# remote upgrade from 9.3-STABLE to 10.x



## oliver@ (Sep 22, 2016)

Hi,

I consider upgrading my 9.3 system to 10.x using what is described here.  The thing is - I never did binary updates before so I'm unfamiliar with this process. I'm used to "make world" since 3.3. I don't consider this a big problem, but I only have remote access to the system and I wonder if this upgrade can be done with remote access only? 
Currently the system has an openssl, openssh and bind from ports and does not use the system crypto libraries at all (but they are installed). The system runs also ipfw.

I wonder if at some point, the system is rebooted, and the installed still-9-ports fail to run because of missing shared libs because of version bumps in 10.

Any advise?


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## SirDice (Sep 22, 2016)

You cannot use freebsd-update(8) on -STABLE systems. So you would have to do a source update to get the system to a -RELEASE version first.



oliver@ said:


> but I only have remote access to the system and I wonder if this upgrade can be done with remote access only?


I do it all the time, so it shouldn't pose any problems. Just make sure you have some alternative means (remote console for example) in case the update does get botched. The risks are pretty much the same as doing a source update/upgrade.



oliver@ said:


> I wonder if at some point, the system is rebooted, and the installed still-9-ports fail to run because of missing shared libs because of version bumps in 10.


As a temporary solution you could install misc/compat9x.


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## oliver@ (Sep 22, 2016)

SirDice said:


> You cannot use freebsd-update(8) on -STABLE systems. So you would have to do a source update to get the system to a -RELEASE version first.



This means I have to downgrade to 9.3-RELEASE first?
Is there a possibility to do an update via "make world"? I know that this existed in the past, but I always made a fresh installation for major upgrades to also use the possibility to do bigger changes like filesystem layout, ufs -> zfs and so on... so I have 0 experience in major version upgrades....




SirDice said:


> Just make sure you have some alternative means (remote console for example) in case the update does get botched.



Mh.... this would mean jump into the car and drive to the datacenter as unfortunally I don't have a possibility to remotly access the console.



SirDice said:


> As a temporary solution you could install misc/compat9x.



Indeed - seems like a way of doing it


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## Remington (Sep 22, 2016)

oliver@ said:


> This means I have to downgrade to 9.3-RELEASE first?
> Is there a possibility to do an update via "make world"? I know that this existed in the past, but I always made a fresh installation for major upgrades to also use the possibility to do bigger changes like filesystem layout, ufs -> zfs and so on... so I have 0 experience in major version upgrades....



No need to downgrade. I've done upgrades from 9.3-RELENG to 10.1-RELENG with no issues using `make world` remotely.  Never use STABLE for production servers.



> Mh.... this would mean jump into the car and drive to the datacenter as unfortunally I don't have a possibility to remotly access the console.



If you're worried then I would suggest you to create an identical system in virtual environment and attempt to upgrade remotely.  That's one way to test it before actually doing an upgrade on your servers so you won't get locked out or it fails to boot.


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## SirDice (Sep 22, 2016)

oliver@ said:


> This means I have to downgrade to 9.3-RELEASE first?


No, I'd do a source update to 10.0 or 10.1-RELEASE. From there on you can use freebsd-update(8) to get it to 10.3-RELEASE and beyond.


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## Remington (Sep 22, 2016)

Also, don't forget to do `pkg upgrade` or recompile all your installed ports after major upgrades.


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