CentOS 4 -> 5 Upgrade, is it possible?

[linickx]

Hi,

Does anyone know what the process is for upgrading my OS on a vps?

I figure there must be a catch as a "normal" yum upgrade would want to update the kernel & other stuff I don't have on a vps... does anyone here have any experience/documentation... do I need to ask Jag-Support to do it?

Cheers,
Nick

[Daniel_DBS]

i would think support would need to do this.. however i do believe it would be considered an OS reinstall

Note #2: O/S installs - We will install the initial OS, Control panel, and related server wide services. OS re-installs will cost a one time fee of $15. It takes time and work to reinstall our custom setups

i am not 100% sure on this but i would think that would be the case

[djg320]

I'd personally let support do a fresh/custom install of 5, especially if you have managed services, or even for 15 dollars, it's worth it.

Conflicts are very prone to arise when upgrading a major revision, especially when changing over software repositories.

[arianetwork]

what is the features of centos 5 server ?

[Daniel_DBS]

I have tested both centos 4 & 5 on a home testing server I have and havnt really noticed many differences... The only difference i really noticed was the end of life support for it is extended... I would have to ask someone that really knows centos to find out as I am not a linux expert.. I mess with it in my spare time but i am far from being linux fluent..

Daniel

[Doug Nelson]

I tried to get support to upgrade my CentOS on my VPS and was told they couldn't, as the version was controlled by Virtuozzo. It could only be upgraded if Virtuozzo decided to do so for a future release.

[Rob]

Your VPS can be upgraded to CentOS 5 but it has to be completely destroyed and then re-installed by support. I enquired about this a while back but as were running cpanel on one of our JPC VPS i will not get support to do the upgrade until its in stable. SWsoft do have the Virtuozzo OS templates for CentOS 5. You will need to talk to support about it as im not sure if they are aware of it. When i asked they were not - sending a PM to Les may also help.

The installation of CentOS 5 will be classed as an OS reload so it will incur the $15. I must also seriously advise you do to a FULL and i mean FULL server backup of everything - get some FTP backup space to put all your accounts etc on.

[thisisit3]

The only reason why you'd be interested in CentOS 5, is if you require newer version on the rpm packages.

For example, if your applicant requires ghostscript 8.xx then CentOS 4.5 won't be good enough since it only comes with version 7.xx.

Of course, you can just get the sources and compile/install the latest 8.xx version under /usr/local/, so that shouldn't be a reason to completely reinstall your server.

[linickx]

thanks for your replies guys.

I'm interested in the upgrade to get proper support (via rpm) for php5, there are also some directives in apache 2.2 that I'm interested in using (which can't be fudged via centosplus like php can).

I've opened a ticket with support to see what they say, my biggest issue is that I'm in the UK and backing up approx 3GB of user data would be painful and a waste so I'm hoping to avoid a clean install, of course if it all goes horribly wrong I'll have to do the restore

I'll update this thread when I get a plan together.

[jason]

The CentOSPlus repo has PHP 5 in it, albeit a slightly old version (5.1.6). To upgrade use

yum --enablerepo=centosplus upgrade php

This will overwrite your existing PHP 4 install with PHP 5, however (assuming you used yum to install PHP 4). If you want PHP 4 and 5 side-by-side, my tutorial at http://forums.jaguarpc.com/showthread.php?t=18140 may be of some help to you.

It doesn't look like Apache 2.2 is available in CentOSPlus, but I wouldn't be surprised if someone else hasn't created an RPM for it. There are a few user maintained repos around that probably have it. Try a search for something like "yum httpd 2.2 centos 4" and see what you find.

[JPC-Masood]

what is the features of centos 5 server ?

New CentOS 5 features are geared towards dedicated servers, e.g. clustering, xen virtualization etc.

[Daniel_DBS]

well i had a centos 5 box running here at the house and it seemed to have just crashed (only thing it was ever used for was testing scripts).. not sure as to why though.. i will have to look at it a bit more when i have more time this afternoon