Upgrade Ubuntu 9.10 OpenVZ Templates

This post is for those wanting to upgrade existing Ubuntu 9.10 openvz templates to Ubuntu 10.04 (Lucid Lynx) which is a LTS release (supported server side for 5 years).

Caution: Back up your data before you upgrade. This upgrade works on a minimal server and you may need to edit (upstart) init scripts (mysql in particular) and I make no guarantees this upgrade procedure will work for you (use at your own risk).

Assuming your template is 101 …

sudo vzctrl enter 101

Update 9.10

Start by updating 9.10:

apt-get update
apt-get dist-upgrade

Upgrade to 10.04

Upgrade – Instructions from This link

apt-get install -y update-manager-core

Edit /etc/update-manager/release-upgrades , make sure Prompt=normal

Prompt=normal

It was normal already on my VPS …

Upgrade to 10.04

do-release-upgrade

Follow the on screen directions, accept the new configuration files.

Continue installing without GURB – answer “yes”

At the end of the upgrade, do not restart (yet)

Post -upgrade

We need some post-upgrade configuration:

Start by removing unnecessary packages

apt-get purge eject kbd laptop-detect linux-generic linux-image-2.6.32-21-generic os-prober ubuntu-keyring update-manager-core
apt-get autoremove

Put mountall and upstart on hold

echo "mountall hold"|dpkg --set-selections
echo "upstart hold"|dpkg --set-selections

Remove / Fix the init scripts.

cd /etc/init
rm -f console* dmesg.conf failsafe* mount* network-interface* openvz.conf plymouth*

The only init scripts I have are:

hostname.conf
networking.conf
rc-sysinit.conf
rc-S.conf
rc.conf

Edit /etc/init/rc.conf and comment out the following lines:

#console output
#env INIT_VERBOSE

Make an openvz.conf (run (copy-paste) the “cat” command):

cat <<EOF > /etc/init/openvz.conf
# OpenVZ - Fix init sequence to have OpenVZ working with upstart

description "Fix OpenVZ"

start on startup

task
pre-start script
mount -t devpts devpts /dev/pts
mount -t tmpfs varrun /var/run
mount -t tmpfs varlock /var/lock
mkdir -p /var/run/network
if [ ! -e /etc/mtab ]; then
cat /proc/mounts > /etc/mtab
fi
touch /var/run/utmp
chmod 664 /var/run/utmp
chown root.utmp /var/run/utmp
if [ "$(find /etc/network/ -name upstart -type f)" ]; then
chmod -x /etc/network/*/upstart || true
fi
end script

script
start networking
initctl emit filesystem --no-wait
initctl emit local-filesystems --no-wait
initctl emit virtual-filesystems --no-wait
init 2
end script
EOF

Fix ssh

sed -i -e 's_oom never_#oom never_g' /etc/init/ssh.conf

Fix mysql

Edit /etc/init/mysql.conf , change the start line to

start on start on runlevel [2345]

I advise you replace rsyslog with syslog-ng (rsyslog is default in Ubuntu, but IMO does not work well in Openvz VPS).

apt-get purge rsyslog
apt-get -y install syslog-ng

That’s it, exit and restart your VPS.

If all went well you should have a fully functional Ubuntu 10.04 VPS. If you broke it, you get to keep both pieces.