# Is it safe to upgrade Ubuntu from 14.04 to 16.04.1 via do-release-upgrade, and how-to
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/is-it-safe-to-upgrade-ubuntu-from-14-04-to-16-04-1-via-do-release-upgrade-and-how-to/52274
**Category:** Self-hosting
**Created:** [31.Октябрь.2016 23:00:17 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/is-it-safe-to-upgrade-ubuntu-from-14-04-to-16-04-1-via-do-release-upgrade-and-how-to/52274 "2016-10-31T23:00:17Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@meglio](https://meta.discourse.org/u/meglio)
#### Post date: [31.Октябрь.2016 23:00:17 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/is-it-safe-to-upgrade-ubuntu-from-14-04-to-16-04-1-via-do-release-upgrade-and-how-to/52274/1 "2016-10-31T23:00:17Z")
My server tells me:
> New release ‘16.04.1 LTS’ available.
> Run ‘do-release-upgrade’ to upgrade to it.
Should it be safe to:
1. Turn off the server.
2. Make a droplet backup while offline (DigitalOcean).
3. Run `do-release-upgrade`
Any things to pay attention to?
---
### Author:  [@arrowcircle](https://meta.discourse.org/u/arrowcircle)
#### Post date: [01.Ноябрь.2016 09:02:50 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/is-it-safe-to-upgrade-ubuntu-from-14-04-to-16-04-1-via-do-release-upgrade-and-how-to/52274/2 "2016-11-01T09:02:50Z")
Just be aware, that restore from backup takes a lot of time. For my 10$ instance it was ~1hr.
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### Author:  [@pfaffman](https://meta.discourse.org/u/pfaffman)
#### Post date: [01.Ноябрь.2016 15:53:29 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/is-it-safe-to-upgrade-ubuntu-from-14-04-to-16-04-1-via-do-release-upgrade-and-how-to/52274/3 "2016-11-01T15:53:29Z")
Maybe easier to create a new droplet and restore to it. You can get a floating ip,assign it to your old droplet until DNS propagates, build the new one and switch over when you like it.
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### Author:  [@mr8](https://meta.discourse.org/u/mr8)
#### Post date: [01.Ноябрь.2016 17:57:25 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/is-it-safe-to-upgrade-ubuntu-from-14-04-to-16-04-1-via-do-release-upgrade-and-how-to/52274/4 "2016-11-01T17:57:25Z")
I did the upgrade without any problems on DO a few weeks ago.
what I did:
1. Live snapshot on DO
2. stop discourse: `./launcher stop app`
3. upgrade with screen: `do-release-upgrade`
I believe I had to manually start docker `service docker start` once the upgrade was done, but didn’t have any issues otherwise.
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### Author:  [@arrowcircle](https://meta.discourse.org/u/arrowcircle)
#### Post date: [01.Ноябрь.2016 18:59:18 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/is-it-safe-to-upgrade-ubuntu-from-14-04-to-16-04-1-via-do-release-upgrade-and-how-to/52274/5 "2016-11-01T18:59:18Z")
Its actually faster if you create new droplet and set up discourse.
Its just system configuration, docker installation (simple apt-get) and rsync from old instance.
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### Author:  [@meglio](https://meta.discourse.org/u/meglio)
#### Post date: [02.Ноябрь.2016 01:50:29 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/is-it-safe-to-upgrade-ubuntu-from-14-04-to-16-04-1-via-do-release-upgrade-and-how-to/52274/6 "2016-11-02T01:50:29Z")
Hi Oleg, may you please show an example of working rsync commands for the approach proposed? What folders exactly need to be synced?
Except speed, are there any other benefits of going this way?
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### Author:  [@pfaffman](https://meta.discourse.org/u/pfaffman)
#### Post date: [02.Ноябрь.2016 04:23:57 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/is-it-safe-to-upgrade-ubuntu-from-14-04-to-16-04-1-via-do-release-upgrade-and-how-to/52274/7 "2016-11-02T04:23:57Z")
It’s just the time it takes to bootstrap. I think it’s the case that if you don’t know the rsync command, you don’t care.
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### Author:  [@meglio](https://meta.discourse.org/u/meglio)
#### Post date: [11.Ноябрь.2016 03:07:18 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/is-it-safe-to-upgrade-ubuntu-from-14-04-to-16-04-1-via-do-release-upgrade-and-how-to/52274/8 "2016-11-11T03:07:18Z")
Just a note that might be vital for someone:
Taking an online snapshot, even with your DigitalOcean droplet OFF, might be pretty time consuming:
> **[How long does snapshot takes to create ? | DigitalOcean](https://www.digitalocean.com/community/questions/how-long-does-snapshot-takes-to-create#)**
>
> It seems its taking well over 45 mins, still the snapshot is getting created… Its bit too longer for a production environment to stay offline… How long …
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### Author:  [@meglio](https://meta.discourse.org/u/meglio)
#### Post date: [11.Ноябрь.2016 03:46:27 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/is-it-safe-to-upgrade-ubuntu-from-14-04-to-16-04-1-via-do-release-upgrade-and-how-to/52274/9 "2016-11-11T03:46:27Z")
- The DigitalOcean snapshot took ~20 minutes for a 40GB instance.
- don’t forget running `./launcher cleanup` before turning off your droplet and making a snapshot - it may a big difference in the snapshot size, sometimes up to 10GB
- The `do-release-upgrade` took about 20 minutes for me (upgrading from 14.06 LTS to 16.06 LTS)
A few notes from the upgrade process I run through:
* * *
Answered NO.
* * *
Answered YES.
* * *
* * *
At the end:
* * *
After restarting:
> [@mr8](#):
>
> I believe I had to manually start docker service docker start once the upgrade was done, but didn’t have any issues otherwise.
Didn’t need this in my case.
* * *
Something I did not pay too much attention to, but should have done so when upgrading through a SSH connection - only googled about it later:
>
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### Author:  [@littleviolette](https://meta.discourse.org/u/littleviolette)
#### Post date: [18.Декабрь.2016 23:59:50 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/is-it-safe-to-upgrade-ubuntu-from-14-04-to-16-04-1-via-do-release-upgrade-and-how-to/52274/10 "2016-12-18T23:59:50Z")
> [@mr8](#):
>
> I believe I had to manually start docker service docker start once the upgrade was done, but didn’t have any issues otherwise.
@mr8, I just ran the `do-release-upgrade` upgrade but got disconnected when it asked me to restart. Now I am getting the error message:
`Device "docker0" does not exist. Cannot connect to the docker daemon - verify it is running and you have access`
How were you able to manually restart it once the upgrade was done? I am not trained as a programmer so everyone’s detailed instruction would be much appreciated!
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### Author:  [@littleviolette](https://meta.discourse.org/u/littleviolette)
#### Post date: [19.Декабрь.2016 00:10:05 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/is-it-safe-to-upgrade-ubuntu-from-14-04-to-16-04-1-via-do-release-upgrade-and-how-to/52274/11 "2016-12-19T00:10:05Z")
Running the following command solved the problem:
```
./launcher stop app
./launcher start app
```
Thanks everyone!
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### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [24.Декабрь.2016 18:43:14 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/is-it-safe-to-upgrade-ubuntu-from-14-04-to-16-04-1-via-do-release-upgrade-and-how-to/52274/12 "2016-12-24T18:43:14Z")
I am upgrading a droplet from 14.04 to 16.04 right now using `do-release-upgrade` and following @meglio’s excellent summary. So far so good!
edit: completed and running as 16.04 without any issues at all.
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### Author:  [@peternlewis](https://meta.discourse.org/u/peternlewis)
#### Post date: [18.Май.2017 06:52:21 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/is-it-safe-to-upgrade-ubuntu-from-14-04-to-16-04-1-via-do-release-upgrade-and-how-to/52274/13 "2017-05-18T06:52:21Z")
I’ve used the same process on a number of Digital Ocean servers, so it is good to hear this works as expected.
One point, it looks like you are on an older Digital Ocean server, so it has not upgraded the Kernel. You can switch (in the Digital Ocean control panel) the Kernel to the Grug 0.2 kernel, and then Ubuntu will use the latest version (4.4 something).
BTW, the Snapshot is definitely essential - I just tried this process and it corrupted the harddisk and refused to boot properly - I’m lucky like that. I restored from the snapshot and everything was good again (tried again and the same thing happened so now I’ll see what the DO folks have to suggest).
So kids, **always** do the Snapshot (ideally from a powered off state, event if that means your server is down for an hour).
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### Author:  [@peternlewis](https://meta.discourse.org/u/peternlewis)
#### Post date: [18.Май.2017 08:22:30 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/is-it-safe-to-upgrade-ubuntu-from-14-04-to-16-04-1-via-do-release-upgrade-and-how-to/52274/14 "2017-05-18T08:22:30Z")
I’m with @meglio, I’d like to see instructions on transferring a forum from one instance to a new one.
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### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [18.Май.2017 08:48:59 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/is-it-safe-to-upgrade-ubuntu-from-14-04-to-16-04-1-via-do-release-upgrade-and-how-to/52274/15 "2017-05-18T08:48:59Z")
Those instructions already exist in the #howto area unless you insist that the transfer has to be rsync, versus simple web download of backup, web upload of backup, then web restore.
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### Author:  [@peternlewis](https://meta.discourse.org/u/peternlewis)
#### Post date: [20.Май.2017 13:00:10 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/is-it-safe-to-upgrade-ubuntu-from-14-04-to-16-04-1-via-do-release-upgrade-and-how-to/52274/16 "2017-05-20T13:00:10Z")
Turns out my fstab had an incorrect UUID for the root disk which was the root cause (get it! ;- ) of the resulting disk corruption. Fixing that meant the update to Ubuntu 16 worked without further problems.
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### Author:  [@justin\_gordon](https://meta.discourse.org/u/justin_gordon)
#### Post date: [15.Октябрь.2017 07:11:34 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/is-it-safe-to-upgrade-ubuntu-from-14-04-to-16-04-1-via-do-release-upgrade-and-how-to/52274/17 "2017-10-15T07:11:34Z")
Any idea how much free disk space is needed to do this?
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### Author:  [@meglio](https://meta.discourse.org/u/meglio)
#### Post date: [25.Октябрь.2017 03:13:20 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/is-it-safe-to-upgrade-ubuntu-from-14-04-to-16-04-1-via-do-release-upgrade-and-how-to/52274/18 "2017-10-25T03:13:20Z")
> [@justin\_gordon](#):
>
> Any idea how much free disk space is needed to do this?
I had at least 7GB free, but don’t know how many are needed actually.
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### Author:  [@Saiano](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Saiano)
#### Post date: [03.Ноябрь.2020 11:41:41 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/is-it-safe-to-upgrade-ubuntu-from-14-04-to-16-04-1-via-do-release-upgrade-and-how-to/52274/19 "2020-11-03T11:41:41Z")
Подойдёт ли эта инструкция также для обновления с версии 18.04.02 до 20.04.01?
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### Author:  [@pfaffman](https://meta.discourse.org/u/pfaffman)
#### Post date: [03.Ноябрь.2020 14:37:46 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/is-it-safe-to-upgrade-ubuntu-from-14-04-to-16-04-1-via-do-release-upgrade-and-how-to/52274/20 "2020-11-03T14:37:46Z")
Так и должно быть. Я старомоден и предпочитаю выполнять чистую установку, а затем переносить данные.
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