Topic: Quick question about 7.6 to 8 upgrade !

[M3kk]

Hello,

not sure if i post in the proper section, if not please move my thread .
So, i have here an SME 7.6 server, with users, with files on it, etc, etc.

I want to make an upgrade to version 8, and my question is: If i put the SME 8 installation disk, boot from it, and choose upgrade at installation, everything will remain the same, but upgraded to 8? I mean i dont want to lose the settings, users, emails, files, etc..

Thanks for the help, and if u need any other info (about packages installed, etc) please ask me.
Regards,
Boti.

[ber]

Yes the CD upgrade option is the best- it will keep your settings/files/emails etc...a few things to note which may not be immediately obvious.

The upgrade wont migrate any of the additional contribs that is running on 7.6. This will need to be added after the upgrade. There are some contribs that will work after the upgrade i.e. Dansguardian. general convention is to reinstall it.
Also if it is in server/gateway mode make sure that when the server has finished the upgrade that the correct network adapters are used for external and local access. There should be very little if any configuring after the upgrade.

As always it is good practice to always backup before you upgrade. Affa works great when setup well.

[M3kk]

Thanks you for your answer. I dont really cant do a backup, couse there is over 2TB of data (mails, fileserver files, etc). The most important contrib is the site2siteopenVPN , but i use it on a SME 8, so it would be Ok.. THe question about it.. if i need to reinstall it, the settings for it will remain from the 7.6 ? I mean the openVPN-S2s settings .

TY

[janet]

M3kk

You really SHOULD do a backup before you do a major upgrade.
If something went badly wrong (which is possible) then you could lose some or all of your data.
A 2Tb USB drive is relatively cheap these days & is a good safety measure.
The backup will compress your data so it will/should fit on a large (say 2Tb) USB drive. It may take many many hours to backup though.

Alternatively if you are using a software RAID1 setup with 2 drives, then you could remove one drive before you start the upgrade. That way you have a safe copy of the whole functional system as it was before the upgrade.

When you do the upgrade I suggest you disconnect the network cable going between the server & the the modem, that way the server will not be sending or receiving mail & so on during the upgrade process, so if you needed to revert to the old sme7.6 server you could do so without losing any new or sent messages etc.

If you are unsure about any contribs that you rely upon, then I suggest you do a test install of sme8 to a spare box & install the contribs & ensure they work to your satisfaction. Most el4 contribs should work on sme 8 (el5 pkgs) but some may not or may need to be upgraded to el5 versions (many contribs have el5 releases now).

Another "test & be sure" approach can be done if you have a 2 drive software RAID1 setup.
Take one drive out & put it in a spare test box & try the sme8 CD upgrade on that.
You will find any problems & resolve them before doing the real upgrade.

When you upgrade a server the old el4 contrib packages will remain installed, & all the settings & configuration will remain, so (most) existing el4 contribs should still be installed & in working order, as long as they are known to be compatible with sme8. Do your research first. Check the contrib compatibility lists on this site.

To answer the contrib package upgrade question, if you upgrade a el4 package on sme 8 to a el5 package, then the new package should work with the old config settings, provided the new package is compatible & no major design changes have taken place. In most cases upgrading a contrib works OK.

[M3kk]

Hm.. ty for your reply..
The problem is that, not i was who built this server.. I know there is 4 x 1.5TB hdds in it, maybe RAID1, not sure.. i can use 3TB space.. So i need to figure out what type of RAID i have, and what 2 HDDs i need to take out .
On PHPSysinfo i see this:

SCSI Devices    
-   ATA ST31500541AS (Direct-Access)
-   ATA ST31500541AS (Direct-Access)
-   ATA ST31500541AS (Direct-Access)
-   ATA ST31500541AS (Direct-Access)
-   Optiarc DVD RW AD-7260S (CD-ROM)

I will verify if there is a raid done from the MBs bios, or from SME (this how)?

Ty.

[janet]

M3kk

Seems like RAID5
do
cat /proc/mdstat to see if it is  SME software RAID5

Refer
http://wiki.contribs.org/Raid

In that case removing a drive is not a suitable backup option.

As I said, I strongly advise you to backup before upgrading, just in case.
It is up to you to work out your own backup strategy.
A 2Tb USB drive (largest supported) will probably backup your 3Tb of data when compressed.

[M3kk]

Ty.

This is my output..

Personalities : [raid1] [raid5]
md2 : active raid5 sdc2[0] sdd2[2] sdb2[1]
      2930062848 blocks level 5, 256k chunk, algorithm 2 [3/3] [UUU]

md1 : active raid1 sda1[0] sdd1[3] sdc1[2] sdb1[1]
      104320 blocks [4/4] [UUUU]

unused devices: <none>