HowTo: Update Centos Linux 5.4 to 5.5

CentOS Linux v5.5 has been released. How do I upgrade CentOS Linux from version 5.4 to latest version 5.5 over the Internet?

CentOS Linux v5.5 has been released and available via mirrors for immediate update. You can use the yum command to upgrade CentOS Linux as follows.

Step # 1: Make A Backup

It cannot be stressed enough how important it is to make a backup of your system before you do this. Use the following tools to backup data to other server or USB hard disk:

• Use mysqldump for MySQL databases
• Use pg_dump for PostgreSQL databases
• Use tar and rsync tool for LAMP

Step # 2: Update All Packages

Type the following command to get a list of packages that are going to be updated, enter:
# yum list updates
To upgrade your box, enter:
# yum update

Fig.01: CentOS Upgrade In Progress Over The SSH Session

Verify everything is working:
# uname -a
# netstat -tulpn
# tail -f /var/log/messages
# tail -f /path/to/log/file
# cat /etc/redhat-release
Sample outputs:

CentOS release 5.5 (Final)

You can use the the lsb_release command as follows:
# lsb_release -a
Sample outputs:

LSB Version:	:core-3.1-amd64:core-3.1-ia32:core-3.1-noarch:graphics-3.1-amd64:graphics-3.1-ia32:graphics-3.1-noarch
Distributor ID:	CentOS
Description:	CentOS release 5.5 (Final)
Release:	5.5
Codename:	Final

To view log of all updated package, enter:

tail -f /var/log/yum.log
less /var/log/yum.log
grep -i httpd /var/log/yum.log

See also:

• Yum command reference and man page for more information.