How to Upgrade my linode from Debian 10 to 11
My linode is currently running with Debian 10.13 and has kernel "Linux 6.2.9-x86_64-linode160 x86_64"
I need to upgrade it to Debian 11 from Debian10 without any data loss as it is critical for our business.
I was unable to find a guide to perform this upgrade on existing Linode documentation.
1 Reply
There are lots of online guides elsewhere, e.g. https://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/update-upgrade-debian-10-to-debian-11-bullseye/
Make sure you have a working full backup before starting the upgrade in case you run into issues. If you have additional repositories and non-standard software installed, that can cause issues. If the upgrade to 11 goes smoothly, you might want to consider upgrading to 12 afterwards.
Personally, I'd suggest making a clone of your Linode and then do a test 10 to 11 upgrade on the clone to see what issue (if any) occur. If all goes smoothly, you can then upgrade the live Linode.
The alternative approach is to start afresh with a clean server (you could go straight to Debian 12), then migrate what you need across from your old server and test it, and then finally go live on the new server.