CentOS 5.10 to CentOS 6

[stilly]

Looking for a little advice here.

Currently running with a managed VPS, centOS 5.10. Want to upgrade to centOS 6.

So in reading this http://wiki.centos.org/HowTos/MigrationGuide/MigratingFiveToSix

Upgrades are not supported by *yum*, I get that, and essentially what I have been told by the webhost is that in order to upgrade a new webeserver should be built on centOS 6 and then install services over top of that, in my case, essentials, whm, cpanel etc, have added openvpn server, teamspeak. Guess what I am asking is to those that have done such a migration, what are the issues you have run into, compatibility, configuration, mysql config, php, apache. What do you recommend, what are things to avoid. What should I expect?

As I would rely on the webhost to perform this work for me, helps if I have a little more insight from those here that have done this and are running sites with xf. Have 3 websites running on the server currently, 2 xenforo, and one built with strictly html, just a playground.

Info about server currently:

Total processors: 1
Processor #1
Vendor
GenuineIntel
Name
Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5440 @ 2.83GHz
Speed
2826.265 MHz
Cache
6144 KB

total used free shared buffers cached
Mem: 1048576 753300 295276 0 0 369948
-/+ buffers/cache: 383352 665224
Swap: 262144 235624 26520
Total: 1310720 988924 321796

Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/simfs 20G 15G 5.9G 71% /
none 512M 4.0K 512M 1% /dev

Server load 0.16 (1 CPU)
Memory Used 36.19% (379,492 of 1,048,576)
Swap Used 89.87% (235,584 of 262,144)

/dev/simfs / 71% (14,888,168 of 20,971,520

I see a few people here have a lot of experience with this, so you input is greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

 

[stilly]

Current:

Apache version2.2.26
PHP version5.4.26
MySQL version5.5.37-cll

 

[Floren]

Those are pretty prehistoric versions of software you run. You cannot upgrade from 5 to 6, you need to perform a fresh minimal install. How much do you pay for that VPS? You can get a full OVH dedicated server with a lot more than what you have for 50$. If you are at upgrade level, might as well wait for CentOS 7...

 

[stilly]

About 1300US a year, urljet, 110 a month, been with them for about 4 years now, really haven't had an issue with them per say, up time has been great, can only think of maybe a time or two I have been down, and at that for very short period of time. talking less than an hour, to me the price is worth it for that alone. Not opposed to change though, lol, my main concern is that when I converted my forums over from vb to xf and started looking to tweak mysql etc, resistance was there but maybe more of I didn't know what I needed, and they couldn't or didnt ask the right questions.

I know the server is not optimized and have done what I can to run it to its peak maximum efficiency, overall it is ok, I may only get 100 users online at a time over three sites, but do have openvpn running and teamspeak, so in my opinion there is room for improvement. Small footprint, but am not satisfied with knowing the server is not running at its peak, due to software, or hardware, or optimization.

So in my mind, my first step is to upgrade to centos 6, then tweak server to run as it should through mysql, php etc, whether that be with this host or another, I'm not fussed over it. Am open to options,

I agree running older software has its downside, hardware for that matter as well, and the saying of if it aint broke dont fix it, the server isnt broken, not just yet, lol, but I know it can run better, thats where I am at this point, not satisfied until it it is running to max performance. Guess I'm stubborn like that

Open to further suggestions and or recommendations,

 

[Floren]

If you are "stubborn", you cannot be open to further suggestions and or recommendations.
Obviously I meant it in a friendly way, just not taking any chance...

Memory Used 36.19% (379,492 of 1,048,576)
Swap Used 89.87% (235,584 of 262,144)

That does not makes sense, you have 36% of memory usage along with almost 100% swap? You are paying $110/month for that?
http://www.ovh.com/us/dedicated-servers/enterprise/2014-SP-64.xml
Love the smilies sequence, heh.

As soon CentOS 7 is released, I will upgrade my server to it. I already been working with RHEL7 so I know how elegant it is. Still fiddling with BTRFS (BetterFS), is the ZFS equivalent and very elegant...

 

[stilly]

Not sure which way I want go for now, lol, After all the work I have put into customizing the sites, custom home pages, installed services, etc, etc, makes me a little nervous to take a jump to another host at this point, not saying I wont though, have had a look around and as you have posted can get a dedicated for the same price, am going to keep exploring those options.

If anyone would be interested in helping tuning what I have to see what improvements can be made before I take the next step, send me a PM. Very few I would consider giving SSH and root access to though, for obvious reasons, would pay of course,
@MattW, @Slavik, @Floren anyone else I am missing?

Thanks for the info though, learning a few things,

 

[Slavik]

As soon CentOS 7 is released, I will upgrade my server to it. I already been working with RHEL7 so I know how elegant it is. Still fiddling with BTRFS (BetterFS), is the ZFS equivalent and very elegant...

Gave the latest Centos7 build a couple of nights ago, ran into a lot of problems with it Hopefully that was a 1 off.. gonna give it another go tonight.

 

[Slavik]

Not sure which way I want go for now, lol, After all the work I have put into customizing the sites, custom home pages, installed services, etc, etc, makes me a little nervous to take a jump to another host at this point, not saying I wont though, have had a look around and as you have posted can get a dedicated for the same price, am going to keep exploring those options.

If anyone would be interested in helping tuning what I have to see what improvements can be made before I take the next step, send me a PM. Very few I would consider giving SSH and root access to though, for obvious reasons, would pay of course,
@MattW, @Slavik, @Floren anyone else I am missing?

Thanks for the info though, learning a few things,

If im honest id wait for CentOS7 stable release and sort it all then, if your not otherwise having problems with performance that is.

 

[motowebmaster]

As previously mentioned, it isn't advisable to attempt a change that significant on your production server. If you prefer to stay with URLJet, consider temporarily moving your Xenforo site(s) to a cloud instance(s) and then have your preferred server re-imaged. On the other hand, URLJet may offer something to help.

Personally, I'd just utilize the opportunity to migrate to newer infrastructure.

 

[stilly]

What version of php 5 do ya all advise to run...?

And MySQL version...

 

[Floren]

Gave the latest Centos7 build a couple of nights ago, ran into a lot of problems with it Hopefully that was a 1 off.. gonna give it another go tonight.

No issues at all on RHEL7 official images, everything runs very fast and smooth.

 

[Floren]

What version of php 5 do ya all advise to run...?

And MySQL version...

Latest versions?

 

[Vladislav Rastrusny]

I'm running my test local server with Apache 2.4/PHP 5.5. All runs smooth