Debian Lenny (5) upgrade to Squeeze (6)? PHP5.2 to 5.3

[ASTOKES]

Hi
I have a production server running Debian 'Lenny' (5) and PHP 5.2 and Plesk 10.4.4.
I am needing to upgrade PHP to version 5.3 to support some software upgrades.
PHP 5.3 is no longer available (it was on dotdeb.org) for Lenny, so it looks as though an upgrade to Debian 6 ('Squeeze') is on the cards. I guess it's probably time to do this anyway...

Does anyone have suggestions how to do this with minimal server downtime and preferably without breaking Plesk?

Many Thanks for any help,
Andy

PS The kernel is 2.6.26-2-amd64 - I read somewhere that I might need to update this prior to updating to squeeze?

 

[IgorG]

Just install fresh Plesk 11 on Debian 6 and migrate old Plesk 10.4 to this new server.

 

[ASTOKES]

So, can I get this straight?...

- Upgrade the server to Debian 6 (I presume with CLI using Aptitude)
- Install a fresh Plesk 11 (again using Aptitude)
- Migrate the Plesk 10.4.4 settings to Plesk 11

Could you give me any more detail? Will the Plesk 11 install overwrite any existing Plesk 10 info (thus necessitating using a backup copy of the Plesk 10 data)? When I use the Migration Manager, how do I specify where the migration is coming from?

Can you direct me to any detailed guide or information for doing this?

Many Thanks
Andy

 

[IgorG]

1. Install Debian 6 to new server
2. Install Plesk 11 on this server
3. Migrate old Plesk server on Debian 5 to new Plesk 11 Debian 6 server with PMM.

 

[ASTOKES]

Hi,
I have established the procedure for upgrading to Debian Squeeze - the following being useful information sources:
http://www.howtoforge.com/upgrade-debian-lenny-to-squeeze-in-a-few-simple-steps
http://www.debian.org/releases/stable/i386/release-notes/ch-upgrading.en.html#minimal-upgrade

My only concern is not breaking the Plesk installation in the process.
I see from this thread:
http://forum.parallels.com/showthread.php?t=258827
...that it appears to be possible to upgrade Debian without breaking Plesk 10.4.4.

Why then do I need to install a fresh version 11 and migrate from the current 10.4.4? Can I not continue running 10.4.4 and then perform an upgrade?

It would be really useful to get some detailed information about methods and what might go wrong before undertaking this on a major production server.

Any info online?

Thanks,
Andy

 

[ASTOKES]

Still stuck

Hi,
I was put off attempting the upgrade in situ after your last post implying that I need to lease another server and migrate everything in order to do this. This was a 2 month job last time I did it 18 months ago and I would infinitely rather attempt an upgrade.

It would be really useful to get some information here about what might go wrong and why if I was to attempt this. There is at least one other person on the forum who successfully completed this. I am not a novice user and (understanding it is not a supported action) I am also not going to sue parallels if it goes wrong, but I would like to be as informed as possible before undertaking it. So far both my hosting company and parallels have been pretty unforthcoming.

Some support would be really, really helpful at this point, as I would like to minimise downtime on this production server (and my stress levels!). I don't have a problem performing the Debian upgrade, but I would like to know how this might impact the Plesk 10.4.4 installation and any ideas how I might proceed in rectifying any problems (apart from editing the sources.list as suggested in the other thread http://forum.parallels.com/showthread.php?t=258827 .

Many Thanks