mass os upgrades

[Paper Pusher]

I am the reluctant administrator of a house with a dozen PCs, all connected to our 100mb/1gb LAN.
All boot some flavor of Ubuntu (DTE, NBR, Studio, 32-bit or 64-bit depending on the capabilities of the CPU). Most also run some flavor of Microsoft Windows 32 bit.
The Ubuntu upgrades every six months are driving me crazy! Is the 2-year LTS for me? What's the best way to do upgrades of 12 machines?

[zvacet]

In your case I will choose LTS,because it is 3 years support.For updating comps see https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Apt-Cacher-Server

[TBABill]

+1 for LTS. The 3 year support cycle is great if you just want to install it and let them run without constant installs or upgrades.

[Grenage]

Absolutely use LTS in your case.

[Paper Pusher]

Thank you for your unanimous endorsement of LTS. How then do I do the upgrades when the LTS expires? I understand that I have one year to complete this every two years.

Is there also unanimous endorsement of https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Apt-Cacher-Server?
Thank you zvacet for the pointer.

Where is the best documentation for it? It seems rather daunting and it doesn't work for all LTS releases according to the link.

[Paper Pusher]

For additional information on "my" installation, the census is:
Ubuntu [there is no other Linux distro]
DTE-32 x3
NBR-32 X1
DTE-64 X7
Studio-64 x1
=12

For MS Windows, it is:
XP Pro-32 x1
XP Home-32 x2
Vista-32 x1
XP MCE-32 X1
S7SE-32 X2
=7

All 7 MSW computers dual-boot Ubuntu.
5 computers boot Ubuntu only.

[zvacet]

How then do I do the upgrades when the LTS expires?

You can always upgrade from one LTS to another. ):P

[Paper Pusher]

Is it best to upgrade from the update manager or from the CD?

[Paper Pusher]

The reason for my OP was to increase SA productivity in an environment of a dozen PCs.

As I review this thread, switching to LTS distributions increases my productivity by a factor of four because I would upgrade my PCs every two yeas instead of every six months. Am I understanding this correctly?

Switching to https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Apt-Cacher-Server instead of direct download lowers the load on Canonical's Ubuntu distribution computers. I download UDTE-64 once and then redistribute it to my seven 64-bit machines. Am I understanding this correctly?

What's more, I am already reducing Ubuntu distribution by a factor of four through my switch to LTS. Local caching would increase my workload because I would have to set up the caching infrastructure and maintain it across LTS distributions. The link provides details. I'll leave setting up distro caching to those more experienced than me and stick to LTS.

[Grenage]

For a dozen PCs, I probably wouldn't bother with a cached apt server, either.

[Paper Pusher]

Thank you very much for your generous advice. I have reviewed this thread, its links, and this forum. Here is my new SA policy:

1. current Ubuntu LTS only. I'll upgrade all 12 PCs to 10.4 LTS.
2. next upgrade is June 2012. This gives 12.4 LTS time to settle.
3. upgrades via update manager.
4. start the upgrades with a non-vital PC so I can gain experience with 12.4.
5. rinse and repeat every two years. ++LTS ++LTS.

Any comments?

[Grenage]

Sounds good. If the users aren't admins, then you might want to set update manager to not check for updates. That way, you can go round and manually process them.

If they are admins, you don't have to worry about that.

[Paper Pusher]

How much skill does it take to be an admin?
update manager looks as easy as Microsoft Windows updates.

[Grenage]

If the user has admin rights (via prompt or sudo), they can do whatever they like - install software, delete system files, et cetera.

Only you can decide whether or not that is a problem.

[Paper Pusher]

my users do NOT have sudo rights.

[Grenage]

Ok then; I'm assuming then, that they cannot install updates themselves manually - but they could be installed automatically.

[Paper Pusher]

Thank you for explaining this.
How do I set up automatic updates?

[Paper Pusher]

I just changed the settings in update manager to show LTS upgrades only and to install security updates without confirmation. Is that what you mean?

[Grenage]

The option should be listed as 'Install security updates without confirmation', that's correct.

[Paper Pusher]

What I described above worked with one PC, but does not work with my personal desktop and laptop. Both are running U9.10DTE-64.

Update Manager does not prompt me to upgrade to 10.4LTS. Why?

[Grenage]

That's odd, you don't get the option after pressing update? You can always push it through via the terminal:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/LucidUpgrades

[gordintoronto]

If you do that many upgrades online, there's a good chance that your internet connection will drop during one of the upgrades, which is a total disaster. You can upgrade using an "alternate CD," which eliminates this risk.

Upgrading itself seems to be error-prone. I have always done a new install, which takes a bit longer. Having root (/), swap and home partitions helps a lot, but you also have to record what applications are installed,
(dpkg --get-selections "*" > Desktop/applications)
then re-install them:
sudo apt-get update
sudo dpkg --set-selections < Desktop/applications
sudo apt-get -u dselect-upgrade

I always go through the "applications" text file and remove any applications I no longer need...

[Paper Pusher]

Toronto,

Thanks for the insightful message. I had heard that online updates are problematic, but I could find no posts verifying that. Your post is the first. Thank you.

You use the alternate installer. Its claim to fame is that it's text-based, not graphical. Why? What's wrong with the graphical installer?

You reinstall all applications, but do you protect user data?

[gordintoronto]

Toronto,

You use the alternate installer. Its claim to fame is that it's text-based, not graphical. Why? What's wrong with the graphical installer?

You reinstall all applications, but do you protect user data?

Actually, I don't use the Alternate installer. It's my understanding that it can do an upgrade -- but I have never done an upgrade.

Yes, I protect user data in two ways: I have a separate /home partition, which I am very careful to preserve when I install the new version. But just in case, I back it up to an external drive first. (Or to DVD. Or both.)

I actually have multiple hard drives which I swap in and out of my external drive. Sometimes, I will try a new version (such as Lubuntu) by installing it on the external drive. For something like that, even an old 10 GB drive is useful.

[i.r.id10t]

For a dozen PCs, I probably wouldn't bother with a cached apt server, either.

I certainly would. Or rather, I have. And believe me, it is nice seeing all those machines getting updates at 100mb speed.