OS Version Information
We always recommend using the latest available OS version when creating a new server unless it’s in a beta period right after it’s released. Any stack that’s in beta will be marked as such in the dropdown when you create a new server.
Information
The latest version is Ubuntu 26.04, and this is available for both Nginx and OpenLiteSpeed. We recommend choosing this option when creating new servers.
Q&A
Can I clone websites from older servers to 26.04?
Yes, assuming your servers are all properly sized, and your website databases don’t have any serious issues.
If you’re running a full server-to-server clone, you will also be able to use remote backups from alternative sources if any websites encounter issues.
Can’t I just upgrade my servers Ubuntu OS?
Unfortunately, you can’t just upgrade your Ubuntu OS. Each stack is built specifically to be compatible with each version of the Ubuntu OS and the different software/packages/modules that support it. Upgrading only the OS will inevitably lead to issues that we cannot provide support for.
This means you need a new server, and you will need to migrate your sites across.
Why can’t you support new Ubuntu releases as soon as they come out?
There are numerous reasons why support for new OS versions takes some time. For example, we were waiting for specific Nginx updates before we released the 20.04 stack, and then ultimately ended up building those ourselves. There may also be major database updates between OS versions, like with our 26.04 stack.
Here are a few different factors that can impact our release times:
- Different packages/modules that we require are not immediately supported by their respective developers, and we need to either wait for their updates to support them or build what we need ourselves.
- Each new stack contains new features, and these take time to build, iterate on, guard against user error, and ensure backward compatibility with earlier stacks.
- Existing features may require adjustments to be compatible with the new OS and/or new features.
- The cloning tools need to be fully compatible with new stacks and support previous versions.
- A massive amount of time-consuming, internal testing before the beta release.
Future stacks will continue to build upon the previous ones, and these may not always have such huge changes like the new system user functionality and directory structures, but we will always be at the mercy of the 3rd party packages we use, which can take 6-9 months or more to come out after the LTS release date.