeBSD update path

[Michael Sinatra]

On 1/19/18 4:59 AM, Mike Pumford wrote:

I've just done a 9.3 to 10.3 upgrade with freebsd-update and pkg. 
Networking wasn't avalable when the system was running 10.3 kernel with 
9.3 userland so I did that part of the update on the console.


I have run into this problem with 9.3 -> 10.x upgrades.  Basically, the 
old 9.3 ifconfig(8) breaks with the new 10.x kernel.


Even though it's not the supported method, I have had good luck running 
freebsd-update on a 9.3 system, installing the kernel and then 
immediately (no reboot) running `freebsd-update install` again to 
install userland.  *Then* reboot.  You should be able to complete the 
update (removing old files and updating ports/packages) without having 
to go to the console.


This method does not appear to be necessary for any upgrades other than 
9.3 -> 10.x.


michael

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Re: Ancient FreeBSD update path

[Miroslav Lachman]

Kurt Jaeger wrote on 2018/01/19 15:24:

Hi!


I have a couple of ancient FreeBSD install that I have to bring into
this century (read either 10.4 or 11.1) :-)

I'm talking about a FreeBSD 8.0-RELEASE-p4 and a couple of FreeBSD
9.3-RELEASE-p53.

What upgrade strategy would you suggest?


The best way is to update stepwise using freebsd-update, so:

8.0 -> 8.3 -> 9.1 -> 9.3 -> 10.1 -> 10.3


I would recommend source upgrade instead of binary freebsd-update. It is 
more predictable then freebsd-update if you are updating sooo old system



Direct jump into the future (8 -> 11)? Progressive steps (8 -> 9 -> 10
-> 11)? Boiling water on the HDs? :-)


Stepwise. Huge jumps have too many rough edges.


I did upgrade from 8.4 to 10.2 or 10.3, not sure. There was some make 
warning in make installworld phase so I did "make installworld" twice to 
be sure everything is OK.


There is (maybe) simpler way - download (or create own) tar balls of 
base and kernel of your target version (10.4 or 11.1), unpack it over 
old system (in single user) then you can use make delete-old if you will 
have /usr/src with updated source.


Miroslav Lachman
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Re: Ancient FreeBSD update path

[Mathieu Arnold]

On Fri, Jan 19, 2018 at 01:28:41PM +0100, Andrea Brancatelli wrote:
> Hello guys. 
> 
> I have a couple of ancient FreeBSD install that I have to bring into
> this century (read either 10.4 or 11.1) :-) 
> 
> I'm talking about a FreeBSD 8.0-RELEASE-p4 and a couple of FreeBSD
> 9.3-RELEASE-p53. 
> 
> What upgrade strategy would you suggest? 
> 
> Direct jump into the future (8 -> 11)? Progressive steps (8 -> 9 -> 10
> -> 11)? Boiling water on the HDs? :-) 
> 
> Thanks, any suggestion in more than welcome.

The *supported* upgrade strategy is to upgrade to the latest version of
your current branch, and jump from latest version to latest version.  So
8.4 -> 9.3 -> 10.4 -> 11.1. (Note that you can stay at 10.4, it still is
supported.)

-- 
Mathieu Arnold


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Description: PGP signature

Re: Ancient FreeBSD update path

[Freddie Cash]

On Fri, Jan 19, 2018 at 4:28 AM, Andrea Brancatelli <
abrancate...@schema31.it> wrote:

> Hello guys.
>
> I have a couple of ancient FreeBSD install that I have to bring into
> this century (read either 10.4 or 11.1) :-)
>
> I'm talking about a FreeBSD 8.0-RELEASE-p4 and a couple of FreeBSD
> 9.3-RELEASE-p53.
>
> What upgrade strategy would you suggest?
>
> Direct jump into the future (8 -> 11)? Progressive steps (8 -> 9 -> 10
> -> 11)? Boiling water on the HDs? :-)
>

​I like to do it in steps.  It takes longer, but the results tend to be
better.

8.0 --> last 8.x release --> 9.0 --> last 9.x release --> 10.0 --> last
10.x release --> 11.0 --> last 11.x release

Backup /usr/local/etc and any other configuration files that are strewn
about.  Then format/delete /usr/ports/* and /usr/local/* and install the
ports/packages you need.

Of course, for something that ancient, it would probably be faster/better
to just backup the config files, format the drives, and install 11.1 from
scratch.  :)


-- 
Freddie Cash
fjwc...@gmail.com
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Re: Ancient FreeBSD update path

[Kurt Jaeger]

Hi!

> I have a couple of ancient FreeBSD install that I have to bring into
> this century (read either 10.4 or 11.1) :-) 
> 
> I'm talking about a FreeBSD 8.0-RELEASE-p4 and a couple of FreeBSD
> 9.3-RELEASE-p53. 
> 
> What upgrade strategy would you suggest? 

The best way is to update stepwise using freebsd-update, so:

8.0 -> 8.3 -> 9.1 -> 9.3 -> 10.1 -> 10.3

> Direct jump into the future (8 -> 11)? Progressive steps (8 -> 9 -> 10
> -> 11)? Boiling water on the HDs? :-) 

Stepwise. Huge jumps have too many rough edges.

-- 
p...@opsec.eu+49 171 3101372 2 years to go !
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Re: Ancient FreeBSD update path

[Mike Pumford]

On 19/01/2018 12:28, Andrea Brancatelli wrote:

Hello guys.

I have a couple of ancient FreeBSD install that I have to bring into
this century (read either 10.4 or 11.1) :-)

I'm talking about a FreeBSD 8.0-RELEASE-p4 and a couple of FreeBSD
9.3-RELEASE-p53.

I've just done a 9.3 to 10.3 upgrade with freebsd-update and pkg. 
Networking wasn't avalable when the system was running 10.3 kernel with 
9.3 userland so I did that part of the update on the console.


That system started life as a FreeBSD 5.x system and got left to rot at 
that version for a long time because it was an internal system with no 
external security exposure. I gradually upgraded it (using source 
builds) from major version to major version until I got to 9.3 and then 
did the 9.3 to 10.3 as a binary upgrade.


Only other trap I fell into with was packages. The system uses ldap for 
auth although fortunately it does have some local network accessible 
accounts. ldap auth was broken until I did the package update as the 9.3 
pam_ldap modules caused SSH to delay password based authentication and 
the auth processes seg-faulted.



What upgrade strategy would you suggest?

Direct jump into the future (8 -> 11)? Progressive steps (8 -> 9 -> 10
-> 11)? Boiling water on the HDs? :-)

If freebsd-update will do an upgrade from 8 to 10 or 8 to 11 and you 
have console access it ought to work. The upgrade process can be rolled 
back if the system doesn't like the new kernel for some reason and 
nothing gets installed anywhere else until the second stage of the 
upgrade. I'd probably go via 8->9.3->10/11 as those are the upgrade 
paths that were well tested.


Also don't forget the full system backups before starting. :)

Mike
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Ancient FreeBSD update path

[Andrea Brancatelli]

Hello guys. 

I have a couple of ancient FreeBSD install that I have to bring into
this century (read either 10.4 or 11.1) :-) 

I'm talking about a FreeBSD 8.0-RELEASE-p4 and a couple of FreeBSD
9.3-RELEASE-p53. 

What upgrade strategy would you suggest? 

Direct jump into the future (8 -> 11)? Progressive steps (8 -> 9 -> 10
-> 11)? Boiling water on the HDs? :-) 

Thanks, any suggestion in more than welcome.

-- 

Andrea Brancatelli
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