PVE upgrade 6.4 to 7, 8, 9...

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GazdaJezda

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Nov 19, 2020
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Hi!

I know, I'm terrible, but so far there has been no need to upgrade, everything still works without problems. However, time flies and it will be necessary to upgrade my ProxMox box from the current version 6.4 to the current one. The most problematic (i believe) will be the first part, from 6 to version 7, since I don't know if this is still possible? I mean, are the necessary packages still available? Thank you!

Best regards.
 
I think it should still work, maybe you need to use the Debian archive repository.

But I think it will be easier to make backups of your virtual machines and containers, do a fresh proxmox install and restore your backups.

If you use a completly new server or at least new disks, you avoid any risk of data loss, and after at least 6 years new discs are not a luxury ;)
 
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Thank you all. I will first read upgrade guide and then see. Currently I'm on last 6.4 version. I have daily backup's of /etc/ , VM's... for 14 day back. Buying new disc and install latest proxmox on it is no brainer, but configuring it back to old settings can be (for me). I have system on one SSD and VM's on mirrored raidz1 pool (made of 4 x 2TB SSD's). I need to educate myself first, then I will be back in case of troubles :)
 
Unfortunately SSDs have gone up in price quite a bit, but I would suggest a simple raidZ1 zfs mirror with enterprise SSDs, no need for additional boot drives.

(Sorry for the confusion, i wanted to write mirror not RaidZ1, must have been more tired than i realized)
 
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I wouldn't use RAIDZ for vm/lxc storage:
UdoB

[TUTORIAL] Thread 'FabU: Can I use ZFS RaidZ for my VMs?'

Assumption: you use at least four identical devices for that. Mirrors, RaidZ, RaidZ2 are possible - theoretically.

Technically correct answer: yes, it works. But the right answers is: no, do not do that! The recommendation is very clear: use “striped mirrors”. This results in something similar to a classic Raid10.

(1) RaidZ1 (and Z2 too) gives you the IOPS of a single device, completely independent of the actual number of physical devices. For the “four devices, mirrored” approach this will double --> giving twice as many Operations per Second. For a large-file...
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A mirror or striped mirror will yield larger IOPS. For bulk data RAIDZ surely is a valid option.
 
GazdaJezda said:
Thank you all. I will first read upgrade guide and then see. Currently I'm on last 6.4 version. I have daily backup's of /etc/ , VM's... for 14 day back. Buying new disc and install latest proxmox on it is no brainer, but configuring it back to old settings can be (for me). I have system on one SSD and VM's on mirrored raidz1 pool (made of 4 x 2TB SSD's). I need to educate myself first, then I will be back in case of troubles :)
Click to expand...

Unfortunatelly guys, I need to ask again: can I still upgrade my current 6.4 PVE to 7.x or I will break something because it is too old and something vital is missing on the net / repositories? I know it is old, but is constantly have other things active and this one just works :) I need to upgrade to not get left too much behind. Thank you all!
 
PVE7 is based on Debian 11/bullseye, PVE8 on 12/bookworm and PVE9 on 13/trixie.
It seems all 3 repositories you need are still available for both Proxmox and Debian:
http://download.proxmox.com/debian/pve/dists/
http://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/

I think you need to do it in 3 steps:
https://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/Upgrade_from_6.x_to_7.0
https://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/Upgrade_from_7_to_8
https://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/Upgrade_from_8_to_9

Actually sounds like a fun challenge if you have everything backed up.
In the worst case you can still do a fresh install of PVE 9 and restore config, VM's and LXC's from backup.
 
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Or do you meant that the archive has no newer releases? This isn't a problem for the OP since for the newer releases he can still use the original repo urls for ProxmoxVE and Debian, they still work since they havn't moved to the archive yet ;) This will change soon propably as soon as Debian 12 gets out of regular support.

I also see Potato and Woody ( I started with it, things were quite different then ;)) on the archive page. Maybe you encountered an incomplete mirror? AFIK behind the url is a cdn so it might be that one of the "backend mirrors" has an incomplete archive which would warrant ab bug report imho.
 
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Its doable but I wonder if you using an old boot method which adds an extra challenge. I know my oldest Proxmox install doesnt use the current supported boot method, and I have to treat it with kids gloves.
 
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Thank you guys. I need to find some time and then I will fire upgrade (6 to 7).

chrcoluk said:
Its doable but I wonder if you using an old boot method which adds an extra challenge. I know my oldest Proxmox install doesnt use the current supported boot method, and I have to treat it with kids gloves.
Click to expand...

I think I use it although I don't understand completely to what you refer? I have a Proxmox on separate SSD drive (ext4) and VM's are on raidz ZFS volume (4 x 2TB SSD's). Also, i think (i will need to check it) I'm not using UEFI but old style BIOS on machine. I will check all that before upgrade.
 
GazdaJezda said:
Thank you guys. I need to find some time and then I will fire upgrade (6 to 7).



I think I use it although I don't understand completely to what you refer? I have a Proxmox on separate SSD drive (ext4) and VM's are on raidz ZFS volume (4 x 2TB SSD's). Also, i think (i will need to check it) I'm not using UEFI but old style BIOS on machine. I will check all that before upgrade.
Click to expand...

The boot manager is that part of the system which takes care to take over control over the hardware after the BIOS is finished with the initial startup. It launches the Linux kernel and afterwards the rest of ProxmoxVEs operating system. Since ProxmoxVE changed the mechanisms quite a bit in the last major releases you might end up in some extra steps, see: https://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/Host_Bootloader and https://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/ZFS:_Switch_Legacy-Boot_to_Proxmox_Boot_Tool I would expect that any potential issues and how to deal with them are also mentioned in the release node of each release and the update documentation which you will need to read anyhow ;)
 
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Ok, thank you. System (boot) partition is ext4 and I would like to keep it that way. First I need upgrade to final version of 7 - I hope that issue would not be the case here already! Because I'm more affraid about NIC name changes (all NIC's are onboard / Supermicro board). I'm expecting this one to solve first and hopefully end with stable (final) version of 7 at the end :)
 
You should still upgrade to PVE8 and PVE9 afterwards since PVE7 won't get any security patches anymore. And somewhere in PVE8 or 9 the network-pinning-tool was introduced to mitigate the issues with changing nic names
 
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GazdaJezda said:
Thank you guys. I need to find some time and then I will fire upgrade (6 to 7).



I think I use it although I don't understand completely to what you refer? I have a Proxmox on separate SSD drive (ext4) and VM's are on raidz ZFS volume (4 x 2TB SSD's). Also, i think (i will need to check it) I'm not using UEFI but old style BIOS on machine. I will check all that before upgrade.
Click to expand...
If you using ext4 for boot, then you fine.
 
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