Would a backup of the cPanel partition be enough if mysql upgrade goes wrong?

[2Pro4u]

The recent cpanel update notes I should update my mysql 5.5. I noticed the thread at: Unsupported MySQL Version notes that it's impossible to revert back from MariaDB back to mysql 5.5.

Would a backup of the drive that contains cpanel, whm, apache, etc. allow me to revert back, if "things don't work right" on the database driven sites?

An upgrade to MariaDB doesn't change data in the /home directories or the actual mysql database files, is that correct?

So I could simply restore the backup, and be back on mysql 5.5 if things didn't go right with the "recommended" MariaDB 10.3?

I'm very concerned as some sites are 5-10 years old, and I have no one that can rewrite our code to get it working on a newer mysql/MarioDB version. It has to continue to work, otherwise I can't use a new version.

 

[cPanelMichael]

Hello @2Pro4u,

Can you share more information about how the backup was generated? For instance, is it a backup image of the entire server?

A common approach to take if you are concerned about potential compatibility issues is to temporarily setup a new server for testing purposes. Once the new server is setup and cPanel & WHM is installed (a free trial license is utilized by default), you can then migrate your accounts to that test server (without changing the DNS) via WHM >> Transfer Tool. At that point, you'd upgrade MySQL to the new version on the test server, update the hosts file on your local workstation to point the domains to the test server's IP address, and then verify the scripts function as expected on the new MySQL version.

Thank you.