Upgrading 11.1 FC5 to 11.2 FC7

[Mouseclone]

I have lost it. I really do not know where to even start over.

I'm trying to upgrade my email server so that I can put FC7 and 11.2 and I hope FC7 is good for 11.3.

How come there are never any step by step directions. I can't find them anywhere. There is not one place that says if you are on 11.1 and need to upgrade to 11.2 this is the recommended way to do so. This drive me crazy every time I have to deal with this. So why not start it again.

First ting first. I know it is not supported and I know just because I"m using Enterprise Scalix doesn't mean that I should get support on upgrading the OS. Don't need support there. So let me lay out what I have done so far and some of my results.

Install FC7 clean on a different server
Tar up the /var/opt/scalix/xx/s dir on the FC5 server
Copy the s.tar file over to the FC7 server and untar it to /var/opt/scalix/xx/s
Copy the scalix entries in /etc/passwd /etc/shadow /etc/groups from the FC5 server to the FC7 server.
Run the Install of Scalix.

I can't keep the FQDN because the other server is in a production environment. Is there any way to move this mail store to another server from 11.1 to 11.2 and have it work. I have read a few entries and HowTo's but this is just getting frustrating with every try this and try that method that I am ready about.

I didn't really expect to run into this issues with 11.2. I have moved scalix before 2 times with little issues. It took me 1 year to convince my boss to buy Scalix now I'm sitting here with having to get this update done. Please don't reply and tell me the obvious about it is not supported in a production environment. FC5 and 11.1 has been a rock in production.

Aslo anyone know what platform 11.3 will support, FC7 or FC8?

[Valerion]

As said before in the forums, do not use Fedora on a Scalix server for production. It's a bad idea. Support for it is designed for evaluation purposes only, nothing else. If you don't want to pay for a distribution, go to CentOS.

[les]

I have lost it. I really do not know where to even start over.

I'm trying to upgrade my email server so that I can put FC7 and 11.2 and I hope FC7 is good for 11.3.

How come there are never any step by step directions. I can't find them anywhere. There is not one place that says if you are on 11.1 and need to upgrade to 11.2 this is the recommended way to do so. This drive me crazy every time I have to deal with this. So why not start it again.

First ting first. I know it is not supported and I know just because I"m using Enterprise Scalix doesn't mean that I should get support on upgrading the OS. Don't need support there. So let me lay out what I have done so far and some of my results.

Install FC7 clean on a different server
Tar up the /var/opt/scalix/xx/s dir on the FC5 server
Copy the s.tar file over to the FC7 server and untar it to /var/opt/scalix/xx/s
Copy the scalix entries in /etc/passwd /etc/shadow /etc/groups from the FC5 server to the FC7 server.
Run the Install of Scalix.

I can't keep the FQDN because the other server is in a production environment. Is there any way to move this mail store to another server from 11.1 to 11.2 and have it work. I have read a few entries and HowTo's but this is just getting frustrating with every try this and try that method that I am ready about.

I didn't really expect to run into this issues with 11.2. I have moved scalix before 2 times with little issues. It took me 1 year to convince my boss to buy Scalix now I'm sitting here with having to get this update done. Please don't reply and tell me the obvious about it is not supported in a production environment. FC5 and 11.1 has been a rock in production.

Aslo anyone know what platform 11.3 will support, FC7 or FC8?

Is the new different server going to end up as your real mailserver? or is it just a test server and when you get it right you'll redo the same on your live server?

I would do this......

use mkcdrec to make a disaster recovery dvd+rw and mirror to your current server. Reload it over the new server. http://mkcdrec.sourceforge.net .Ofcourse you'll need to change certain things like ip address etc.

Try an inplace upgrade of fc5 to fc7 on your test server. That should work fine.

Then try a scalix upgrade. that should work.

You MUST however keep the same hostname (FQDN) and IP. So when you do this, make sure the server is isolated and not on your network.
If you have valid entries in your test environment for your FQDN in /etc/hosts then scalix will be happy.

If that all works then you can schedule the downtime and redo the same on your live server, or use mkcdrec to create a new image and restore it back over your live server. Of course you will need to have backups done etc.

The most important thing to remember - YOU MUST mirror your current environment, ip address, hostname etc for Scalix to work properly under the second server, and also for moving it back to production.

p.s.
on the fedora/centos thing.....

even if 11.3 supports fc7 it is likely that when 11.4 comes out it'll only support fc8 because of the high release cycle. Just like has happened previous with fc5, fc7 support.

If you wish to do future upgrades, you're going to hit this same pain every time. You would save yourself a lot of future hassles and unnecessary OS upgrades if you switched to CentOS 5 which will probably still be in use and supported at fc12 and beyond!! So you'll have done scalix upgrades only during this time.
From what i've experienced the minor version updates can be done on live servers with about 15 minutes downtime.

Hope that helps.