Mailinglist Archive: opensuse (4288 mails)

[Tor Sigurdsson <tosi@xxxxxxxx>]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1


Hi,

A common misunderstanding is that an 'upgrade' will go well. This is untrue
for most situations, regardless of what operating system you have. Upgrades
are more likely to break your system beyond what easy reparation. There are
several reasons for this:

	o Changes in the package management
	o Older packages are split up into several units in newer
	  versions, and even integrated into newer packages
	o Configuration files change ( bigtime in some systems )
	o The software itself changes bigtime ( KDE2->KDE3 f.ex )
	o APIs and base libraries change ( Win98->WinXP f.ex )

In general, you can run older apps on a newer system ( f.ex apache for 7.2
running on 8.0 ) in some cases with a compatibility layer ( shlibs5 f.ex )
installed.

The general procedure of upgrade is a fresh install. The best method is to
have a hotspare ( an identical machine as the on running the old OS ) and
to perform the install on that one. Then set up the services, and migrate the
data ( still with the old system running :)

When the new system is set up, add the hostnames of the old system to point
to the ip of your new machine, to /etc/hosts, both of your new machine, and
your workstation. This will enable you to test the new machine, just as you
were working with the old machine.

When you are satisfied with everything working as it should, you clean up the
/etc/hosts, and make a switch ( you could even reconfigure the IP of the new
machine from console, and switch them live if they are not having outbound
database connections or stuff like that. )

In general, upgrading is A Bad Idea (TM)

- -tosi

Philip Burness (miðvikudagur 1. maí 2002 10:32)
> I have read that a 7.2 -> 8.0 is not advised / supported by SuSE. For me
> this is dreadful, I thought the whole purpose of rpms is to allow
> successful upgrading.
>
> I would like to support SuSE financially by purchasing 8.0, (I don't mind
> paying for value, and SuSE has plenty of that), but I cannot afford to wipe
> out my existing installation and perform a fresh install. The potential for
> error is huge, not to mention the down-time.
>
> This is a real problem SuSE! I guess future releases will be based upon the
> 8.0 version which means I can't upgrade to any future releases either!
>
> What am I to do?
>
> Phil
>
> >Hello all,
> >
> >I'm running Suse 7.2 and some day I'll need to upgrade to 8.x . I have
> > been looking at the
> >mail list for informations and I'm getting mixed messages. I'm looking for
> >detail documentation
> >preferable from Suse shows all pre-install, install, and configuration of
> >the migration process
> >from 7.x - 8.0. I have a production system that runs critical apps and I
> >can't afford to make a mistake in OS upgrade. Here is my configuration :
> >/dev/hda1	/	ext2
> >/dev/hda2	/boot	ext2
> >/dev/hda3	/user	ext2
> >/dev/hdb1	/home	ext2
> >/dev/hdb2	swap	swap
> >So if you have information on how to move to 8.0 without any loss of data
> >with the above configuration, Please send them my way.............
> >
> >
> >Thanks in advance
> >~mn
>
> -------------------------------------------------------

- -- 
This mail is sent using KMail and Linux.
Thus it is 100% guaranteed virus free.
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.0.6 (GNU/Linux)
Comment: For info see http://www.gnupg.org

iD8DBQE8z+Mx6mRH+PEpr2YRAvSAAJ9RXrCvUbeNUR+p/md/dg7xc33/IACeJX+A
WxRFDMtfYEMD07G6FeDHuvE=
=d36N
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----