"Best practices" on upgrading, etc.

[Erich Dollansky]

Hi,

On Saturday 12 March 2011 05:03:22 Ed Flecko wrote:
> 
> I have a production server running FBSD 8.1 (and I'm following the
> errata branch) that works just fine, with no problems.
> 
> I see that the "Production Release" of 8.2 is available.
> 
> Obviously, 8.2 has features that 8.1 does not, but I guess my primary
> questions is:
> 
> 1.) If you have a production server that's running well (and is fully
> patched, i.e. following the errata branch), is there a compelling
> reason to upgrade or do most people do it because there are features

just do use your words: if you have a running system which does not have any problems, wait at least for maybe a month before you install the upgrade. There have been times when even FreeBSD gave problems after an upgrade a few days after release.

> in the new release that you want/need? I guess what I'm really asking
> is if it makes more sense to take the "if it aint broke - don't fix
> it" mindset or should you really consider upgrading when a new version
> is released???
> 
I just upgraded to 8.2 on my workstation having a fully operating 8.1 installation on the second disk.

> upgrade the ports

If you upgrade only the minor version number, a portupgrade is normally not needed. At least my ports installed this January still work. It is different on a major version number chance.

Anyway, I would suggest to stay with the 8.x branch for this machine until the 10 branch is reliable.

Erich