Upgrading to Debian Squeeze ?

[Mobidoy]

I have just purchased a VPS to run OpenErp 6 on and found out the default version of Debian is 5. Is it safe for me to change the sources.list to have it to upgrade to debian 6 or will it cause any other issues ?

[suwunk]

Check this out!

This form of Linux VPS hosting is also well-known for its easy upgrades – a simple command will allow you to update your version live, with no interruption to service.
http://myhosting.com/blog/2011/09/linux-vps-hosting-debian-linux-vps/
I'll submit your problem to myhosting staff, I hope they will clarify this for you.

Cheers

[jeremya]

Unfortunately no, it is not possible to upgrade your OS to the next version successfully since Virtuozzo Containers share such core resources across all VPS containers on the host machine.

[joseluis]

I'm only a normal user, but I can share with you my successful experience on upgrading to debian 6.

These are the steps I took, on a fresh system:

1) apt-get update; apt-get upgrade
2) modified /etc/apt/sources.list to:

# debian 5
#deb Index of /debian (http://ftp.debian.org/debian) lenny main contrib non-free
#deb http://ftp.debian.org/debian-volatile lenny/volatile main contrib non-free
#deb http://ftp.debian.org/debian-security lenny/updates main contrib non-free

# debian 6
deb Index of /debian (http://ftp.debian.org/debian/) squeeze main contrib non-free
#deb-src Index of /debian (http://ftp.debian.org/debian/) squeeze main contrib non-free
deb Debian -- Security Information (http://security.debian.org/) squeeze/updates main
#deb-src Debian -- Security Information (http://security.debian.org/) squeeze/updates main

3) apt-get update; apt-get upgrade
4) apt-get dist-upgrade
5) dpkg --audit; dpkg --get-selections | grep hold
6) aptitude (and press g)

And now I have a functional debian 6 squeeze with no problems at all.

But remember that you can't upgrade to debian 7, because the new libc that comes with it requires a much more recent kernel (>2.6.25) that the one that comes with the vps (2.6.18). And is not possible for us to change the kernel in the VPS.

regards

[suwunk]

Thanks for sharing your experience, Joseluis.

[Mobidoy]

Awesome Joseluis it did indeed worked, I was just about to send a refund request as I could not use openerp 6 with this VPS and, happened to come back here.

Now, I will look thru the forum but, if anyone know, is it possible to resize partition so I can create a swap partition ?

[jeremya]

Have you tried installing on our Windows VPS Windows VPS Hosting: The Best Windows Virtual Private Server | myhosting.com (http://myhosting.com/windows-vps/?) They run on Hyper-V virtualization which gives you full access to the server for updates and the like. The virtuozzo containers that power our Linux VPS can be limited to installations within the confines of the OS provided which is why you may be running into problems. I also notice that openerp recommends ubuntu, while it is a debian flavour, it's not exactly the same so that could be causing problems as well.

[Mobidoy]

Have you tried installing on our Windows VPS Windows VPS Hosting: The Best Windows Virtual Private Server | myhosting.com (http://myhosting.com/windows-vps/?) They run on Hyper-V virtualization which gives you full access to the server for updates and the like. The virtuozzo containers that power our Linux VPS can be limited to installations within the confines of the OS provided which is why you may be running into problems. I also notice that openerp recommends ubuntu, while it is a debian flavour, it's not exactly the same so that could be causing problems as well.

I would not go with Windows for many reasons one would be security. This server will be use for production, inventory, purchase, sales and human ressources and I dont trust Windows to keep their data safe and secure. once the upgrade to Debian 6 was done, the installation of OpenERP was a breeze.

i dont know the limitations of Vituozzo containers but I am pretty sure that, like the upgrade to Debian 6, someone had an experience with it and know a work around.

I have tried to create a swapfile so far but, when Using swapon, it wont let me:

swapon: /swapfile1: swapon failed: Operation not permitted

so, time for a work around which i am pretty sure is out there :-)

Thanx for the answer tho :-)

[Mobidoy]

Have you tried installing on our Windows VPS Windows VPS Hosting: The Best Windows Virtual Private Server | myhosting.com (http://myhosting.com/windows-vps/?) They run on Hyper-V virtualization which gives you full access to the server for updates and the like. The virtuozzo containers that power our Linux VPS can be limited to installations within the confines of the OS provided which is why you may be running into problems. I also notice that openerp recommends ubuntu, while it is a debian flavour, it's not exactly the same so that could be causing problems as well.

I would not go with Windows for security issues. I feel i can get more security for the sensitive data that will go on the server if it is on a Linux system. Once I used JoseLuis procedure to install Debian6, the installation of OpenERP was a breeze.

I am pretty sure that there is a way to have some kind of swap on the server just like it was possible to update to Squeeze, I only need to find the info. Like Debian 6, I am confident that someone else needed the swap and found a work around.

so far, when i use swapon I get:

swapon: /swapfile1: swapon failed: Operation not permitted

But, thanx for your reply, I am pretty sure it could help someone else :-)

Have a great day

[jeremya]

Just make sure you're consistently making full backups before making any of these types of changes. I'd also recommending running each change for a while to ensure it will handle the load.

It appears there are ways to sort of fool applications to see swap space even when there isn't any but this isn't myhosting.com recommended ;). To cover it, i will provide a link:

DO AT OWN RISK
No SWAP memory on a VPS? [Archive] - Web Hosting Talk (http://www.webhostingtalk.com/archive/index.php/t-1044268.html)

The fact is that Virtuozzo does not officially support any kind of swap space inside the container until VZ 4.7 from my understanding (we currently run 4.6).

Backup, and have fun!

[jeremya]

have you tried upgrading your CPU? Sounds like some additional cycles would help. You can always downgrade again later if its determined to be unnecessary.

[Mobidoy]

I do understand that I could be taking risks but, looking at how it performs at this time, I need to look in every possibilities.

I have a linode (xen) with only 1024 ram but swap partition that, when accessing my openerp web interface displays it a good 3 seconds faster then my VPS here which has 4Gb Ram.

Installation are the same other then one using Ubuntu 10.04 and this one on Debian 6.

Any clues ?

[Mobidoy]

have you tried upgrading your CPU? Sounds like some additional cycles would help. You can always downgrade again later if its determined to be unnecessary.

I already did, here is what I have subscribed for:

120 GB Disk
4096 MB RAM
2048 MHz CPU
1500 GB Bandwidth
3 IP

I will look at debian config if I can make some optimization....

[jeremya]

anyone interested in Debian 6 "Squeeze" will be interested to know it is officially available in our store. All new Debian VPS orders will be provisioned with Debian 6.

[gniady]

I have upgraded trough the steps posted earlier in the thread. Do I need to do anything else to take full advantage of the rolled up upgrade?