[wellylug] Linux Server version

[Daniel Pittman]

John Durham <johndurh at spunge.org> writes:
> Daniel Pittman wrote:
>> John Durham <johndurh at spunge.org> writes:
>>> Jethro Carr wrote:

[...]

>>> The real problem is applying them without messing up all the work that
>>> has gone into the server. I'm still updating the website continually
>>> and would hate to lose that or the work done.
>>>
>>
>> Well, keep in mind that you may well lose it all to a destructive hacker
>> if you don't keep up to date with security.
>>
>> Anyhow, one of the key attractions of the Debian/Ubuntu world is that
>> they are very, very good at upgrading fairly smoothly from one release
>> to the next.
>>
>> Sadly, Ubuntu don't officially support this for anything prior to the
>> Breezy -> Dapper jump.  That said you definitely /can/ upgrade earlier
>> versions as well.
>>
>>
>> In any case you should simply ensure your backups are current, then
>> upgrade.  The worst case scenario is that things fail and you have to
>> back out to your backup version -- time consuming but not all that
>> fatal, no?
>
> Thanks for providing that sequence. I have an original of the website
> files on another system here, but the server has never had its own
> backup device. Nor have I ever performed one on this type of system.

You have no backups?  I would very strongly advise that you change that,
since you have stated that the data on the machine is valuable to you.

Without backups you run the risk that an accident, hardware fault or
hostile activity will destroy all the work you put in -- an undesirable
situation, no?

> It would not be too hard to install a CD writer (physically). Do
> drag/drop backups work on Ubuntu systems?

Well, yes and no.  You probably need to use CD burning software in
between, and while the rock-ridge extensions can theoretically handle
device nodes, etc, they are not as reliable as I would hope.

You would be better off using something like 'tar' to produce the backup
data, then burning the results of that to CD in portions.  Alternately
there are at least some backup solutions available[1] that support
backups to CD.

Regards,
        Daniel

Footnotes: 
[1]  ...on up to date Ubuntu systems, at least.

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