Here Comes IPv6

[laughingbuddha]

Hi all,

So with IPv6 rapidly approaching, how do us server admins make our boxes IPv6 ready and supported?

Currently I run Plesk 8.6 CentOS 5.something-or-other and all the ASL loveliness. But I don't support IPv6, at least in on-line tests on sites I host the results are negative.

Any advice?

[faris]

Upgrade to 10.4.4 is a good start.

You will have to do this sooner or later, unfortunately. 8.6 to 10.4.4 isn't that bad.

I've still not done my write-up but once I do I think I'll cover eventualities for all the most common things that can fo wrong and what to do to fix them.

[laughingbuddha]

Thanks faris. I've got a 32bit server, as the 2 Xeons in my HP box aren't 64bit friendly.

I'm a little worried about making that jump as it is a production server with a number of customised domains hosted on it. Such as the Apache/Vhost changes I've made to a domain to get wildcard subdomains to work, various cron jobs and an SMS service I built in PHP. I'm worried that such an upgrade would destroy or damage these services.

I do run regular updates of ASL which updates PHP, MySQL and the like, but apart from the original code on my workstation and the RAID array, I don't have any backups running.

I would be interested to read your write up when it is complete though.

[faris]

I was very surprised at how well the Migration Manager preserved all the settings (vhosts etc), permissions and god knows what during the migration.

It was all the things I DIDN'T expect that went wrong. But if you know what to look for in advance (which my write up is supposed to help with) all should be well. Or at least mostly.

[laughingbuddha]

Fare enough. I thought though that the migration manager was used to migrated from one server to another?

[faris]

Yes indeed. I should have said that that's the safest and most sensible* way to upgrade. But put that aside for now...what OS are you using on your current server? Centos 5?

*sensible only in that you have more options at your disposal. This does not mean it is the "best" way or the way everyone should do it.

[laughingbuddha]

Yup CentOS 5. Sadly I don't have the option of setting up another server, well not at £1k co-location fees plus other expenses.

Sticking to the one box as I only have just over 30 domains on the server at present.

[faris]

With only 30 domains it is unlikely that an in-place upgrade will go wrong. As long as you have some way to get back to where you started from in the case of an extreme problem, it would be much easier than a migration.

The same pre and post-upgrade tests and problem solutions that apply to a migration are likely to help as well.

[laughingbuddha]

Cool. I'm going to hold off until your guide is complete.

I don't have any form of back, apart from the RAID. But I supose I could do the upgrade onsite at the data centre (it's 30 minutes down the road), and Ghost clone the hard drive prior to the upgrade. That way if it all goes Pete Tong, I can refrash the RAID array with the original install.

So how painful was it for you to go from 8.6 to 10, and what problems did you experince?

[paulie]

Hi,

Just to ruin your plans we're about a month away from Plesk 11. I'd hold off for about a month after the release of Plesk 11 and then assess which one to go for.

The thing to bear in mind is that Parallels look like they're going to rigidly enforce product lifecycles with a 4 year lifecycle for all versions (so you've only 2 years left of Plesk 10 effectively).

In terms of changes Plesk 11 is not radically different to Plesk 10, certainly I've not found anything yet that makes my eyes bleed like Plesk 9 - 10 did!

paul.

[faris]

No, remember that it took until 10.4.4 for 10.x to be stable, reliable and usable. 11 may be released any moment, but nobody should be in a hurry to upgrade to it. That's 6 months or more away.

[laughingbuddha]

I think it is better to follow faris and go to 10 first, then 11 once that is 3-6 months down the line.

With such a massive jump in versions, and the added risk of failure and problems, I would rather hold off for faris guide to be avalible, than take a risk with 11.

Thanks for your advice anyway.