Holding off email during server upgrade
With linode, I would like to shutdown things like Apache, Postfix, MYSQL, etc, make one final rsync over the network to an off-site backup host, then install the latest Fedora image cleanly. Once that image comes up, I'm worried it will have a default MTA running that will happily accept ESMTP traffic and politely tell everyone, "Return to Sender" - Elvis Presley style. It will do this for a window of time before I can login to the newly running image and stop the MTA while I restore it's configuration.
Does anyone have any advice on how to minimize this window? Do the install images at linode have MTA stopped by default? Is there an external firewall that can block mail ports (encrypted and non-encrypted) during the upgrade window?
Thanks!
3 Replies
* Create a new, temporary Linode which would have a new IP, log in and disable the email server then redirect DNS MTA settings to point to the new temporary Linode.
Or keep a Lish console window open, do the rebuild and when the instance boots you can log in right away and stop the MTA until you get it configured.</list>
Edit: I'd do what glg suggested, clearly I didn't have enough coffee.
@hightowera:
I've been a linode customer for years now. During that time, Fedora has progressed from 19 to 24+. It's becoming more trouble to stay on-top of upgrades than simply move forward. Whenever I upgrade distributions, I generally perform a re-install and re-configuration rather than a rolling upgrade. A completely clean slate has less future problems in my experience. And I maintain a fairly complete site-guide with the deltas from a clean install. I'm very comfortable with this process and have performed it many times on other hosted machines/vmachines.
With linode, I would like to shutdown things like Apache, Postfix, MYSQL, etc, make one final rsync over the network to an off-site backup host, then install the latest Fedora image cleanly. Once that image comes up, I'm worried it will have a default MTA running that will happily accept ESMTP traffic and politely tell everyone, "Return to Sender" - Elvis Presley style. It will do this for a window of time before I can login to the newly running image and stop the MTA while I restore it's configuration.
Does anyone have any advice on how to minimize this window? Do the install images at linode have MTA stopped by default? Is there an external firewall that can block mail ports (encrypted and non-encrypted) during the upgrade window?
Thanks!
There's no need to do this on your existing linode. Before you stop your existing linode, build the new one, get everything installed/configured. Then when you're ready to migrate, stop all services on current host, copy data offsite, copy data to new host, swap IPs and you're done.
