Upgrading Ubuntu Server LTS from 16.04 to 18.04

Ubuntu 18.04, aka Bionic Beaver, was released on 26 April 2018. In this post, I will try to explain how do I upgrade my Ubuntu server. I will also inform you about how I overcome the obstacles related to Python hosting.

Step 1  -  Backing Up Your System

Before attempting a major upgrade to any system, you should make sure you won’t lose data if the upgrade fails. The best way to accomplish this is to make a backup of your entire file system.

On a DigitalOcean Droplet, one approach is to power down the system and take a snapshot (powering down ensures that the file system will be more consistent).

Step 2  -  Updating Currently Installed Packages

Before beginning the release upgrade, it’s safest to update to the latest versions of all packages for the current release.

sudo apt-get update  
sudo apt-get upgrade  
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

Step 3  -  Upgrading with Ubuntu’s do-release-upgrade Tool

Ubuntu provides a tool called do-release-upgrade to make the upgrade safer and easier.

do-release-upgrade handles checking for new releases, updating sources.list, and a range of other tasks, and is the officially recommended upgrade path for server upgrades that must be performed over a remote connection.

sudo do-release-upgrade

If there is no new release, you can try to add -d option to upgrade to the development release. If everything goes well, you should reboot and use it happily.

Problem 1: Python Virtual Environment

But I have a minor problem after upgrading, my python virtual environment doesn’t work. I have solved this by recreating each virtual environment and installing requirements by using the requirements.txt file.

References

1. https://ubuntu.com/server/docs/upgrade-introduction

2. https://docs.python.org/3/library/venv.html

3. https://pip.pypa.io/en/stable/getting-started/?highlight=requirements.txt#install-multiple-packages-using-a-requirements-file