Once the official Rockstor 4.5.6 (or whatever version it is) is released, will there be an option to update the base OS from openSUSE Leap 15.3 to openSUSELeap 15.4 for those servers that were originally installed with Rockstor 4.1 iso?. My server is running the Rockstore 4.5.6-0, updated via “Software Updates”, but the base OS is still openSUSE Leap 15.3.
Thank you
Hi there.
I was in the same situation as you and was thinking of following this guide: https://rockstor.com/docs/howtos/15-2_to_15-3.html
However, my system disk is setup to be independent from the data and apps, so it can be replaced or reinstalled with minimal reconfiguration.
So I opted for a fresh reinstall.
@KeithMnemonic Hello again.
Re:
There will indeed. As @aremiaskfa has mentioned here in this thread, we produced a “zypper dup” based howto in the docs for the last time this happened to get folks from our prior base of Leap 15.2 to the then current base of 15.3. Once we are at, or nearer too, the 15.4 based Stable Release (4.5.6-0 in downloads is Release Candidate 3) we sill modify this 15.2 to 15.3 howto to produce another like it.
But if that is not something you can wait for, as long as you are already running 4.5.6-0 or so, then it is already 15.4 compatible. We are also now a little more independent of the base OS regarding Python libraries due to the new build system introduced in 4.5.4 which you are now already running.
But there can be some hick-ups associated with “zypper dup” and there may still exist some issues we can smooth over via a How-to when the time comes. One thing to note is that we, like our upstream, have now moved to multi-arch repos and this has lead to some disconcerting but otherwise cosmetic upgrade messages which we have issued in the following GitHub Milestone:
But if you are fairly familiar with repo modifications and you keep in mind that we are now multi-arch across the board, and that there may have been some name changes in upstream repos in the interim between 15.3 and 15.4 you could approach a zypper dup method. Just keep in mind that we don’t yet have a stable repo established for 15.4 and that we hard-wire our repo urls, i.e. they have for example “15.3” in them rather than a variable driven from the base OS. This allows for running for example 15.3 repos on 15.4 base OS if they have not yet been established by us or upstream (beta phase).
So in short, what @aremiaskfa said re howto, and a quick look at that howto should give you an idea of what would be involved. But less has changed between 15.3 to 15.4 than in the prior 152 to 15.3 transition. In that the upstream merge of SLES and Leap 15.3 is now over. And this complicated some repo changes at that time. But in 15.4 they are as-was in 15.3 in that respect.
And there is always the config backup and download, install to new system disk (to preserve a way back) pool/s import and then config restore option. It all very much depends on your familiarity and willingness to re-setup stuff that may not be restored to you satisfaction. We also have some known issues regarding restore of scheduled tasks.
zypper dup (distribution update) has been excellent in the more recent years, and we are sufficiently close to our upstream to hopefully not trigger any major issues. But I at least have not yet tested this, but will be doing so as we approach our next Stable release. 15.3 is still receiving critical security updates as we are OK on that front, but it is now EOL. Hence our move to 15.4 of late, and within our downloadable installers.
Hope that help.
Thank @phillxnet and @aremiaskfa. I will try the ‘zypper dup’. (My day job is a Software Engineer at SUSE so I am pretty sure I can overcome any issues 
). If I find anything, I will report it back in case it is helpful for others.
@phillxnet @aremiaskfa I finally got around to upgrading and it seems like everything is working so far. I will let it burn in for a week or so but I did not run into anything unexpected. Thank you both for your help.
Hi,
Updated to 15.4 too, seems to work.