Re: PROPOSAL: Upgrading every RHEL server to RHEL5 on Sun April 1st



<quote who="Olav Vitters">

> I propose to upgrade every RHEL server from RHEL3/4 to RHEL5 on Sunday
> April 1 2007. Very likely things will break, that is why I NEED additional
> sysadmins to standby.

So, to start with: Thanks very much again for proposing this, and devising a
step by step process to complete it.

I am concerned, however, that while this process gets us from A to B (RHELx
to RHEL5), it doesn't achieve anything regarding our problematic process and
management issues.

An untested, long slog to upgrade a whole bunch of stuff (even if it's not
"everything") is going to be *hard*. You've laid out a good process based on
the functional dependencies, but we don't even have an installation standard
(which Matthew asked about) at this point, a few days before we start.

I would feel more comfortable taking on one machine to upgrade, testing the
services locally beforehand, then doing a very fast reinstall/reconfigure
process to bring it back up. In this case, label is the simplest and best
choice. Once it is running RHEL5, we can use virtualisation to assist with
the rest of the process.

The advantage to taking this more slowly is that we can institute standards,
testing and documentation along the way, things that will MASSIVELY improve
our efficiency and service delivery in the future.

I'm committed to participating in the process, but I'd really like to make
sure it's a process that is safe, sane, *and* can put us on a better course
to the one we've been on for some time.

If everyone decides we should run with Olav's process as-is, straight away,
then I will commit to a second migration process, focusing on establishing
what I've described above.

- Jeff

-- 
Open CeBIT 2007: Sydney, Australia              http://www.opencebit.com.au/
 
    "You know, like nunchuck skills, bowhunting skills, computer hacking
       skills... Girls only want boyfriends who have great skills." -
                             Napoleon Dynamite



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