Virtualmin 7 on debian 10 to debian 11 (os upgrade)

Virtualmin 7 is officially supported on Debian 11 Bullseye (Grade A). :hugs:

Thank you ! :grinning:

My questions :

I have 4 Vitualmin 7.2-1 servers currently running on Debian 10 Buster (Apache and mariaDB, classic install with install.sh).

I would like to know the procedure to upgrade the os to Debian 11 Bullseye.

Case 1. Should backup virtualmin, reinstall new server with Debian 11 Bullseye and restore Virtualmin.

Case 2. Or is it possible to directly upgrade to Debian 11 Bullseye on this same Virtualmin server ?

I have 5 different php versions on this server, do I need to reinstall these versions after upgrading to Debian 11 Bullseye ?

The 4 Virtualmin servers are clustered webmin, is it a problem to upgrade to Debian 11 Bullseye or not ?

Thank you. :smiley:

SYSTEM INFORMATION
OS type and version Debian 10
Webmin version 2.0.0.1
Virtualmin version 7.2-1
Related packages Apache, MariaDB, PHP-FPM 5.6.40 + 7.3.33 + 7.4.32 + 8.0.24 + 8.1.11

Hello, Iā€™m doing a little follow-up on this subject.

If you can help please.

Thank you all :slight_smile:

When doing O\S upgrades, Iā€™ve always done it perhaps the long way round:

  1. Spin up a new server (VPS) with the required O\S.
  2. Secure it.
  3. install Virtualmin.
  4. create the virtual servers.
  5. create the necessary users, copy across the websites, restoring any DBs as necessary.
  6. use IMAPCopy to synch the mailboxes.
  7. repoint the DNS records to the new server.

There might be quicker ways, but if it all goes wrong, nothing is down.

HIH

Dibs

Personally Iā€™ve never had any issues with upgrading Debian.

That being said, @dibs, why not just use the ā€œTransfer virtual serverā€ feature from the source server?
Then you wonā€™t have to do any of that manually and everything ā€œjust worksā€ :slight_smile:

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Maybe something to try on the next O\S upgrade. :wink:

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Hello,

Thank you for your answers

@Dibs: Your opinion is good, but not very fast I think, you also need a new server with a new IPā€¦
I understand your idea of migrating everything to a new Debian 11 server, but I want to keep the same server with the same IP and my Webmin DNS cluster of 4 servers too.

@toreskev: Thatā€™s a really great solution! much faster and automatic: but you also need a new server with a new IPā€¦

Do you think it is possible to upgrade from the same server from debian 10 to debian 11 and therefore keep the new IP and therefore the same server name so as not to have to update the DNS servers on all domains hosted by this Virtualmin server?

thank you

@alexafi - I donā€™t know anything about Webmin clusters. Other types of clusters, many a time Iā€™ve removed a node from a cluster when it is being upgraded (however you do that), upgrade it and then re-join the cluster. Thatā€™s my preferred method.

I donā€™t know how straightforward it is to remove existing nodes and add "new"ones into a Webmin cluster.

As for the specifics here - if the servers are virtual, most times you can power down the original server and assign itā€™s IP address to the ā€œnewā€ server. If the servers are virtual - no real issues doing this. If your servers are bare-metal, then it isnā€™t so easy, i.e. noticeable costs.

Sorry for the late reply.
I donā€™t know regarding the cluster, but I honestly can not imagine it would pose much extra difficulties.
My current server main production server has been upgraded since Debian 8 and apart from some small niggles each time (not necessarily related to Virtualmin packages either) itā€™s always been a smooth upgrade :slight_smile:
Just make sure you have a backup or preferably a snapshot in place before attempting the upgrade.

Thanks for the answers.

Yes, as far as Iā€™m concerned, itā€™s Proxmox VMs with Proxmox Backup and webmin backup + Virtualmin (belts, suspenders, parachute in case of problems).

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If there are other people who have updated by mounting the version of the serverā€™s operating system.

I take their advice :slight_smile:

hi alex, im facing the same situlation but without any cluster server.
here is my first try:

  1. put a new disk to clone the / partition and update grub then boot system from it.
    My /home on a standalone disk.
  2. upgrade the distro follow the solution:
    https://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/update-upgrade-debian-10-to-debian-11-bullseye/
  3. after reboot, apply all new package update and upgarde with keep the old config fileā€¦
    then the firewalld, fail2ban, docker and proftpd not workā€¦
  4. I got fallbacked to original / diskā€¦ and using debian 10 nowā€¦
    i will try it again next weekend.

Hi Kev , Thank you for your message, on my side I stay on debian 10, but I think to start from a new fresh installation of debian 11 with the same ip configuration and restore the virtualmin backup.

I think I can afford it because itā€™s virtual servers for my case.

Tell me after your weekend.

I totally failed againā€¦

Hello Kevin, so youā€™re going to do like me?
Complete reinstallation of the server in debian 11 and virtualmin restoration? (I wonder if emails are saved with this)
I think you have to test before you get boredā€¦

I think your solution is better.
But how to process? I never had backup Virtaulmin experience.

If you have problems you want help with, create a new topic for each issue, including related errors from the log or from the service status.

Got it, I would search around and learn the Virtualmin Documents first.

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