Upgrading to RHEL 4

[Smith, Albert]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: redhat-install-list-bounces at redhat.com 
> [mailto:redhat-install-list-bounces at redhat.com] On Behalf Of 
> Rick Stevens
> Sent: Monday, November 21, 2005 12:50 PM
> To: Getting started with Red Hat Linux
> Subject: RE: Upgrading to RHEL 4
> 
> On Mon, 2005-11-21 at 12:41 -0500, Smith, Albert wrote:
> >  
> > 
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: redhat-install-list-bounces at redhat.com
> > > [mailto:redhat-install-list-bounces at redhat.com] On Behalf Of Rick 
> > > Stevens
> > > Sent: Monday, November 21, 2005 12:35 PM
> > > To: Getting started with Red Hat Linux
> > > Subject: Re: Upgrading to RHEL 4
> > > 
> > > On Sun, 2005-11-20 at 03:07 +0000, jlopes151 at comcast.net wrote:
> > > > Ok so I have downloaded the *.iso files now what? I don't
> > > yet know enough about Linx to use these files. Can anyone help?
> > > 
> > > You can burn the files to CDs and install from there.  That's 
> > > probably the easiest way.
> > > 
> > > Are you currently running Linux?  If so, what version?  
> Can you post 
> > > the output of the "dmesg" command?
> > > 
> > I actually had a problem upgrading from RHEL3 to 4 with LVM.
> > 
> > RedHat states to do a fresh install.
> 
> I can see that.  LVM did change a bit between the 2.4 and 2.6 kernels.
> 
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> - Rick Stevens, Senior Systems Engineer     rstevens at vitalstream.com -
> - VitalStream, Inc.                       http://www.vitalstream.com -
> -                                                                    -
> -      On a scale of 1 to 10 I'd say...  oh, somewhere in there.     -
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
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> 

Well I found major problems between 3 and 4 that even prevents the
upgrade to occur. Anaconda has a problem upgrading a multipartioned
server. Whether it be LVM or not. It only mounts / . If your /boot is on
another FS as well as /usr /var it can't find half of the things it
needs to do the upgrade and eventually you will run out of space and
have a blown upgrade.

So the recommended solution is to do an Administrator Guided Install
which is a fresh install, patch the system then reinstall your apps. For
an Oracle system that's a real pain in the rump but not difficult as
long as your oracle binaries are in a sperate FS then /usr.

This was the same for 2.1 to 3 and 2.1 to 4. IMHO if you are going from
2.1 to 4 I wouldn't upgrade I would do a fresh install anyway.


Albert Smith
Sr. Unix Systems Administrator
HPCSA, RHCT  
Genex Services
440 E. Swedesford Rd.
Wayne, PA 19087
albert.smith at genexservices.com
(610) 964-5154