[rt-users] Why I am recommending 3.6 over 3.8 to my boss

[Robert Brockway]

On Thu, 4 Nov 2010, Wes Modes wrote:

> I CAN do a manual install of RT3.8 using the Best Practical install 
> scripts.  It is not terribly hard.  However, the long-term costs of this

Hi Wes.  One of the biggest problems here is often over-looked.  When you 
build the app yourself you are taking over management of security updates, 
rather than relying on the distro maintainer to do it (but you should 
always keep an eye on report of serious vulnerabilities anyway).

> are large.  The install scripts put all the binaries, configuration 
> files, and libraries in the wrong places for RHEL/CentOS, and working 
> outside the package manager means files could be clobbered at any time.

Package manager should completely avoid touching some parts of the file 
system including /opt and /usr/local.  This is deliberate to avoid exactly 
this problem (custom apps being clobbered).

I always try to keep custom modifications to a minimum because of the 
increased security overhead.  If I have to build a custom app I will 
normally try to put it on a dedicated virtual box so that any 
customisations I have to do don't effect other apps (but then I make 
extensive use of virtualisation anyway).

> Additionally, the cost of migration of old content from 3.6 to 3.8 is unknown.

And check your data throughly after the upgrade.  More than once I've seen 
upgrades appear to go successfully but have problems discovered later - 
when it is too late to go back.

Cheers,

Rob

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