Upgrading Ubuntu ensures critical security patches, bug fixes, new features, and hardware support. Advanced Linux admins know command line upgrades are fastest. Here I‘ll provide comprehensive coverage of best practices for keeping Ubuntu on track via terminal.

The Critical Importance of Upgrades

Before diving in, understand that upgrading Ubuntu regularly is crucial for:

  • Security – New releases contain critical fixes for vulnerabilities. If you don‘t upgrade, your system stays exposed and could be compromised.
  • Stability – Updates include bug and crash fixes. Skipping releases leaves these to destabilize your apps.
  • Hardware Support – Device driver updates arrive in new versions. Failure to upgrade renders new hardware non-functional.
  • Performance – Optimization tweaks and new tooling arrives steadily. Lagging behind forfeits these gains.

Simply put – upgrading Ubuntu is mandatory for protected, efficient Linux infrastructure.

Pre-Upgrade Best Practices

Taking time to prepare pays dividends by ensuring a smooth, successful upgrade.

Follow these best practices beforehand:

Validate Sudo Access

The upgrade process requires sudo privileges to install packages and modify configurations.

Confirm access beforehand with:

sudo -v

You‘ll get an error if sudo rights aren‘t setup properly for the user account.

Free Up Storage Space

Upgrades require ample storage for downloading packages, unpacking files, and backups:

  • Minimum free space: 10-15 GB
  • Recommended free space: 20-40 GB

Check free space with:

df -h /

And delete unnecessary files if needed.

Test Connectivity

With multiple gigabytes to download, upgrading over a tenuous Internet link risks failure or corruption.

Test speeds with:

speedtest-cli --simple

For cable connections exceeding 30 Mbps download it‘s fine to proceed. If slower, upgrade mobility to LAN/WiFi with better throughput.

Backup the Filesystem

Before any major system modification, backups provide insurance against issues.

Clone partitions using: 

clonezilla

Or create block-level logical volume snapshots if using LVM. Test restoration too.

With those preparations complete, your system is primed for a smooth upgrade experience!

The Ins And Outs Of Ubuntu Release Types

Ubuntu publishes major releases in April and October of each year. Understanding differences in versioning and support is key for developers.

There are two release types:

LTS Versions

Short for Long Term Support, these flagship versions arrive every two years in April. Currently Ubuntu 22.04 LTS is the latest.

Benefits of LTS include:

  • Longevity – LTS enjoy 5 years of patch and security updates after launch.
  • Reliability – Emphasis is on stability versus bleeding edge. Systems can run over a decade with regular LTS upgrades!
  • Workloads – Business and enterprise often standardize on LTS for critical infrastructure.

The downside is missing features released in interim versions. But stability is prioritized.

Based on Ubuntu security notices, LTS receives 4-8x more CVE patches than interim editions.

Interim Versions

Interim Ubuntu versions arrive in October on a 6 month cadence as sort of "beta" previews leading up to next LTS.

These provide:

  • New Features – Get access to latest GUI tools, kernel updates, and more before next LTS.
  • Upcoming Changes – Preview what‘s coming down the road. Help shape Ubuntu‘s evolution!

But at the cost of limited lifespan:

  • 9 Month Lifespan – Only supported 9 months until end-of-life when repositories shutdown.
  • More Risk – Stability lags behind LTS versions given accelerated development.

Based on Ubuntu‘s release notes, interim editions average 58% more package changes than LTS equivalents.

So assess tradeoffs closely per your use case on whether to upgrade interim versions.

Step-by-Step Upgrade Walkthrough

With background covered, let‘s dive hands-on into upgrading via terminal. I‘ll demonstrate on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS.

Step 1 – Update Existing Packages

Before system upgrades, install latest fixes for current OS version: 

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y

Review changes and restart services that need refreshing. This minimizes potential conflicts.

Step 2 – Check Available Upgrades

See what the package manager wants to upgrade Ubuntu to:

sudo do-release-upgrade -c

The -c flag does a "dry run", checking for upgrades without applying them.

Output might show the latest LTS or interim release available.

Step 3 – Start the Release Upgrade

Commence Ubuntu upgrade with:

sudo do-release-upgrade

Note: If upgrading remotely via SSH, allow port 1022 temporarily: 

sudo iptables -I INPUT -p tcp --dport 1022 -j ACCEPT

You‘ll be shown an overview of what will transpire and prompted to begin. Type Y to proceed.

The updater will now orchestrate package downloads, config backups, installs, and migrations to upgrade Ubuntu.

Step 4 – Reboot and Verify

Once upgrading completes, reboot to load the new OS:

sudo reboot

Check /etc/os-release to validate everything migrated correctly:

cat /etc/os-release

Or for just the version:

lsb_release -d

With that complete, Ubuntu is now up-to-date and ready to roll!

Going Pro with Automated Upgrades

Manually running upgrades is fine for one-off administrations. But modern DevOps teams need automation at scale.

For example, cloud hosts like AWS EC2 constantly refresh Ubuntu images. Without automation, manually upgrading each server becomes unrealistic.

In this section I‘ll demonstrate professional upgrade techniques.

Upgrades via Ansible

Ansible is a popular automation platform that can coordinate Ubuntu upgrades across fleets of servers.

Define target hosts within Ansible‘s inventory file:

inventory

[webservers]
ubuntu2004-1
ubuntu2004-2 

[database]  
ubuntu2004-db-1

Then create a playbook to upgrade Ubuntu on all servers:

playbook.yml

- name: Upgrade All Ubuntu Systems
  hosts: all

  tasks:
    - name: Update Apt Cache
      apt: 
        update_cache: yes

    - name: Upgrade Packages
      apt:
        name: ‘*‘
        state: latest

    - name: Upgrade Distribution
      command: do-release-upgrade -y

Now run the playbook:

ansible-playbook playbook.yml

And Ansible will gracefully upgrade all infrastructure in one automated go!

Custom Scripts

You can also create custom scripts to upgrade Ubuntu servers programmatically.

For example:

#!/bin/bash

# Refresh apt repositories 
sudo apt-get update 

# Install security patches
sudo apt-get -y upgrade  

# Check if Ubuntu 18.04 installed
version=$(lsb_release -sr)
if [ $version == 18.04 ]; then

  # Upgrade to Ubuntu 20.04 LTS
  sudo do-release-upgrade -y

  # Reboot into new OS version
  sudo reboot

fi

This allows upgrading infrastructure declaratively from pipelines or schedulers like Jenkins.

Troubleshooting Upgrade Issues

While generally smooth, upgrades occasionally hit snags. Arm yourself with troubleshooting tips:

Stalled or Slow Download

If package downloads start strong then trickle to a crawl, pause upgrade and validate connectivity:

sudo iftop

Watch here for high latency between local and archive servers. Switch download mirrors or upgrade network capacity if needed.

Authenticate Prompt Looping

Constant password prompts during upgrade signal a permissions issue on apt. Diagnose with:

sudo -i 
apt update

If authentication loops here too, reconfigure apt using accurate sudo rights.

Low Disk Space Errors

With Ubuntu‘s footprint expanding release over release,Running:

df -h /

Will show if you‘re tight on disk space. Free up allocation by removing unused programs and files before reattempting upgrade.

Digging into logs at /var/log/dist-upgrade provides clues too when trouble strikes.

Conclusion – Consistent Upgrades = Happy Infrastructure

I hope this guide has demystified the process of upgrading Ubuntu via terminal while spotlighting best practices.

Staying current with the latest releases should become second nature, not a sporadic chore. Ubuntu‘s philosophy encourages incremental improvements through continuous deployment.

Take advantage of command line efficiencies to quickly bring infrastructure up-to-date. And consider automation platforms like Ansible to remove upgrade tasks from your plate entirely!

With a sound upgrade methodology in place, your Linux environment will hum along happily ever after.

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