Preparing for System upgrade (was Re: [TriLUG] PHP install/upgrade question)

[Rick DeNatale]

Yes you're probably right.  It's just that I've never done such an
update before.

Before going to the dentist, I always want to make sure that I've
brushed and flossed.  So I'm trying to go through my system and look
for newbie mistakes I might have made and straighten them out first,
like installing software in /usr/bin instead of /usr/local/bin

Yes, I've got regular backups of "user" data, I have an rsync based
backup solution which backs up the /root, /home, /var/lib/mysql, /etc,
/public, /var/www, /var/log, /var/named, /var/spool/mail, /var/yp, and
/usr/local directories every four hours.

Also /home is it's own partition.

Are there any other directories that I might need after upgrading to say FC3?

I'm going through the system trying to convince myself that I know how
to get everything I've configured myself re-configured if necessary. 
Init scripts, crontabs, spamassassin, sendmail, fetchmail ...

Do I need to be concerned about mysql databases?  I'm assuming that if
the files are there they will work, but I'd hate any nasty surprises
there.

Any other "flossing" anyone else can think of?

On Sat, 26 Mar 2005 17:28:04 -0500, Ed Hill <ed at eh3.com> wrote:
> On Sat, 2005-03-26 at 16:23 -0500, Rick DeNatale wrote:
> > Any advice is welcome.
> >
> > I know that I need to totally upgrade this system from RH9 to
> > something more modern, but I've got so much stuff working on it now
> > that I'm a little gunshy about how to do that with minimal breakage.
> 
> Hi Rick,
> 
> We run mediawiki on FC2 and FC3 and it works nicely.  And we've been
> moving a bunch of machines through successive distros (RH8, RH9, FC1,
> FC2, FC3 -- occasionally skipping one) as they come out.  Rather than
> building php from source, I'd seriously consider doing a full backup
> [you do have periodic backups, right? ;-)] and a fresh install.
> 
> I think its like going to a dentist.  The more you wait the worse it
> will eventually be...
> 
> Ed
> 
> --
> Edward H. Hill III, PhD
> office:  MIT Dept. of EAPS;  Rm 54-1424;  77 Massachusetts Ave.
>              Cambridge, MA 02139-4307
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> 
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