[tor-relays] Upgrading a relay and changing IP address

[Cristian Consonni]

Hi,

On 18/05/2017 01:56, Gunnar Wolf wrote:
> Cristian Consonni dijo [Wed, May 17, 2017 at 05:04:29PM +0200]:
>> AS you can see from the Debian package page[1] the latest available
>> version of Tor packaged for Wheezy is 0.2.4.27-3, which to me looks
>> quite behind either 0.2.5.12-4 available in Jessie (stable) or the
>> 0.2.9.X series available through backports or testing.
>>
>> What's the best to do in this cases?
>> * Should I start updating tor manually?
>> * Should I update Debian on the server? (which could well me start with
>> a fresh install?
>> * Is it ok like it is now, provided that the system is updated?
>
> While Debian Wheezy (7, our "oldstable" release) still has security
> support via LTS¹, it is not recommended to run a Tor relay with such
> old packages. In fact, not even the version available in Jessie (8,
> our "stable" release - 0.2.5.12-4) is recommended nowadays.
>
> I suggest you to update to _at least_ Jessie and use the version in
> backports (depends on your sysadmining, but if your machine's only use
> is to run a Tor node, I'd suggest installing Stretch, 9, which has
> 0.2.9.9-1).

I am running the relays on VPS providers so, I can choose (only) among
the versions of Debian that are provided by the services as templates.
When Stretch is release I will see if they make it available, in a
reasonable time.

I am settled anyhow to upgrade the nodes as soon as the new Debian
version is released and I have a question. I have read that I can move
the node keys when upgrading[1] and I will do that.

One thing that will change with a fresh install is the IP address of the
nodes. So, I was wondering, in general is a good thing to keep the same
IP or changing it? Because in any case, I could try and do a
dist-upgrade[2] so that I keep the old IP. I have also discovered now
that DigitalOcean, one of the providers I use, provides a
kernel-management interface[3] that could make the process easier.

So, which is preferable between the two processes where one has the
advantage of keeping the same IP (dist-upgrade) and the other not (fresh
install)?

Of course, I am assuming that I will be able to complete any of the two
processes successfully.

Cristian

[1]: https://www.torproject.org/docs/faq.html.en#UpgradeOrMove
[2]: https://www.debian.org/releases/stable/amd64/release-notes/
[3]:
https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-update-a-digitalocean-server-s-kernel