How to upgrade Geoserver 2.1.1 to 2.1.2

From 2.1.1 to 2.1.2, Ubuntu 10.04 Server, Tomcat6

Note: all those commands need to be done as root (or alternatively, run sudo before the command)

1. Stop Apache tomcat:

   /etc/init.d/tomcat stop 
   

2. Backup the your directories, this could be different from your own installation: /var/geoserver-data, /opt/tomcat/webapps/geoserver/  

   tar -cf geoserver-data-nov-17.tar /var/geoserver-data # takes quite long on current geoserver installation (orthofotos, ...)
   gzip geoserver-data-nov-17.tar
   tar -cf geoserver-app-nov-17.tar /opt/tomcat/webapps/geoserver
   gzip geoserver-app-nov-17.tar
   

3. Additionally, backup web.xml file from WEB-INF directory:

   cp /opt/tomcat/webapps/geoserver/WEB-INF/web.xml web-backup-nov17.xml
   

4. Download latest (in this case: 2.1.2) geoserver version (war archive)

   wget http://downloads.sourceforge.net/geoserver/geoserver-2.1.2-war.zip
   

5. Unzip it

   unzip geoserver-2.1.2-war.zip
   

6. Copy it to the tomcat webapps directory

   cp geoserver.war /opt/tomcat/webapps/geoserver.war
   

7. Delete old geoserver installation

   rm -rf /opt/tomcat/webapps/geoserver/
   

8. Start Tomcat again

   /etc/init.d/tomcat start
   

9. Wait... (this can take a while, monitor CPU usage via htop or other tools)
10. Check /opt/tomcat/webapps/ directory, you should see a subdirectory geoserver very soon

    ls -la /opt/tomcat/webapps/
    

11. Verify that new geoserver version is running by trying to access  http://gs1.gomogi.com:8080/geoserver/
12. We're not done yet, let's put the old configuration file in place again:

    cp web-backup-nov17.xml /opt/tomcat/webapps/geoserver/WEB-INF/web.xml
    

13. Restart tomcat once again and all should be good in update land.

    /etc/init.d/tomcat restart