Yes I know it's prehistoric - I have delayed upgrading as it was working OK. But now I need some features not available on 6.06. I could go through the LTS upgrade routes 8.04, 10.04 but I can't afford for the upgrades to fail and leave a hosed system.

I have about 7GB unused space and think the best strategy is to create a new disk image (10.04 LTS) and once I'm happy that is working I can delete the old 6.06 image. That should retain my IP address?

I have separate /data and /home partitions so should be able to use them without much problem. Any reason why this upgrade method shouldn't work?

I would either:

1) Clone the existing install to a new Linode, then try doing the 6.06 -> 8.04 -> 10.04 update there

or

2) Build out a new 10.04 system on a new Linode, then swap IPs when ready to go

or, if possible

3) Wait a month or two, build out a new 12.04 system on a new Linode, then swap IPs when ready to go

These will all leave your existing system operating as-is, without having to take it down to set up the new system, at a modest cost.

_________________

/* TODO: need to add signature to posts */

I'd recommend hoopycat's option #3. You've been missing out on nearly 6 years of changes. Defaults for many software would have changed. The structure of various configuration files (e.g. Apache) may have changed, too. You will have to test your system extensively to make sure that nothing breaks. Why not just build a new one then.

Also, why upgrade to 10.04 now, when 12.04 is just around the corner. If you start using 10.04 now, you're already 2 years late to the game, so you'll have more problems upgrading to 14.04 or whatever the next LTS version is. (If you need new features now, build a new 11.10 image, and then upgrade to 12.04 in April. That should be a much easier upgrade curve.)

Let me pull one of hoopycat's points front and center.

You can swap IP's between linodes in the same datacenter.

So, like he said, just build a new box, test it out (give it's new IP a DNS name of new.yourdomain.com). When it's all good to go, stop the web server on the old one and do a final migration of any updated stuff (eg your database if you're running one, any changed web files, etc), do the IP swap and then everything's running on the new one.

Additionally, the cost is prorated, so you'll only be charged double for the days you have 2 linodes.

OK, seems unanimous that the way to go is set up a new (temporary) Linode rather than a new disk image. If only it were just Apache - actually it's a new git repo, Dovecot IMAP mail-server, postfix, etc. Pretty much why I've delayed upgrading from 6.06 - and recent Ubuntu's don't support svn any more so I've got to do a git clone and then move my remote application servers over to using git Anyway, thanks all.

Oh, and forgot to mention - the urgency as such is that my SSL certificate expires next week so I can't really wait for 12.04 (unless I can migrate the certificate, which seems unlikely).

Aroo? I've been using SVN with Ubuntu 10.04 all day today. And certificates are data, and generally unaffected by upgrades.

Also, you can certainly create a new disk image in your free space and do the work there. You can only boot one disk image per Linode, so it's a bit of a downtime-inducing situation.

_________________

/* TODO: need to add signature to posts */

Sure. What I meant was recent Ubuntu's don't (AFAIK) have packages ie apt-get install svn. I have never got svn to install from binaries in any recent Ubuntu - can't remember where it fails - Python bindings maybe.

Right - I just assumed I couldn't just move my SSL certificate over to the new Linode as the public/private keys wouldn't match?

Well I don't mind a bit of downtime so maybe that's easier than a new Linode - though probably best to create a new /home and not assume the 6.06 one will still work.

http://packages.ubuntu.com/oneiric/subversion

so for the svn server, you would have to type "apt-get install subversion", not svn...

Sorry folks - despite using it all the time it's svk I meant not svn. Brain not fully engaged today it seems

Do you need svk over svn? seems it'd be simpler to convert svk to svn than to git

Maybe, but having replaced subversion with svk ages ago, I don't want to go back to using svn so will take the plunge and move to git.

I'd suggest you should just renew the cert on your existing server then and just slow down a bit. Any decent cert provider should have a way for you to move your cert to a different server. Don't let the cert expiration set an artificial deadline that might force you into a rash decision.

SSL certificates are not tied to anything except your domain name. You can move them to another IP address, have it served by a different web server, or even have it served by a cluster of 10,000 servers, all without causing any trouble, as long as you use the same domain name to access it. You just need to keep the private key safe.