FreeBSD 6.4-STABLE + cPanel - up to FreeBSD 8.2

burkoff

burkoff

Hi I have a server with 6.4-STABLE FreeBSD

I want to upgrade it to FreeBSD 8.2-RELEASE
Could you clarify in brief explanations of the steps that need to meet?

Currently I have gcc-3.4.6_2, 1, this is a productive machine and worry about working with cPanel 11.24.5-R38506 - WHM 11.24.2 - X 3.9, I want to update to more secure.
 
If you're not familiar with FreeBSD, you can do binary upgrade with
Code: 
freebsd-update
then reinstall all of your ports.
 
Do you think that a 'freebsd-update' will happen?
@Vand777 proposal is very good but it will take several days and the client will not like it ;)

Has anyone done something similar?
 
If you have time issues (in other words, if downtime is not a good thing), you can always do it the other way:
  1. acquire a new server
  2. install new os and application on new server, configure and test thoroughly
  3. transfer the service(s) to the new server
  4. re-purpose or scrap the old server
A bit more expensive, but avoids long downtime. also, if you can use virtual server(s), you don't have old hardware to scrap the next time.
 
I can't say anything particular about cPanel - if it relies on server programs installed from FreeBSD ports then you'll have to recompile those. It it's linked to base libraries found in sixth release, then you'll have versioning problems. FreeBSD has an extremely stable ABI/API and there's a big chance that you can fix those by just using symlinks to newer version of the libs. But it would be smarter, in this case, to install cPanel that's linked to 8.2 libs.

It shouldn't be more than one hour, for a single major version update via freebsd-update. If it's really essential for you to have minimal downtime and update that server, as opposed to migrating userland to a new server, this is what I'd do;

- install both 7.4 and 8.2 releases inside virtual machines (on desktop)
- compile all ports you have on production server, and make packages, on both 7.4 and 8.2 system
- test cpanel binaries on both. that means physical copy of all files off production server
- if it works, great. if it doesn't, mark all steps necessary to make the 6.4-7.4 transition work, and then transfer program from 7.4 to 8.2, and mark all steps necessary to make it work on 8.2
- script those steps. use virtual supervisors' snapshotting abilities to retain testing states.
- freebsd-update from 6.4 to 7.4. install kernel updates. reboot. install userland. remove all ports and install precompiled packeges from step 2 for 7.4. finish update and reboot.
- run the script, if you need to.
- at another scheduled 1 h downtime, repeat steps for 7.4-8.2 upgrade
 
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