I have about 10 sites running LAMP and Rails on Ubuntu 8.04 and I want to start with a fresh Ubuntu 10.04 disk image.

What's the best way to do this with minimal downtime?

A fresh one, well create a new linode, install your apps on there etc etc, test it works, then if you have any databases shutdown your old sites for maintenance, copy your databases to the new system, make sure everything is ok on your new system, swap the ips between the two systems, and everything is back up and running.

Downtime is only how long it takes you to migrate your databases.

No better way that's free huh?

free....well you could just update your current machine...but that's not fresh. And no linode is free, considering it might take you a few days to create a new linode and test it, I don't know what size linode you have but even if it's a 4GB it'll only cost you 5 bucks a day extra.

Oh cool, I won't get hit a full month?

you will, but when you cancel that node, the money will be credited back to your account pro rata, if i remember correctly.

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ServerAdmin - www.our-lan.com
"Diplomacy is the art of saying nice doggy whilst looking for a really big stick"
"In my experiece, any attempt to make any system idiot proof will only challenge God to make a better idiot"

Sweet, thanks.

Ya internat is right, they charge you rounding up to the nearest day.