Cloning to Upgrade Ubuntu Server Linode. Good idea?
One of my Linodes is running an outdated version of Ubuntu server and I'm trying to decide the best upgrade strategy. Is it a good strategy to clone and then try to upgrade the cloned Linode with sudo do-release-upgrade? I think the other option would be to create a new Linode with the latest operating system and then migrate piece by piece, service by service, which would be very time consuming. Am I missing something? Do you suggest something else?
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✓ Best Answer
Hello,
This seems like a good idea, here is the process I would use in such a scenario.
First, clone your Linode, upgrade it to the latest version of Ubuntu you would like to use, make certain all services work and are configured as you'd like them to be, power down the clone and the original after you back up any databases that may have been updated during this process on your original Linode, make certain you have a backup of all content on the original Linode, delete everything from the original Linode, clone the clone over to the original, then power up the original.
You could alternatively upgrade the clone and swap IP addresses, then reboot, but this will not work if you want to change IPV6 addresses, unless you've configured in advance to use an IPV6 address from a /116 pool, which can be given to you via a support ticket.
This is just a general overview of a couple ways of getting this done, but it should work out well for you, presuming you're familiar with upgrading Ubuntu from one version to another. It can be involved, depending on what you use and what configuration files need to be changed.
Good luck.
Blake