[rudra]

I hear that some people are still using Ubuntu 14.04 LTS on their VPS. This is to inform them , in case they dont already know it, about Ubuntu Advantage - ESM ( extended security maintenance ).

this is extended support for 14.04 lts that provides security updates essential to keep your system secure and stable.

You can use this service provided by Ubuntu on upto 3 machines for free in case it is personal use. (known community members their can use on upto 50 machines for free for personal use ).

What to do - steps

go to https://ubuntu.com/advantage 

login ( if you already have a ubuntu one account. it is free ) or register and then login. Now you will see a command with token like 'ua attach token'

you run that with sudo or on root account and your system will be configured automagically.

now check with 'ua status'

now update using apt-get as you normally do and profit !!!

NOTE: I am working on bringing Ubuntu OS upgrade without using control panel vnc / novnc. Hopefully I will succeed and then you will get to enjoy the latest LTS on your VPS. fingers crossed ...

[ikk157]

I hear that some people are still using Ubuntu 14.04 LTS on their VPS. This is to inform them , in case they dont already know it, about Ubuntu Advantage - ESM ( extended security maintenance ).

this is extended support for 14.04 lts that provides security updates essential to keep your system secure and stable.

You can use this service provided by Ubuntu on upto 3 machines for free in case it is personal use. (known community members their can use on upto 50 machines for free for personal use ).

What to do - steps

go to https://ubuntu.com/advantage 

login ( if you already have a ubuntu one account. it is free ) or register and then login. Now you will see a command with token like 'ua attach token'

you run that with sudo or on root account and your system will be configured automagically.

now check with 'ua status'

now update using apt-get as you normally do and profit !!!

NOTE: I am working on bringing Ubuntu OS upgrade without using  control panel vnc / novnc. Hopefully I will succeed and then you will get to enjoy the latest LTS on your VPS. fingers crossed ...

Regarding the note at the end of your post:

The normal Ubuntu upgrade procedure through the command line works perfectly and I’ve always used it with zero issues. And it doesn’t require VNC/noVNC nor panel access. (For a matter of fact, panels don’t even have an option to upgrade the existing OS, you can only install a clean one and start from scratch).

I honestly have no idea what went wrong with the VPS 9 Ubuntu upgrades @deanhills was talking about. Something for sure must have been done wrong by the holder(s) that caused issues. I’ve upgraded my VPS 9 from 18.04 to 20.04 with zero issues (the same upgrade also worked really well on all my local machines which proves that it’s safe).

I’ve also upgraded older versions of Ubuntu during the past several years, which also worked with no issues.

I don’t understand why, according to deanhills, VPS 9 holders have had issues with upgrading Ubuntu... it’s definitely not a hardware problem as, well, not only does that not make sense, but the fact that I upgraded with no issues shows that there’s nothing wrong with VPS 9 itself.

What it could be is potentially a faulty Ubuntu 14 template that VirMach is using (their other Ubuntu templates dont even boot up!!!). This seems to most certainly be the issue. Hence its the templates VirMach is using, not VPS 9 itself.

[rudra]

@ikk157

thanks for the reply. I was thinking that the problem is probably with the template and your experience support that idea too.

But the thing is how do you recover without help from the staff if upgrade or something mess the system up and you lose ssh entrance ? or say you want to try centOS or ....

or change your partition scheme .., i use a separate partition with nodev, nosuid to store files and also use as document root for servers etc,

may be you don't , but i certainly want to do all that and have an option and option to recover...

Also the issues are not only faced by a single guy once.... so that indicates that there might be a need to be wary.

[ikk157]

@ikk157

thanks for the reply. I was thinking that the problem is probably with the template and your experience support that idea too.

But the thing is how do you recover without help from the staff if upgrade or something mess the system up and you lose ssh entrance ? or say you want to try centOS or ....

or change your partition scheme .., i use a separate partition with nodev, nosuid to store files and also use as document root for servers etc,

may be you don't , but i certainly want to do all that and have an option and option to recover...

Also the issues are not only faced by a single guy once.... so that indicates that there might be a need to be wary.

I simply don’t need to recover from anything since the upgrade works with zero issues. For a matter of fact, the upgrade tool actually starts a new ssh instance on a different port so you have a backup. 

For a matter of fact, I’ve never messed up any installations on my VPS. Literally NEVER. The times it broke was due to a faulty template from VirMach’s end which the admins back then weren’t aware of. So they essentially loaded a broken template onto my VPS without knowing, which never booted up.

However, as I’ve stated earlier, I never really broke anything. 

I already mentioned that I’ve tested the upgrade on so many other systems before doing it on my VPS 9, so i knew there was no risk. And clearly i was right.

Bare in mind that I’m not exploring or experimenting around with anything, everything I do on my VPS 9 I’ve already done many many many times on other systems and I’m fully experienced in it. 

However, that doesn’t seem to be the case with many VPS 9 holders here... many are doing stuff on it with zero experience, which is possibly why they end up messing their VPSs up. Take the ones running an upgrade for the first time in their lives as an example. 

And as stated on my previous post, I use the default partition scheme the Ubuntu installation wizard goes by, I never found the need to change anything. Not to mention that the admins can’t change the partition scheme from their panel (there simply isn’t an option on it). So asking an admin for that would only be a waste of their time.

[rudra]

@ikk157

you are right there .. though even for a very experienced user , there are some ways to mess things up. I mean I am not talking about working straight for days without sleep here ..

I am simply saying things that is beyond your control. Like some incompatibility or some package conflict or holdback or experimenting with source compilation and install and doing something wrong... These are the things I face..

I understand what you said there .. it seems you have found what you want to do and how to do them and keep doing those very things. YOu are more focussed on deployment and utilisation. You dont experiment with system config. may be like to work on the site rather than the underlying system.. That is very good of you..

But for silly people fooling around ( @>ME ), there is a real need of scripts doing weird things.

Thanks for your input

also,

there is always a provision for an alternative port for ssh access indicates that things can go wrong... it is not a reflection on the user doing the upgrade. You always succeed and have found ways to do things you like to do, that is very good.

[ikk157]

@ikk157

you are right there .. though even for a very experienced user , there are some ways to mess things up. I mean I am not talking about working straight for days without sleep here ..

I am simply saying things that is beyond your control. Like some incompatibility or some package conflict or holdback or experimenting with source compilation and install and doing something wrong... These are the things I face..

I understand what you said there .. it seems you have found what you want to do and how to do them and keep doing those very things. YOu are more focussed on deployment and utilisation. You dont experiment with system config. may be like to work on the site rather than the underlying system.. That is very good of you..

But for silly people fooling around ( @>ME ), there is a real need of scripts doing weird things.

Thanks for your input

also,

there is always a provision for an alternative port for ssh access indicates that things can go wrong... it is not a reflection on the user doing the upgrade. You always succeed and have found ways to do things you like to do, that is very good.

The idea is that if there are any package conflicts or incompatibility issues, I would’ve found them out on my testing machines way before doing the same on my VPS 9.

However, You are very right that not everyone is as careful or has other machines to test stuff before using them on the VPS. That’s where the script you’re writing comes into play!

If you manage to make it work (which I don’t see why you won’t), that will pretty much solve your and many other holders’ problems. If you or anyone else messes the VPS up, you can just use the script to get your VPS back in business!

[deanhills]

I honestly have no idea what went wrong with the VPS 9 Ubuntu upgrades @deanhills was talking about. Something for sure must have been done wrong by the holder(s) that caused issues. I’ve upgraded my VPS 9 from 18.04 to 20.04 with zero issues (the same upgrade also worked really well on all my local machines which proves that it’s safe).

@fChk was the one closest to the truth.  This must have been entirely a phenomenon of how the host had configured the VPSs and Seattle (which you have) and Chicago VPS 9 were more carefully configured - the Seattle and Chicago Nodes were of the first to be upgraded to KVM.  Specifically Seattle performance in overall was improved from before if you check a Review of the VPS 9 (Seattle) a year or so before the upgrade to KVM.  The VPS Holder then thought that the VPS had performed sluggishly.  Your experience after the upgrade seems to be much more positive.

VPS 9 owners of the other VPSs had countless issues after the KVM upgrade with for example Selinux that had to be turned off when the OS was used.  I'd put my money on that the configuration of the other VPSs during their upgrade to KVM, Node by Node, was not as carefully managed and possibly not even by the same quality and experienced Admin. For example a universal template was used. The networking was not as efficient because of shortage of time and possibly they needed to take short cuts in the configuration to automate it.  The networking had lots of issues.  Doesn't mean the end product was bad, but compared with VPS 9 Seattle (which you have) and Chicago, the others were not as perfectly configured.  You can check the discussion here that is an indication of the many issues that happened with the upgrades to KVM of the other VPS 9s - in the words of Virmach:

https://post4vps.com/Thread-VPS-9-Schedu...0#pid31990

[ikk157]

@fChk was the one closest to the truth.  This must have been entirely a phenomenon of how the host had configured the VPSs and Seattle (which you have) and Chicago VPS 9 were more carefully configured - the Seattle and Chicago Nodes were of the first to be upgraded to KVM.  Specifically Seattle performance in overall was improved from before if you check a Review of the VPS 9 (Seattle) a year or so before the upgrade to KVM.  The VPS Holder then thought that the VPS had performed sluggishly.  Your experience after the upgrade seems to be much more positive.

VPS 9 owners of the other VPSs had countless issues after the KVM upgrade with for example Selinux that had to be turned off when the OS was used.  I'd put my money on that the configuration of the other VPSs during their upgrade to KVM, Node by Node, was not as carefully managed and possibly not even by the same quality and experienced Admin. For example a universal template was used. The networking was not as efficient because of shortage of time and possibly they needed to take short cuts in the configuration to automate it.  The networking had lots of issues.  Doesn't mean the end product was bad, but compared with VPS 9 Seattle (which you have) and Chicago, the others were not as perfectly configured.  You can check the discussion here that is an indication of the many issues that happened with the upgrades to KVM of the other VPS 9s - in the words of Virmach:

https://post4vps.com/Thread-VPS-9-Schedu...0#pid31990

That actually explains why the upgrades might’ve failed. I thought the only issues that arose from the not so careful upgrades with the other VPS 9s was the issue with Selinux, which was the issue most talked about here.

I was not aware that other issues arose, such as the failed upgrades, due to the OVZ to KVM upgrade not being done as well on the other VPS 9s. Quite sad that the issues just keep on coming. I am so grateful to have one of the two “good” VPS 9s. Like wow that saved me so much time and frustration.

Anyways let’s not get too off topic:

The security patches for an already unsupported version of Ubuntu released 6 years ago is quite nice. I never knew Ubuntu had a service for this, certainly puts them ahead of the other distros! (Unless the other distros also provide a similar service). Provided that whatever you’re using still supports Ubuntu 14, then those security patches are all what you essentially need! Really neat to say the least.

[tryp4vps]

Did not hear about this Ubuntu Advantage - ESM (Extended Security Maintenance) before. I guess I probably will not need to use it though. I do have an installation running Ubuntu 14.04 LTS. But it is just in an virtual machine for my local testing.

This ESM is still quite interesting to me, but I hope they will somehow consider providing it free for more than just 3 months.

[rudra]

They backport n develop and you want that free..,free for three machines [ upto 50 for popular community participants ] not enough ?

I wonder what is wrong with people ? i guess i will never know.

I mean you do understand that none is stopping you from using another email, right ? But why would one do that ?

They gotta eat too, you know ?