# Upgrading to 64 bit from existing 32 bit install



## Kreme (Jan 25, 2018)

I've just been handed admin of a machine with FreeBSD 11.1 on it and been told to figure out why it hasn't benefited from an upgrade from 4GB of RAM to 16GB of RAM. The machine is running FreeBSD 11.1 x86 and I am wondering if there is a procedure for upgrading to 64 bit and just what it is?

I would prefer not to backup the data and reformat, though I suspect that is the most sensible thing to do.


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## MarcoB (Jan 25, 2018)

Kreme said:


> The machine is running FreeBSD 11.1 x86 [...]


Is it running 11.1 i386 or 11.1 amd64? If it's running i386 easiest way of upgrading to amd64 is probably to reformat and install the 64 bit version.


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## rigoletto@ (Jan 25, 2018)

If that is running ZFS would be very easy to reformat and get the things back to the current state again. You would just need to send the important datasets to somewhere and then, after the new installation be in place, send it back to the server. See: `zfs send | zfs recv`


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## Kreme (Jan 25, 2018)

No, no ZFS here.

I've found link to src.txz and will see about compiling buildworld and buildkernel. Not sure what to do about the instructions to setup swap as a temporary boot partition though since this machine has no swap partition (it's using a swap file instead).


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## PacketMan (Jan 25, 2018)

Kreme said:


> Not sure what to do about the instructions to setup swap as a temporary boot partition though since this machine has no swap partition (it's using a swap file instead).



When doing a fresh OS install the swap will be included automatically during your GPT set up. You can tailor it to your needs.


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## Kreme (Jan 27, 2018)

I was referring to the specific instructions on the wiki:

https://wiki.freebsd.org/amd64/i386Migration


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## gkontos (Jan 27, 2018)

A clean install is always faster with less down time.


If you are using custom ports then use a VM to set up ports-mgmt/poudriere. Then build all your packages from there.
A backup of /usr/local/etc will be sufficient enough, although you might want to look at different places as well.
Reinstall, install the packages from your repo, restore your data and you are good to go.


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