Safe upgrade from 7.4 to 9.2

J

jeikobugo

Hi all,

We are using FreeBSD 7.4 on a Fujitsu server in our company. I would like to upgrade to at least to FreeBSD 9.2. I don't know what changes were made in FreeBSD since 7.4. A lot of services are running on this Fujitsu server (Apache 2.2, MySQL 5.1, PHP 5.2, Samba shares, Postfix mail server, IPW is configured). The applications we use need these versions of services to work correctly. I would like to ask whether all services will be functional after upgrade? I can not take the chance that something will stop working after upgrade. Do you need some other info from me to determine if the upgrade is possible without problems?

Thank you in advance for your reply. I will be extremely grateful for your reply.
 
Yes, it will work but you must rebuild all installed ports after the upgrade to 9.2. This can be quite tricky and time-consuming. So it's probably better if you find a second machine, install FreeBSD 9.2 on it, install all the services and transfer the data. That way you can keep the old machine running and if something happens building the new one you won't be stressed out trying to get it fixed.
 
If it's just a single server, why not clone it and upgrade the clone in a VM or on spare hardware first? Technically, it should work. Applications haven't changed that much.
 
PHP5.2 is no longer in ports. It may be possible to continue using the old ports tree you have now, although not very safe. Definitely do a test on a copy of the machine, not an in-place upgrade.
 
Once you have cloned the system install these ports on the clone so you can keep using your installed ports after the OS upgrade without recompilation (which you'll have to do eventually but this gives you some extra breathing room):

misc/compat7x
misc/compat8x
 
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