[olug] Clean Upgrade using RPMS?

[Mike Peterson]

You do have to reboot for kernel updates do you not?
What type of services do your Debian systems provide?
Are they running any mission critical internal applications?
What type of backups do you run on them?
Do you do full backups?

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Christopher Cashell" <topher at zyp.org>
To: "Omaha Linux User Group" <olug at olug.org>
Sent: Wednesday, September 10, 2003 9:44 PM
Subject: Re: [olug] Clean Upgrade using RPMS?


> This gets a little bit Off Topic from the original topic, but I think
> it's relevant here. ;-)
>
> At Wed, 10 Sep 03, Unidentified Flying Banana Nick Walter, said:
> > I've long operated by the rule "Never do an operating system upgrade".
> > I have *never* seen an O/S upgrade program that did the job right.  They
> > all work fine if you have an absolutely stock unmodified installation of
> > the old O/S, but who has that?
>
> Interesting.  Ever since I've discovered Debian, I've operated by the
> rule, "Never do an Operating System reinstall". ;-)
>
> My primary server, nexus.zyp.org, is currently running Debian "Woody"
> 3.0, with some packages from the forthcoming "Sarge" 3.1.  Before this,
> it ran Debian "Potato" 2.2.  Before that it ran Debian "Slink" 2.1.
> Before that it ran Debian "Hamm" 2.0.  Before that it ran Debian "Bo"
> 1.3.
>
> That's what was originally installed on it. . . in 1997.
>
> And every new release has been upgraded in-place, without a reinstall.
> They generally didn't even require a reboot. ;-)
>
> I've never actually reinstalled the machine, since that initial install.
> I just change a few lines in /etc/apt/sources.list, run "apt-get update
> && apt-get upgrade", and wait for a little while.  I'll admit that I
> have had a few minor issues at various points, but I've never had an
> upgrade that wasn't finished within a few hours, with everything up and
> running again.
>
> And my machine is anything but unmodified.  Luckily, most major
> non-Debian changes are kept in /usr/local, which is considered inviolate
> by Debian and it's packages.
>
> > Nowadays, if I need a newer O/S on a box I back up the important data
> > and config and reformat the drives in preparation for a clean install.
> > This isn't a Linux specific rule either, I've use this technique for
> > Windows and various *nixes.
>
> I always keep frequent backups of all data and config files,
> particularly before doing a major OS upgrade, but I've rarely had need
> to actually use them.
>
> I know some of you may discount my e-mail as a pro-Debian spiel, but I
> honestly think this is where Debian beats out every other distribution
> I've tried.  Once it's installed, you never need to reinstall.  It just
> keeps on chugging.  Difficulties with upgrade re-installations are what
> originally drove me away from Red Hat, Mandrake, and Slackware.
>
> > Nick Walter
>
> -- 
> | Christopher
> +------------------------------------------------+
> | A: No.                                         |
> | Q: Should I include quotations after my reply? |
> +------------------------------------------------+
>
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