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I have a server that is in need of a significant update, but it's |
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proving a challenge. I have a big picture question, then provide some |
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details below. |
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|
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(I originally thought the gentoo-admin list would be the best place to |
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ask this, but based on the stats, it seems to be relatively inactive. |
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Let me know if there is a better list to ask the question on.) |
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|
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Please excuse the length of the question, but as you can see, there |
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are a variety of variables in play. |
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|
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The Big Picture |
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--------------- |
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|
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The server has not been updated since late 2005 or so. It just runs |
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Apache, mod_perl, and an application server. So far, it has just |
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hummed along doing its work without complaint, solid as a rock, which |
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is why no one has bothered with it. |
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|
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As you doubtless know, if you miss a couple of upgrade cycles with |
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Gentoo, there can be (and has been) breakage when trying to emerge -u |
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world. |
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|
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There are two identical drives, and I've mirrored (manually, not RAID) |
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one onto the other. |
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|
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The challenge is that the box is in the U.S. and I live in China. |
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There is no one there who can administer it; however, if something |
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goes really wrong, someone can just swap the drives and reboot. The |
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key factor is that I want this to be as low-risk as possible since |
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swapping the drives is about the extent of on-site support available. |
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|
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The big picture question: Would it (1) be simpler and easier to |
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rebuild from scratch on the redundant drive, or (2) is it simpler and |
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easier to deal with the current issues updating from 2005.0 and a |
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2.4.x kernel? |
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|
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The Details |
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----------- |
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|
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Option (1): Rebuilding on the Redundant Drive |
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|
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Pros -- It seems this would be the easiest way to do things, and I get |
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a fresh kernel and build. |
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|
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Cons -- If I rebuild on the redundant drive, I lose the ability to |
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swap drives if there is breakage. Also, the application server |
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(Apache Pagekit) is solid as a rock, but a real bitch to configure. |
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Last time I tried to upgrade Pagekit, due to Apache versioning issues, |
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configuration changes, etc., it took me a full weekend. Not fun. |
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|
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Option (2): Upgrading from 2005.0 |
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|
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Pros -- Perhaps less risky (advice on this would be appreciated!) and |
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I maintain another drive I can use to compare configurations, |
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selectively roll things back, etc. |
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|
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Cons -- The gory details. When I did an emerge --sync, the |
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/etc/make.profile symlink broke. It used to point at |
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|
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/usr/portage/profiles/default-linux/x86/no-nptl/2.4 |
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|
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which no longer exists, I suppose since the 2.4.x kernels seem to no |
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longer be supported. |
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|
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So the questions that arise are: |
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|
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1) Would it be less risky to upgrade from 2005.0 to 2007.0 than |
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rebuild from scratch on the redundant drive? |
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2) What is no-nptl? I don't know why the old portage profile was |
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/usr/portage/.../no-nptl. It seems to have something to do with |
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glibc-2.4. Do I still need it? Or can I just point /etc/make.profile |
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at /usr/portage/.../2007.0? |
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3) I pointed /etc/make.profile at /usr/portage/.../2007.0, and tried |
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emerge -pu world. I was told that mail-mta/qmail no longer existed |
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and is required by sudo (?!?) which is required by libapreq2. Perhaps |
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mail-mta/netqmail is the new qmail? Anyway, this gives me the |
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impression that there are deep dependencies that may have changed |
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significantly. Is this what you would (subjectively) characterize as |
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a bad sign? |
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4) What would be the best order of operations? emerge -u world, then |
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update the kernel, or update the kernel, then emerge -u world? |
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5) 2008.0 is due on March 17. Is it worthwhile putting off the |
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upgrade for 2008.0? I wouldn't want to deal with two difficult |
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upgrades if there is breakage between 2007.0 and 2008.0. |
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|
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Thanks in advance, |
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|
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-Collin |
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|
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-- |
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Collin Starkweather, Ph.D. |
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http://www.linkedin.com/in/collinstarkweather |
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|
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-- |
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gentoo-server@l.g.o mailing list |