I'm curious about the experiences from other people that upgraded a multi server environment from ubuntu 18.04 to ubuntu 20.04 and ISPConfig 3.1 to 3.2. Were there any obstacles?
I think the best is not to fix what ain't broken. You still have at least until April 2023 for Ubuntu 18.04, so if I were you, I won't upgrade that until almost time i.e. Ubuntu 22.04.1 is released and supported by ISPConfig.
20.04 is supported/recommended, and i dont like big leaps (so im not waiting or 22.04). As im adding a few servers to the farm i would love to have unity server wide. This way I'd like to force my clients to update their websites to. Now im still running php 7.0 for 2 or 3 clients and my wish is to cut its neck and even bump the minimal version to php 7.3 as 7.2 is EOL in a month if im not mistaken. Also 20.04 has proven to be better in performance and find the "if it aint broke dont fix it" rule very old school IT minded. very retro That rule has bitten my ass more than updating to latest releases.
Things to keep in mind: - Follow the perfect server guide for the new version you are updating to to see if you have to change configs/install new programs. - After doing a dist-upgrade, always reconfigure services by running a ISPConfig update, either with the update script for your current version or for a newer version.
I won't argue your personal preference on OS upgrade as it is totally up to you, but I do see ISPConfig as necessary most of the time, since it does fix some bugs. Additionally, I am really not sure if php is a problem for you since we'll normally install multi php version in our system and and allow clients to choose from them. With regards to default php used by ISPConfig in CLI, I really don't think there is any danger in that, if security is your concern.
