Best Linux server Distro with automated upgrade utilities, if any
by planodan from LinuxQuestions.org on (#5Q95W)
As a newbie my first question, for which I did not find that it has previous been asked, is which server distro(s) has the best automated upgrade utilities for installing new releases without having to do a complete reinstall from scratch.
For context, I used to be a Unix reseller many years ago which had great upgrade utilities, but I never switched to Linux when it became popular because it had none, and required too much time to install upgrades and customers did not understand why they had to pay for so much more time. I have developed some vertical software that runs on Windows and Linux and while most sales probably will be for Windows, I hope to push Linux as much as possible. To do so, I need to find a great server distro that also makes it as painless as possible for users to upgrade. All the distros may have these capabilities now, but I am not familiar with enough different distros to know which ones do a good job in this regard.
For clarity, what I mean by "automated upgrade utilities", using Unix as an example, are programs that will save-off all the admin configurable files - user login and profiles, printer setup or config files, password files, group files, network config, startup files, crontab & scripts, and others - install the OS upgrade without touching the /usr/bin or /var/bin directories, then coping back all the saved-off files and reboot the server. I am probably forgetting some steps, but that is the gist of it. That process usually took about 1-2 hrs to install, config new features, and test to be sure the upgrade worked and didn't mess up something.
Regards
planodan
For context, I used to be a Unix reseller many years ago which had great upgrade utilities, but I never switched to Linux when it became popular because it had none, and required too much time to install upgrades and customers did not understand why they had to pay for so much more time. I have developed some vertical software that runs on Windows and Linux and while most sales probably will be for Windows, I hope to push Linux as much as possible. To do so, I need to find a great server distro that also makes it as painless as possible for users to upgrade. All the distros may have these capabilities now, but I am not familiar with enough different distros to know which ones do a good job in this regard.
For clarity, what I mean by "automated upgrade utilities", using Unix as an example, are programs that will save-off all the admin configurable files - user login and profiles, printer setup or config files, password files, group files, network config, startup files, crontab & scripts, and others - install the OS upgrade without touching the /usr/bin or /var/bin directories, then coping back all the saved-off files and reboot the server. I am probably forgetting some steps, but that is the gist of it. That process usually took about 1-2 hrs to install, config new features, and test to be sure the upgrade worked and didn't mess up something.
Regards
planodan