Parallels

Symptoms

I wish to upgrade my Plesk 8.0.x running on FreeBSD but more recent Plesk versions have major changes in the package structure. They using native FreeBSD ports packages system.
How do I perform the upgrade safely?

Resolution

Since 8.1 version Parallels Plesk Panel started to use FreeBSD ports/packages system that completely differs from the previous Plesk all-in-one package structure.

As a result of this we highly do NOT recommend to upgrade Plesk 8.0 on the same FreeBSD server because upgrade may take a long time due to all needed packages compilation and even fail for upgrading to version 9.0.
It is recommended to install a new server with the latest Plesk 8.x version and perform the migration to it using Plesk migration tool (Server -> Migration Manager). During new Plesk installation on separate server, please choose to use ports snapshot provided by Plesk to avoid possible problems.

Plesk Migration Manager is missing in Parallels Plesk Panel version 9.0.x. Please refer to this article: http://kb.parallels.com/en/5857
To upgrade Parallels Plesk Panel 8.0 on FreeBSD it is recommended to setup new Parallels Plesk Panel version 8.x (x>0), migrate data to it and then upgrade to version 9.x usual way.