The Upgrade Process

I finally got around to upgrading my web server from Ubuntu 14.04 to Ubuntu 16.04.1. I decided to jot down my experiences in case anyone else runs into these issues.

Preparation

The first thing I did prior to doing the upgrade was to run updraft plus to backup the Blog’s database and files. After that finished I logged into the Amazon EC2 console and created an image of my AMI. This way in the worst case scenario that I trashed my image I could just boot the backup image and be where I was before I began.

I have sort of taken for granted how easy all the updates are for a Wordpress site. If there is a security update Wordpress just goes up and updates itself without me doing anything and the plugin community is so active there are frequent updates to all of the plugins I used. Because it always just works I don’t really hesitate to run any of the updates when I see them on the site.

I noticed that a bunch of people when they post to Twitter have much cooler looking posts than what the Jetpack plugin seemed to be doing for me on my blog. Over Thanksgiving I was looking into this a bit and discovered Twitter Cards. I am probably the last person on the internet finding out about them, but I hadn’t really paid that much attention to it previously. I decided maybe I should create a plugin to add them to the blog. But this being Wordpress I did a search first and it looks like there is already a great one out there. This post is just me testing it out and seeing how it works. I often see people say that a great way to develop a little side income is to create a Wordpress plugin and sell it. I actually wonder how people do that because it seems like every time I need some sort of plugin to add functionality to the blog I can find an amazing free plugin that does it for me. Anyway hopefully this test post works and I get a Twitter Card for it.

I am always a little amazed when I get an email from my blog that tells me it upgraded software versions. Even though I have had auto-updating operating systems and other software for years, something about a website updating itself just seems like a bigger deal. I am sure most people think like whatever, but I think what a cool time we live in, when all this stuff just manages itself.