Some Basic doubts about upgrading Old Cent OS installation as well php/apache etc.

[anay]

Hello,

I am not really into server admin but I have a server which I have to look after. Its CentOS 4.2 and its running old stuff ie. php 4.4.x and Apache 1.3 .

So I guess I should upgrade now.

First of all.. Can I just upgrade cent OS 4.2 to latest.. 4.6 or 5.2 using YUM ?

Yum -update ?

Or I need to take some precautions ? Bcz, full update will upgrade php/mysql/apache also, won't it affect DA config as DA install its own PHP/mysql/lamp etc.

Secondly :
I had installed zend optimiser/ mod_bandwidth limit and eaccelerator earlier ..
So, if I can do normal yum update.. then after Do I need to go for "Custombuild" to rebuild everything .. which will also help to upgrade my apache/php/mysql etc ?

Thirdly:
Any thing which should need to know before doing all this ?


Lastly
I hv to do this whole update as server performance is not good now a days and need lastest stuff in order to fully efficiently utilize scripts runnnig on server.
Also, my system always leave 75% RAM free but linux is supposed to use all RAM by doing cache etc.. but my system has lots of swapping to hard drive.. looking around I found that I need to do upgrades..


Advices are valued !!! ...

 

[smtalk]

1. Yes, "yum update" will do that for you.
2. Yes, you can use CustomBuild if you want. You'll need to reinstall eaccelerator after PHP update/upgrade.
3. E.g.?

 

[anay]

Custombuild will install php4 and php5 altogether .. right ?

About 3.. actually I never knew but my kernel was having problem and it was doing lots of disk swap even there was lots of free RAM, but last night I did upgrade to centOS 4.6 using YUM and that problem is solved..

 

[smtalk]

If you set that in the options.conf file - yes it will.