RHEL5 32-to-64 upgrade?

[Grzegorz Witkowski]

On Tue, 2011-05-31 at 15:17 -0400, fred smith wrote:
> On Tue, May 31, 2011 at 01:04:21PM -0400, John Dalbec wrote:
> > Is there an upgrade path from 32 to 64 bit other than a complete 
> > reinstall of the OS?
> 
> > Thanks,
> > John Dalbec
> > Software Specialist 2
> > Youngstown State University
> 
> Yes, I'd like to do this, too. Advice will be appreciated by both
> me AND the OP.
> 
> OTOh, if I'm forced to do a fresh install to get there, how can I
> retain my existing RAID-1 setup without having to re-crete the entire
> mechanism?
> 
> Specifically, I'm currently at 5.6 and will be updating, when I do it,
> to 6.x.
> 
> -- 
> ---- Fred Smith -- fredex at fcshome.stoneham.ma.us -----------------------------
>                        I can do all things through Christ 
>                               who strengthens me.
> ------------------------------ Philippians 4:13 -------------------------------
> 

Hi,

It is not recommended to upgrade from 5.x to 6.x. 
Check Installation Guide.
"Although anaconda provides an option for upgrading from earlier major
versions of Red Hat Enterprise Linux to Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6, Red
Hat does not currently support this. More generally, Red Hat does not
support in-place upgrades between any major versions of Red Hat
Enterprise Linux. (A major version is denoted by a whole number version
change. For example,Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 and Red Hat Enterprise
Linux 5 are both major versions of Red Hat Enterprise Linux.)
In-place upgrades across major releases do not preserve all system
settings, services or custom configurations. Consequently, Red Hat
strongly recommends fresh installations when upgrading from one major
version to another."

In regards of RAID, are you talking about the software or hardware RAID?
Hardware RAID should stay intact and retain data if you will not select
to format the virtual disk when you do just a fresh install.
Anaconda should recognize all the current partitions during the install,
so you should not need even to reconfigure any of the disks/volumes if
required. I would recommend to not have any external storage attached
during reinstallation, just for the sake of the safety :)
In regards of the software RAID here is a nice reading: Recovery of RAID
and LVM2 Volumes http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/8874 
Of course all depends on specific configuration also, so always be
prepared for the worst. Backup! ;)

Regards,
Ges