Debian 10 is reaching end of life, what do I do?

Debian 10 reaches its EOL on June 2024, and we strongly recommend you to upgrade instances with this version to a newer operating system.

Not upgrading your system will mean your server will be vulnerable as Debian 10 will not longer be supported or receive security updates. 

Depending on whether you use Debian 10 with or without Plesk our recommendations for upgrading from Debian 10 are slightly different. Below you can find how we recommend you upgrade your server based on these options.

I'm using Debian 10 with Plesk, what do I do?

If you're using Debian 10 with Plesk it is recommend to perform a dist upgrade, you can find a guide for this here.

Before making the upgrade we recommend making a backup or snapshot of your server to make sure no data is lost. You can find a guide on how to create a snapshot here and how to create a backup here.

I'm using Debian 10 without Plesk, what do I do?

If you're using Debain 10 without Plesk we recommend upgrading to Debian 11 with the below steps.

Also to note Debian 11 will only receive security updates from late August 2024 so we also recommend upgrading to Debian 12. To do this you first must upgrade to Debian 11 with the steps below. You can then follow our guide here where you can upgrade from Debian 11 to Debian 12.

1. Make a snapshot or backup of your server to make sure no data is lost. You can find a guide on how to create a snapshot here and a guide on how to create a backup here.
   
   
2. Check that there are no packages in hold with the following command:

   sudo apt-mark showhold | more

   If no packages are returned you can move on to the next step. If the command does return some packages in hold you will need to remove the hold status from them with the following command:
   

   sudo apt-mark unhold [package_name]

3. Next you need to make sure all packages and repositories are up to date by running the following command:

   sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade

4. Make sure the gcc-8-base package is installed with the following command:

   sudo apt install gcc-8-base

   If the package isn't installed the installation should begin. If the package is already installed nothing should happen and you can move on to the next step.
   
   
5. Next you will need to update the APT's source list files. First change the directory to etc/apt with the following command:
   

   cd /etc/apt

6. Open the sources.list file using your preferred text editor. In the example we will use nano: 

   sudo nano sources.list

7. Using the text editor remove any sources that contain the word "buster". 
   
   
8. Add the following new sources with the text editor:
   deb http://deb.debian.org/debian bullseye main contrib non-free
   deb http://deb.debian.org/debian bullseye-updates main contrib non-free
   deb http://security.debian.org/debian-security bullseye-security main
   deb http://ftp.debian.org/debian bullseye-backports main contrib non-free
   
   
9. Run the following command to update the system repositories:

   sudo apt update

10. Run the following command to update to Debian 11:

    sudo apt full-upgrade -y

11. When prompted to restart service packages, select Yes using the arrow keys and press Enter.
    
    
12. Run the following command to restart the system to complete the upgrade process:  

    systemctl reboot

13. After the reboot you can check the version by running this command:

    cat /etc/debian_version