Updating VPS from CentOS 6 to 7. Best line of action with least downtime or possible errors?

BBM

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I'm getting ready to prep for an update of the CentOS-release from 6 to 7 on my VPS.

My VPS has a hoster-provided licensed DA-registration on the current CentOS 6, so I can't simply change the license over to a new OS. They can't either. It can only be supplied with a new OS-install.

Also, I like to keep the current IP on the VPS.

So I was thinking to order a temporary other VPS with CentOS 7 and DA installed.
- Take the old VPS offline
- Do a direct DA Admin/Users backup from the old VPS to the temp VPS. (Also make sure the temp VPS stays offline for everyone but me during the whole process).
- Then do a clean wipe and install on the old VPS with CentOS 7 + DA.
- Do a full Admin/Users backup from the temp VPS to the old VPS again.
- Run Custombuild to finalize.

The current VPS has a total of 'just' 130GB of data on it. I think I can clean it up first so less data has to be transfered back and forth. Download the backups locally and then remove about 30GB user-backup files before the full backup to temp VPS.

Problems I'm afraid of is too long of a downtime with this course of action.
Downtime is inevitable ofcourse, but just before the first backup to the temp VPS, the old VPS should go offline.

Any tips/pointers for a quicker transition?
 
Any tips/pointers for a quicker transition?
Quicker, no, but you're missing a step.

- Take the old VPS offline
- Do a direct DA Admin/Users backup from the old VPS to the temp VPS. (Also make sure the temp VPS stays offline for everyone but me during the whole process).
<--- How about backing up Directadmin configuration like directadmin.conf, options.conf and maybe custom files or templates made?
- Then do a clean wipe and install on the old VPS with CentOS 7 + DA.
 
Good one. I would have found that missing step when I would start using the updated VPS indeed.
I'm sure there are other things I haven't thought of yet too.
CSF/LFD-confs comes to mind just now.

Not looking forward to the update-process just yet. ;)
 
Why not make the temp vps permanent? Sounds like you are moving twice.
 
The temp VPS will automaticly get a new IP, which will be coupled to the DA-license by the VPS-provider.
The double moving is annoying indeed.
I would like to keep the old IP if possible because of the it being listed in a number of whitelists and configs.
 
Ask the provider to move the old ip to the new vps.
 
Worth asking again perhaps.
I didn't think they could do that because it's an automated process the moment I order a VPS with CentOS and DA installed.
 
I do it so I assumed every hosting company could do it.
 
Update:
I got a new VPS with a new IP and CentOS 7 installed, but I'm getting stuck at various ways when simply trying to copy/backup my old VPS-files over to the new one... :/
 
Like the admin/backup isn't working?

Is the old server at least as updated as it could be?

I assume you are on Custombuild 2

Can you kind of tell us what you are trying and what is not working?
 
at various ways when simply trying to copy/backup my old VPS-files over to the new one... :/
There is a known, still not fixed bug where admin packages are not created when restoring.
So keep in mind that after restoring the admin, first restore the admin packages and reseller packages for admin.

When that is done, start restoring resellers and restore users last.

If you encounter other problems, it would indeed by wise to state what is going wrong, otherwise we can't be of any help.
 
It's something to keep in mind. I had a sever moved abount 2-3 weeks ago and had no issues with Letsencrypt automatically renew. It worked after the nameservers resolved.
So it might be fixed. But you have to check that too, just to be sure.
 
Sorry I didn't elaborate more on the issues I encountered. I didn't expect any replies after my last post ;)

In short; I have no 'real' plan how to move everything over to the new VPS. And I also don't want to do everything (every config-file) manually as I'm sure I will forget a few which will bite me in the 'A' later on.

I had hopes DA would be able to take care of a (common?) simple server-move to another DA quite seamlessly.

As a test I tried Admin Backup/Transfer to push one userdomain to the new server a few times. While it seemed to go well on the sending end (no errors), nothing showed up on the new VPS. Not even a backup file. Log-files didn't show anything of use at first glance, but I didn't look very thoroughly.

Tried using Rsync a number of times, but ran into permission issues everytime while trying to copy the home-directory (No direct root-login, so rsync couldn't go into the various home/domains).
Either pushing the files, or pulling, same situation everytime.
It now dawned on me that I need to rsync the gziped backup-files from/to an accessible directory, instead of trying to copy from and to the /home-directory on both VPS'es.

My level of expertise is not stellar on this matter so I try and learn as I go along, with being cautious not to wreck the old VPS.


I will have a go at copying the Admin-account first, as I'm currently using the 'default' Admin of the new DA install.
 
I didn't expect any replies after my last post
Well you should know @Richard G and I will likely reply.
I have no 'real' plan how to move everything over to the new VPS
Well that is what we need then a plan...
want to do everything (every config-file) manually
No real need to do this.
simple server-move to another DA
There is no standard server to server transfer tool. it is on the Feedback list.

Is this more of a personal server or is this a hosting type server with lots of accounts?

the short version is

Setup and install DA on the new server.
Make the options.conf match between both servers other than hostname if different.
You might want to compare the directadmin.conf files have any entries you need from the old server are in the new one
Make sure the new server all updated and maybe do a build all.
Then take a full admin backup with all the accounts.
rsync or scp that file to the New server
then run Admin/Backup restore on the new server
Make sure any of the DNS entries that need to change are changed.

All the data and accounts should be there.
 
Thanks Brent.
It's a hosting server with some 70 accounts running CentOS 6.
I've managed to copy most of the admin-backups now, except (duh) for the admin-domain itself, which I need to recreate again because I deleted the online backup for discspace-issues a little earlier.
 
Wow, looking at the last reply of my here, here's an overdue topic-update about my server-backup/move.
Things have become stale on my side due to 'lost interest' in general because the restore/move to my new server didn't go at all as smooth as I hoped for.

I've been stuck with running 2 servers now; my outdated CentOs6-server and the 'new' CentOs7-server.
The CentOs6-server still contains the 'important' and larger accounts because I didn't want to put them at danger of getting offline due to failing backups/moves to the new server. The Os6 server is getting more outdated (and vulnerable) every day, while the Os7 is kept up to date with updates.

What I've also found while trying to backup smaller/less important domains to the new server, the restores would because of domains already existing (Issues with Multiserver setup and DirectSlave on my nameserver). This caused me to look for workarounds and resulted me resorting to a lot of manual work per domain/account.

Also found that often the domain (db) files seemed to be missing from the backup-files during the restore. Causing websites to not load and show "This IP is being shared among many domains". As I had also removed the files from the old server, I only have the backup-files left.
I checked the tar-file and the domain.nl.db files where missing.
All these issues caused me to lose interest last year and kinda 'drop the ball'.

At the moment I like to pick up where I left and get rid of the old server, because it's costing me money.
 
Well, lets see if you can work it out. Probably the domain.nl.db files missing might not be the biggest issue. If I remember correctly they can be rebuild with a command.

This caused me to look for workarounds and resulted me resorting to a lot of manual work per domain/account.
You might have spared this work by just disabling the multiserver setup or temporarily disable the domain check.
I've once had this on an old server, this was DA, so there it was easy to delete all "remote" domains. In your case I think disabling the domain check would have made it possible to overwrite the domain.nl.db files on the DS server with the new values, sparing you a lot of manual work.

What issues exactly are you encountering now at the moment, c.q. is there anything we might be able to help with?
 
Thanks for the offered help Richard.
I need to dive in it again a little deeper, but I recently noticed some domains on the new server aren't resolving properly and are giving the "This domain is shared..." message..
Noticed even the server's own domain isn't resolving properly and I have to log-in into DA through the server's IP-address.

Like to find out first why these (moved) aren't working anymore (They used to work after the move).
 
Noticed even the server's own domain isn't resolving properly and I have to log-in into DA through the server's IP-address.
Hmmz... that is odd, sounds like some DNS and/or nameserver issues.

Good luck. Just let us know if you run into issues, I'm sure some of us might be able to shed some light or things or be able to help.
 
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