[opensuse] Best way to upgrade server from 10.2 to 11.2?
Hi! I have an old server running 10.2. I'd like to upgrade that to 11.2 to be able to use some of the server software available only for the newer versions. The worry that I have is that there is a 4 x 500Mb RAID-5 which I obviously would not want to loose in any case. It has 2 additional smaller hard drives. One of those is the system drive and another pretty much not used. Otherwise, it only has CD-ROM, not DVD. Should I try to upgrade the server or do a clean install? If clean install, can I install the new version to the other smaller drive so that I can select in the boot also the older version? And thus be sure that I can access the files on the RAID. Will the new version be able to find and use the RAID if I do clean installation to the other drive? Finally, how do I install this with CD+network as the guide here: http://en.opensuse.org/Installing_from_Internet is pretty... well confusing. :-) Do I just download the .iso by selecting the "network" on this page: http://software.opensuse.org/112/en and go on from there with feeling? Thanks! -- HG. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
HG wrote:
Should I try to upgrade the server or do a clean install?
I always do a clean install. It's more work but it feels safer to me.
If clean install, can I install the new version to the other smaller drive so that I can select in the boot also the older version? And thus be sure that I can access the files on the RAID.
Yes.
Will the new version be able to find and use the RAID if I do clean installation to the other drive?
There should be no problem unless there's something very strange about your RAID. In any case, the installer should detect the RAID so you can see whether it appears to work before you actually install.
Finally, how do I install this with CD+network as the guide here: http://en.opensuse.org/Installing_from_Internet is pretty... well confusing. :-) Do I just download the .iso by selecting the "network" on this page: http://software.opensuse.org/112/en and go on from there with feeling?
Basically yes. That page is indeed confusing. Give it a go and see how you get on. You may find this useful http://www.novell.com/documentation/opensuse112/book_opensuse_startup/?page=... If you get stuck or confused, just come back and ask here. You won't harm the existing installation and can reboot into the old server setup if you need to fallback. Cheers, Dave -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
Hi!
On Fri, Feb 19, 2010 at 1:55 PM, Dave Howorth
HG wrote:
Should I try to upgrade the server or do a clean install?
I always do a clean install. It's more work but it feels safer to me.
...
If you get stuck or confused, just come back and ask here. You won't harm the existing installation and can reboot into the old server setup if you need to fallback.
Cheers, Dave
Thanks Dave! I will try to do clean separate installation on the spare disk. -- HG. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
On Fri, Feb 19, 2010 at 6:55 AM, Dave Howorth
HG wrote:
Should I try to upgrade the server or do a clean install?
I always do a clean install. It's more work but it feels safer to me.
Just to confirm that, I have 3 or 4 servers I've been upgrading from 8.2 days to current. I've never had an issue with the server apps just upgrading. With 11.2 it was a mess. I suspect little errors had been buildingup and it all blew up in my face with 11.2 so it is not totally fair to blame 11.2. But it does seem every few years you should do an install from scratch just to clean any upgrade issues that might be accumulating. And going form 10.2 to 11.2 is a few years of updates wrapped into one big upgrade. Greg -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
Hello, On Fri, 19 Feb 2010, Greg Freemyer wrote:
On Fri, Feb 19, 2010 at 6:55 AM, Dave Howorth
wrote: And going form 10.2 to 11.2 is a few years of updates wrapped into one big upgrade.
I did 10.2/32bit -> 11.1/32bit -> 11.2/64bit, apart from the arch-mixup and leftover i586 packages (I wrote about that a while ago), I had no problems. I use the (unpacked) DVD-Image to install, as inconsistent / slow mirrors do occur. I just prefer having at least the base-system from a local source. Does using install=iso:// work like install=http:// (see parallel subthread)? Must try that next time ;) Anyway, I haven't installed from a burnt/pressed CD/DVD since 8.2b<something> IIRC (different methods and workarounds, but basically unpacking /boot and some metadata of the (first) CD/DVD ;) my 2¢, -dnh -- DANIEL: [..] It-it-it just happens to hinge on you guys believing in me, [..] O'NEILL: Why? You, of all people, should know that I don't believe anything anybody says, even if I understand what they're talking about! -- Stargate SG-1, 10x14 - The Shroud -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
David Haller wrote:
Hello,
On Fri, 19 Feb 2010, Greg Freemyer wrote:
On Fri, Feb 19, 2010 at 6:55 AM, Dave Howorth
wrote: And going form 10.2 to 11.2 is a few years of updates wrapped into one big upgrade.
No, Greg Freemyer wrote that. I didn't. I've no idea why you'd want to confuse everybody with that very weird bit of snipping. Please don't do that. Cheers, Dave -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
Hi!
Uh, minor problem... the old CD-rom drive doesn't seem to work anymore :-( :-(
So, I guess I'm now looking at installation without cd-rom.. I guess
my options are:
1) Installing Virtual openSUSE on my laptop and go with PXE:
http://en.opensuse.org/SuSE_install_with_PXE_boot
or then start the installation somehow directly on the server
2) The guide for this:
http://en.opensuse.org/Installation_without_CD#Internet.2FNetwork_install_di...
points to broken page.
However, can I do it
3) by simply using GRUB? Like here:
http://en.opensuse.org/Installation_without_CD#Grub
Is this enough? Can I just download these 2 files and store on the
"old" partition to install from?
# wget http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/11.2/repo/oss/boot/i386/loader/lin...
# wget http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/11.2/repo/oss/boot/i386/loader/ini...
That would seem like the simplest thing to do. However, does that work?
On Fri, Feb 19, 2010 at 1:27 PM, HG
Hi!
I have an old server running 10.2. I'd like to upgrade that to 11.2 to be able to use some of the server software available only for the newer versions. The worry that I have is that there is a 4 x 500Mb RAID-5 which I obviously would not want to loose in any case. It has 2 additional smaller hard drives. One of those is the system drive and another pretty much not used. Otherwise, it only has CD-ROM, not DVD.
Should I try to upgrade the server or do a clean install?
If clean install, can I install the new version to the other smaller drive so that I can select in the boot also the older version? And thus be sure that I can access the files on the RAID.
Will the new version be able to find and use the RAID if I do clean installation to the other drive?
Finally, how do I install this with CD+network as the guide here: http://en.opensuse.org/Installing_from_Internet is pretty... well confusing. :-) Do I just download the .iso by selecting the "network" on this page: http://software.opensuse.org/112/en and go on from there with feeling?
Thanks!
-- HG.
-- HG. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
HG wrote:
However, can I do it 3) by simply using GRUB? Like here: http://en.opensuse.org/Installation_without_CD#Grub Is this enough? Can I just download these 2 files and store on the "old" partition to install from?
# wget http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/11.2/repo/oss/boot/i386/loader/lin... # wget http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/11.2/repo/oss/boot/i386/loader/ini...
That would seem like the simplest thing to do. However, does that work?
In principle yes. I have done it that way before. This time when I tried, I didn't succeed (see my 11.2 network install thread) but I suspect my problem had to do with using ssh and probably will not occur if you do the install on the console. Cheers, Dave -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
On Fri, Feb 19, 2010 at 03:46:24PM +0200, HG wrote: [ 8< ]
However, can I do it 3) by simply using GRUB? Like here: http://en.opensuse.org/Installation_without_CD#Grub Is this enough? Can I just download these 2 files and store on the "old" partition to install from?
# wget http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/11.2/repo/oss/boot/i386/loader/lin... # wget http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/11.2/repo/oss/boot/i386/loader/ini...
That would seem like the simplest thing to do. However, does that work?
Yes. It works. Multiple NICs might cause an issue. IIRC I've written about this before. It's possible to pass arguments to linuxrc including the order of how kernel (NIC) modules are loaded. See http://en.opensuse.org/Linuxrc for all the details. Lars -- Lars Müller [ˈlaː(r)z ˈmʏlɐ] Samba Team SUSE Linux, Maxfeldstraße 5, 90409 Nürnberg, Germany
On 2010/02/19 15:46 (GMT+0200) HG composed: You have tried a CD cleaning disk, right? A dusty or smoky environment is just as likely to cause a CD drive to "malfunction" as a real hardware failure.
However, can I do it 3) by simply using GRUB? Like here: http://en.opensuse.org/Installation_without_CD#Grub Is this enough? Can I just download these 2 files and store on the "old" partition to install from?
# wget http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/11.2/repo/oss/boot/i386/loader/lin... # wget http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/11.2/repo/oss/boot/i386/loader/ini...
That would seem like the simplest thing to do. However, does that work?
That's been my method of choice since around 10.0, and I have about 7 machines with openSUSE I usually do this way for any fresh install of each new distro release. Just make it easy on yourself and setup a Grub stanza in advance to find those two files you downloaded, e.g. title Install SuSE 11.2 from opensuse.org http kernel (hd0,0)/suse112/linux install=http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/11.2/repo/oss hostip=192.168.1.200 netmask=255.255.255.0 gateway=192.168.1.1 nameserver=192.168.1.1 splash=off vga=791 initrd (hd0,0)/suse112/initrd (without wrapping of the kernel line of course) This is even possible on a new machine if you can find a way to boot something that you can use to install Grub. I usually use a Knoppix CD to install Grub and partition in advance of openSUSE installation, but this should be possible from a USB stick or PXE boot as well. You could even do it by temporarily installing an extra HD with some Linux already installed, as long as it has the right storage drivers in its initrd to run the alien machine. -- "Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." John Adams, 2nd US President Team OS/2 ** Reg. Linux User #211409 Felix Miata *** http://fm.no-ip.com/ -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 On Friday, 2010-02-19 at 15:46 +0200, HG wrote:
Uh, minor problem... the old CD-rom drive doesn't seem to work anymore :-( :-(
Then, install a new one. I'm serious. Yes, it is possible to install without one, but, if you have problems, you will not have the posibility of booting a rescue cd/dvd, and then, you will be on a hurry on top of that. - -- Cheers, Carlos E. R. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v2.0.9 (GNU/Linux) iEYEARECAAYFAkt/w/UACgkQtTMYHG2NR9WY0ACdH4swnWTE98KV4Lu9NmO3ihF4 LOsAn03i5LCrHZYCR2a0kSbWCiWPgkk4 =z9Eq -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
On 2010/02/20 12:13 (GMT+0100) Carlos E. R. composed:
HG wrote:
Uh, minor problem... the old CD-rom drive doesn't seem to work anymore :-( :-(
Then, install a new one. I'm serious.
With brand new DVD readers retailing over the internet for as little as under $30USD delivered, it could be pretty hard to justify not replacing.
Yes, it is possible to install without one, but, if you have problems, you will not have the posibility of booting a rescue cd/dvd....
"Will not" is not accurate. If he has an uncorrupted MBR, and an uncorrupted /boot partition containing an installation kernel and initrd, then he can rescue without any optical media reader. Even better he could partition to have more than one / partition and just chroot from the other to fix the corrupted one. -- "Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." John Adams, 2nd US President Team OS/2 ** Reg. Linux User #211409 Felix Miata *** http://fm.no-ip.com/ -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 On Saturday, 2010-02-20 at 06:45 -0500, Felix Miata wrote:
On 2010/02/20 12:13 (GMT+0100) Carlos E. R. composed:
HG wrote:
Uh, minor problem... the old CD-rom drive doesn't seem to work anymore :-( :-(
Then, install a new one. I'm serious.
With brand new DVD readers retailing over the internet for as little as under $30USD delivered, it could be pretty hard to justify not replacing.
That's right. Except, of course, if he lives in an impversihed country.
Yes, it is possible to install without one, but, if you have problems, you will not have the posibility of booting a rescue cd/dvd....
"Will not" is not accurate. If he has an uncorrupted MBR, and an uncorrupted /boot partition containing an installation kernel and initrd, then he can rescue without any optical media reader. Even better he could partition to have more than one / partition and just chroot from the other to fix the corrupted one.
Yes, true. I like to have a "rescue" partition myself. However, my grub broke down recently... so an alternate booting scheme is a must have, and for a server, a *must* *have* ;-) - -- Cheers, Carlos E. R. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v2.0.9 (GNU/Linux) iEYEARECAAYFAkt/0GsACgkQtTMYHG2NR9W35gCgkwCI8RIIy7ZeRhYR4lcweiOT HSUAnRgI39bVgrRcOgZLgD/gX6axhI9K =znbt -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 On Saturday, 2010-02-20 at 13:07 +0100, I wrote:
That's right. Except, of course, if he lives in an impversihed country.
Errata: impoverished, of course. I knew I had misspelled and mistyped, thought of passing the spell checker before sending, then forgot. - -- Cheers, Carlos E. R. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v2.0.9 (GNU/Linux) iEYEARECAAYFAkt/06QACgkQtTMYHG2NR9WhbQCgh6nCGRDSP5JdstcdC5+RFmxs yP0AmwZKkXTwNcCtFe9rZSrWBhTXu/3A =zCPF -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
On 2010/02/20 13:07 (GMT+0100) Carlos E. R. composed:
On Saturday, 2010-02-20 at 06:45 -0500, Felix Miata wrote:
With brand new DVD readers retailing over the internet for as little as under $30USD delivered, it could be pretty hard to justify not replacing.
That's right. Except, of course, if he lives in an impversihed country.
You do understand the meanings of "could be" and "hard to justify", do you not? One need not live in some impoverished country to be unable to afford to replace broken hardware. "[C]ould be ... hard to justify" assumes not everyone can afford replacement parts when hardware failure occurs. It also covers an inability to remove some covers and screws to avoid paying someone alottadough to perform a replacement. It might also be someone's using a laptop that requires a no longer available proprietary optical media reader. "[C]ould be ... hard to justify" covers that too. -- "Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." John Adams, 2nd US President Team OS/2 ** Reg. Linux User #211409 Felix Miata *** http://fm.no-ip.com/ -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 On Friday, 2010-02-19 at 13:27 +0200, HG wrote:
Should I try to upgrade the server or do a clean install?
Both are valid alternatives. I prefer upgrade. Some people keep two partitions, one with the previous system in working order, and one with the new system. This way, they test the new version, solve problems, and revert to the old setup in an instant if things do not work. Other people have a spare server and do the same thing but on the spare. - -- Cheers, Carlos E. R. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v2.0.9 (GNU/Linux) iEYEARECAAYFAkt/0R4ACgkQtTMYHG2NR9XGyQCeKAqrGMC3FYEFffXefk5krjbz DQ0AoIwzanRyHA2I/GfxPn4nzj7bXh/1 =oYa3 -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
HG wrote:
Hi!
I have an old server running 10.2. I'd like to upgrade that to 11.2 to be able to use some of the server software available only for the newer versions. The worry that I have is that there is a 4 x 500Mb RAID-5 which I obviously would not want to loose in any case. It has 2 additional smaller hard drives. One of those is the system drive and another pretty much not used. Otherwise, it only has CD-ROM, not DVD.
Should I try to upgrade the server or do a clean install?
Both have pros and cons. What I typically do is having a second identical partition to / (i.e., same number of sectors), then do a dd clone of the system on on that one (create grub entry and fix /etc/fstab), and try the upgrade. It will IMHO largely depend on the amount of local configurations which way is better. An update will (try to) keep the configuration which will normally get you a running system very fast if it is a short-distance update. Especially when going from 10.2 to 11.2 I doubt that this will give reasonable results - many things have changed, and old configuration files might be giving more trouble than speed things up. I'd go for the clean new install.
If clean install, can I install the new version to the other smaller drive so that I can select in the boot also the older version? And thus be sure that I can access the files on the RAID.
Yes. And the new installation should also recognize the RAID and offer you to mount it wherever you want... Pit -- Dr. Peter "Pit" Suetterlin http://www.astro.su.se/~pit Institute for Solar Physics Tel.: +34 922 405 590 (Spain) P.Suetterlin@royac.iac.es +46 8 5537 8507 (Sweden) Peter.Suetterlin@astro.su.se -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
participants (8)
-
Carlos E. R.
-
Dave Howorth
-
David Haller
-
Felix Miata
-
Greg Freemyer
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HG
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Lars Müller
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Pit Suetterlin