Update to IPBrick version 6.0

F.A.Q. - Update to IPBrick version 6.0

Does my hardware support IPBRICK v6.0?

IPBRICK version 6 is a 64 bits Operating System. It needs a CPU that supports 64 bits. Please check your hardware CPU type before upgrading to version 6.

On IPBRICK, access the command line interface and enter the following command: grep flags /proc/cpuinfo

Look for lm in the command output. If lm is found in the output, then the CPU is 64-bit. If you don't see lm or see i386, i486, i586, or i686 in the output, then the CPU is 32-bit. Below is an example output of the above line with lm in the information.

flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe syscall nx lm constant_tsc arch_perfmon pebs bts rep_good pni monitor ds_cpl est tm2 ssse3 cx16 xtpr sse4_1 lahf_lm

Is it possible to update my IPBRICK v5.x to v6.0 using updates?

It isn't possible to upgrade an IPBRICK 4.x or v5.x to an IPBrick 6.0 using updates.
You can only upgrade your system via an Upgrade/Reinstall with our new ISO via DVD or image installation.

The IPBRICK installation DVD detects a previous installation and ensures the backup of all data.
However, and regardless of this, it is advisable to have a full backup of your server!

I have an IPBrick version 6 release candidate (RC) in a production environment. Can I update this server to the final version 6?

Yes, it is possible to update from any version 6 release candidate to the final release. 
This update can be done simply by installing the necessary update packages through the IPBrick web interface.

To upgrade from a RC version to another it's necessary to install the respective migration package (in some cases there are also some additional packages). The upgrade process needs to be done step by step, it means, from one RC version to another till the final version of IPBrick 6.0. The migration packages must be inserted in Advanced Configurations->IPBrick->Update and the installation order is the following:

   Upgrade from 6.0-RC1 to 6.0-RC2

           - pkg1_update_01-v6.0-rc1.deb    (md5sum: 3460f302047ffd0f43abe52d9e7c1958)
           - pkg2_update_01-v6.0-rc1.deb    (md5sum: 943c1c121d31f16ad74a54ce4081aeb6)
           - migration-v60-rc1-to-v60-rc2.deb    (md5sum: c25caea099030f5cb518893bbda83460)

           Apply Configurations (Applying configurations will reboot IPBrick!)

   Upgrade from 6.0-RC2 to 6.0-RC3

           - migration-v60-rc2-to-v60-rc3.deb (md5sum: f491481e56d793f44d6200dcc8434737)
           - pkg1_update_01-v6.0-rc2.deb    (md5sum: be2b9408eb634c94430c73a1c574ecdc )
          
            Apply Configurations (Applying configurations will reboot IPBrick!)

   Upgrade from 6.0-RC3 to 6.0-RC4

           - migration-v60-rc3-to-v60-rc4.deb    (md5sum: 72b83d74d8c6709c45fa494ecdc5abb1 )

           Apply Configurations (Applying configurations will reboot IPBrick!)

   Upgrade from 6.0-RC4 to 6.0-RC5

           - migration-v60-rc4-to-v60-rc5.deb    (md5sum: fb0a540aff8919fcedbb645aaed6c5bb)
      
           Apply Configurations (Applying configurations will reboot IPBrick!)

   Upgrade from 6.0-RC5 to 6.0 Final version

           - migration-v60-rc5-to-v60.deb    (md5sum: e960dc8fb80638fe8de786ae47f50263 )

           Apply Configurations

How may I backup my server's configurations?

Backup the last IPBRICK configuration at: Advanced Configurations > Disaster Recovery > Configurations > Download

May I use the configuration file straight away?

No. Send the last IPBRICK configuration to support.install@ipbrick.com and request migration to IPBrick v6.0;

Is this a direct conversion procedure?

No. This isn't an automatic procedure. You will receive, as soon as possible, the respective configuration file.

What about migrating really old versions of IPBRICK?

It’s possible that, for older IPBRICK versions, the migration may not be possible to be executed directly.
You may need to update first to an intermediate version and only then to IPBRICK 6.0.
In these situations, we will inform you about any restrictions and how to proceed.

What about the applications installed in the server?

If in doubt, please contact support.install@ipbrick.com we will make sure to check if your installed applications,
such as Hotspot, LIVE, etc. are compatible with IPBrick v6.0.

Converting ext3 filesystem to ext4

It is possible to mount both ext3 (and ext2, in kernels 2.6.28 and later) filesystems using, directly, the ext4 filesystem driver. This will allow you to use many of the in-core performance enhancements such as delayed allocation (delalloc) and multi-block allocation (mballoc) as well as large inodes if your ext3 filesystem has been formatted with large inodes since it is the default with newer versions of e2fsprogs. Simply mounting an ext3 (or ext2) filesystem with a modern (2.6.27+) version of ext4 will not change the on-disk structures, and it is possible to revert to the ext3 (or ext2) driver if there is any problem with ext4. If you plan to use the ext4 driver to boot from an ext2/3 partition, and you compile your kernel without the ext2/3 drivers, you may need to add rootfstype=ext4 to the kernel command line.

In addition to the in-core performance enhancements, there are additional features which modify the on-disk format from what ext3 understands, such as extents, which can significantly improve the ext4 filesystem performance, but mean the filesystem cannot be mounted by kernels that do not support ext4. There are additional ext4 features, such as flex_bg and > 16TiB filesystem support that can only be enabled at format time via mke2fs.

To change an ext2 filesystem (should you still have one) to ext3 (enabling the journal feature), use the command:

1. tune2fs -j /dev/DEV

To enable the ext4 features on an existing ext3 filesystem, use the command:

1. tune2fs -O extents,uninit_bg,dir_index /dev/DEV

WARNING: Once you run this command, the filesystem will no longer be mountable using the ext3 filesystem!

After running this command (specifically, after setting the uninit_bg parameter), you MUST run fsck to fix up some on-disk structures that tune2fs has modified:

1. e2fsck -fDC0 /dev/DEV

Notes:

• Running fsck will complain about "One or more block group descriptor checksums are invalid" - this is expected and one of the reasons why tune2fs requests to fsck.
• By enabling the extents feature, new files will be created in extents format, but this will not convert existing files to use extents. Non-extent files can be transparently read and written by Ext4.
• If you convert your root filesystem ("/") to ext4, and you use the GRUB boot loader, you will need to install a version of GRUB which understands ext4. Your system may boot OK the first time, but when your kernel is upgraded, it will become unbootable (press Alt+F+F to check the filesystem).
• If you do the conversion for the root fs on a live system you'll have to reboot for fsck to run safely. You might also need to add rootfstype=ext4 to the kernel's command line so the partition is not mounted as ext3.

   WARNING: It is NOT recommended to resize the inodes using resize2fs with e2fsprogs 1.41.0 or later, since this is known to corrupt some filesystems.
   If you omit "uninit_bg" on the tunefs command, you can skip the fsck step.

'''Summing up:'''

* Disassemble home1, home2
* tune2fs -O extents,uninit_bg,dir_index /dev/sda7
* e2fsck -fDC0 /dev/sda7
* tune2fs -O extents,uninit_bg,dir_index /dev/sda8
* e2fsck -fDC0 /dev/sda8

vi /etc/fstab
... exchange lines from home1 and home2 of "ext3" to "ext4"

reboot