Fearing server upgrade

atc · 2009-04-28 22:15:25

Hey,

A few times in my Arch time I've had some trouble doing a system upgrade. Sometimes something is just broken.

Now, I have a small server which I've not upgraded for quite a while, and I'm obviously worried about upgrading it.

Therefore, is there a preferable way of upgrading it? Some clever procedure? Or should I just give up because reinstalling the system would be faster?

Specifically, the kernel is 2.6.27 which should give you a sense of how long it has been - several months I guess. And it wants me to download 341 MB's of upgrades. It looks like this:

[atc@atcserver:~]$ sudo pacman -Syu
:: Synchronizing package databases...
 core is up to date
 extra is up to date
 community is up to date
:: Starting full system upgrade...
:: Replace iproute with core/iproute2? [Y/n] 
:: Replace atl2 with core/kernel26? [Y/n] 
:: Replace man with core/man-db? [Y/n] 
resolving dependencies...
looking for inter-conflicts...

Remove (3): iproute-2.6.25-1  atl2-2.0.5-2  man-1.6f-2  

Total Removed Size:   1.53 MB

Targets (188): iproute2-2.6.28-1  kernel-headers-2.6.27.6-2  tzdata-2009f-1  glibc-2.9-4  attr-2.4.43-1  
               acl-2.2.47-2  zlib-1.2.3.3-3  cracklib-2.8.13-2  gcc-libs-4.3.3-1  db-4.7.25-2  pam-1.0.4-1  
               shadow-4.1.3.1-1  coreutils-7.2-1  bash-3.2.048-3  filesystem-2009.01-1  pcre-7.9-1  
               grep-2.5.4-1  klibc-1.5.15-1  klibc-extras-2.5-2  kbd-1.15-1  klibc-kbd-1.15.20080312-8  
               klibc-module-init-tools-3.5-1  klibc-udev-141-1  e2fsprogs-1.41.4-1  util-linux-ng-2.14.2-1  
               udev-141-1  mkinitcpio-0.5.23-1  module-init-tools-3.5-1  kernel26-firmware-2.6.29-1  
               kernel26-2.6.29.1-4  texinfo-4.13a-3  groff-1.20.1-2  man-db-2.5.5-1  apr-1.3.3-1  
               unixodbc-2.2.14-1  apr-util-1.3.4-1  openssl-0.9.8k-2  apache-2.2.11-3  glib2-2.20.1-1  
               atk-1.26.0-1  automake-1.10.2-1  dbus-core-1.2.4.4permissive-1  kbproto-1.0.3-2  
               libx11-1.2.1-1  dbus-1.2.4.4permissive-1  libcap-2.16-3  avahi-0.6.25-1  binutils-2.19.1-1  
               m4-1.4.13-1  bison-2.4.1-1  bzip2-1.0.5-4  run-parts-2.31-1  ca-certificates-20080809-5  
               libgcrypt-1.4.4-1  libtasn1-2.0-1  gnutls-2.6.5-1  libpng-1.2.35-1  libcups-1.3.10-2  
               openslp-1.2.1-2  libjpeg-6b-6  openjpeg-1.3-3  poppler-0.10.6-1  cups-1.3.10-2  
               inputproto-1.5.0-1  xextproto-7.0.5-1  libxext-1.0.5-2  libxt-1.0.5-2  ghostscript-8.64-5  
               cups-pdf-2.5.0-1  dash-0.5.5.1-2  libx86-1.1-2  ddcxinfo-arch-0.8-2  device-mapper-1.02.31-1  
               dhcpcd-4.0.12-1  dialog-1.1_20080819-1  diffutils-2.8.1-6  dmapi-2.2.9-1  dmraid-1.0.0.rc14-2  
               dnsutils-9.6.0.P1-2  dosfstools-3.0.1-1  ed-1.2-1  gpm-1.20.6-1  libidn-1.14-1  
               elinks-0.11.6-1  eventlog-0.2.9-1  fakeroot-1.12.2-2  file-5.00-1  fontsproto-2.0.2-2  
               freetype2-2.3.9-1  fuse-2.7.4-1  gawk-3.1.6-3  gc-7.1-1  mpfr-2.4.1-1  gcc-4.3.3-1  
               gettext-0.17-3  pth-2.0.7-2  gnupg2-2.0.11-1  gpgme-1.1.8-1  grub-0.97-15  libfontenc-1.0.4-2  
               xproto-7.0.15-1  xorg-font-utils-7.4-2  gsfonts-8.11-5  guile-1.8.6-1  gutenprint-5.2.3-1  
               hdparm-9.15-1  htop-0.8.1-1  hunspell-1.2.8-1  pciutils-3.1.2-1  hwd-5.4.3-1  
               hwdetect-2009.04-1  initscripts-2009.03-2  iptables-1.4.3.2-1  recordproto-1.13.2-2  
               libxtst-1.0.3-2  jre-6u13-1  less-429-1  lftp-3.7.11-1  libarchive-2.6.2-1  libdatrie-0.2.1-1  
               libdrm-2.4.9-1  libice-1.0.5-1  libidl2-0.8.13-1  libmysqlclient-5.1.34-1  libpcap-1.0.0-1  
               libsigc++2.0-2.2.3-1  libstdc++5-3.3.6-3  libthai-0.1.11-1  libtorrent-0.12.4-1  
               libxdmcp-1.0.2-2  renderproto-0.9.3-2  libxrender-0.9.4-2  logrotate-3.7.8-1  lvm2-2.02.45-1  
               mailx-8.1.1-7  make-3.81-4  man-pages-3.20-2  mcpp-2.7.2-2  mdadm-2.6.9-1  mime-types-1.0-2  
               mlocate-0.21.1-1  mysql-clients-5.1.34-1  mysql-5.1.34-1  nano-2.0.9-2  libnl-1.1-1  
               wpa_supplicant-0.6.9-1  netcfg-2.1.3-3  nspr-4.7.4-1  sqlite3-3.6.13-1  nss-3.12.2-1  
               ntfs-3g-2009.4.4-1  pango-1.24.1-1  rrdtool-1.3.7-1  geoip-1.4.5-1  ntop-3.3.9-2  
               offlineimap-6.0.3-2  openssh-5.2p1-1  pacman-mirrorlist-20090405-1  patch-2.5.9-2  
               php-5.2.9-3  phpmyadmin-3.1.4-1  pinentry-0.7.5-5  pixman-0.14.0-1  ppp-2.4.4-7  
               pptpclient-1.7.2-2  reiserfsprogs-3.6.21-1  rpmextract-1.0-3  xmlrpc-c-1.06.32-2  
               rtorrent-0.8.4-1  ruby-1.8.7_p72-3  rxvt-unicode-9.06-2  sdparm-1.03-2  
               shared-mime-info-0.60-1  slang-2.1.4-1  sshfs-2.2-1  sudo-1.7.1-1  swig-1.3.39-1  
               syslog-ng-3.0.1-6  tar-1.22-1  tcl-8.5.6-1  tk-8.5.6-1  unrar-3.8.5-2  vi-7.2.65-1  
               vim-7.2.65-1.1  vpnc-0.5.3-1  xbitmaps-1.0.1-2  xcb-util-0.3.4-1  xfsprogs-3.0.0-1  

Total Download Size:    341.13 MB
Total Installed Size:   1078.22 MB

Proceed with installation? [Y/n] n

As a side question, how do you keep your system up to date? How often do you do it and is it maybe automated by some cron job?

Thank you for your time.

lucke · 2009-04-28 22:24:38

What do you use the server for?

There's nothing to be afraid of. Update, reboot and check if everything seems to be working as it should.

tomk · 2009-04-28 23:25:14

Read all news items published since the last system update, and note any potential gotchas.

I run a server on Arch, and I update it approximately once a month. Cronning your system update is a bad idea, as you need to read/review pacman's output at the time, and possibly act on it.

dmartins · 2009-04-28 23:33:39

From a quick look through the packages it wants to update, I don't think you'll have too many problems. It doesn't look like you're using Xorg, so that removes about 90% of all linux problems

cups may require a tweak depending on your set up. If, after your update, links on the printer tab of the cups web interface are pointing to ::1 instead of localhost:631, try replacing /etc/cups/cupsd.conf with /etc/cups/cupsd.conf.default.

There might be a couple of file conflicts for a package or two. Check old news posts on http://www.archlinux.org to see if you can safely force the update.

I usually update every couple of days on my desktop. I sometimes forget about my server but for no more than a couple weeks.

Xyne · 2009-04-28 23:48:03

I agree with tomk that cronning updates is a bad idea. Pacman is a package manager, not a magical system manager with AI so you really need to pay attention to what it does, especially when it issues warnings.

Most updates are completely smooth but you should try to follow the news page and the forum to stay on top of issues. I'd recommend delaying (major) updates for at least a few days for a critical system so you can see if others experience problems with them before you commit them. Generally though you should update regularly to keep up to date with security fixes and to ensure compatibility between packages.

For what it's worth, I update my system daily and have so far not had any problems worth noting. The only time I hosed my system was the first time that I ran a full system upgrade after installing from the core iso. Being a linux noob + not paying attention = reinstallation.

Arch Linux

#1 2009-04-28 22:15:25

Fearing server upgrade

#2 2009-04-28 22:24:38

Re: Fearing server upgrade

#3 2009-04-28 23:25:14

Re: Fearing server upgrade

#4 2009-04-28 23:33:39

Re: Fearing server upgrade

#5 2009-04-28 23:48:03

Re: Fearing server upgrade

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