I am being told by Linode that I need to upgrade to CentOS 7. I don't know how to do that and what is involved or how it will affect what's running on my server.

Can anyone advise me on this? I would consider hiring the right person for the job of helping me with this upgrade and a few other tasks with the server, but I don't even know where to look for someone with those skills, other than asking here.

Thank you!

Back up your data, do a fresh install of CentOS 7, restore data and reconfigure

Alucard, I appreciate the summary of the process.

I have very little knowledge of working with Linux. I inherited this server years ago, the person who set it up passed away, and I just keep it running, with occasional help here in the forums where there's been a problem.

So, unfortunately, I would still need someone to assist me with more details about how to do each of those steps, making sure I don't lose anything or end up with something not working. Any help I can find here is appreciated, including being pointed in the right direction of the right person available for hire for this kind of work, who would be reliable for making sure the job was done right in every aspect.

The safest way is to spin up a new Linode running CentOS 7, install/configure the apps, copy over the data, get the new system working as it should, change the IP from the old system to the new system, verify everything is working (and you have a backup of the old system), then delete the old system.

If you're not going to maintain it yourself, you might consider changing distro's (like Ubuntu LTS) where you probably would find more help.

Might help if you posted what you're running now (linode size, web engine, web framework, other apps, etc).

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Hi Vonskippy, thank you for the outline of this process. I'm talking to a few people and looking at a few options right now, and what you've described helps me in communicating to those more knowledgeable who might be helping me.