How to upgrade BigBlueButton 2.2 to 2.3 (Ubuntu 16.04 to 18.04)?

In this article, I'll show you how to upgrade BigBlueButton 2.2 to 2.3. BigBlueButton 2.2 runs on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS, but BigBlueButton 2.3 requires Ubuntu 18.04 LTS. BigBlueButton developers recommend installing BigBlueButton 2.3 on a fresh Ubuntu 18.04 server, but we're going to upgrade Ubuntu 16.04 to 18.04 by following these steps. This will save us time because we will not have to transfer recordings from one server to another. Please keep in mind that proper backup should be taken before beginning. Take a look at some of the exciting BigBlueButton 2.3 features.

Log in with SSH and run the following command(s) on your Ubuntu 16.04 LTS server. Please ensure that the proper backup is taken. All records are placed under the directory /var/bigbluebutton. Make sure that you've taken backup of your customized development / configuration, too.

1) First of all need to upgrade all the packages & reboot server.

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y && sudo apt dist-upgrade -y && apt autoremove -y
sudo reboot

2) After rebooting the server, login again and run the following commands in terminal. You must follow the instructions in the output. Continue if you see any packages missing warnings. The Ubuntu installation will automatically remove/update those packages for you.

sudo bbb-conf --stop

## main packages
sudo apt purge -yq kurento-media-server nodejs yq bigbluebutton bbb-html5 certbot nginx nginx-common nginx-core

## optional packages but better to remove as BigBlueButton will install those again.
sudo apt purge -yq bbb-apps-akka bbb-apps-screenshare bbb-client bbb-freeswitch-core bbb-fsesl-akka bbb-red5 bbb-transcode-akka bbb-web bbb-record-core kms-core kms-elements mongodb-org mongodb-org-server ffmpeg redis-server openjdk-8-jre openjdk-8-jre-headless

sudo apt auto-remove -y

sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:rmescandon/yq -y
sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:libreoffice/ppa -y
sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:bigbluebutton/support -y
sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:certbot/certbot -y

## we'll remove some of the directories. Please take backup if need.
sudo rm -rf /etc/bigbluebutton
sudo rm -rf /usr/local/bigbluebutton
sudo rm -rf /var/log/bigbluebutton
sudo rm -rf /usr/share/bbb-web
sudo rm -rf /usr/share/red5
sudo rm -rf /var/lib/red5
sudo rm -rf /opt/freeswitch
sudo rm -rf /usr/share/etherpad-lite
sudo rm -rf /usr/lib/node_modules
sudo rm -rf /var/lib/mongodb

sudo rm -rf /etc/apt/sources.list.d/*
sudo rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*

sudo mv -f /etc/apt/sources.list /etc/apt/sources.list.tmp

## This is for safety so that won't make conflict with other third party packages. We'll fixed it later.
sudo echo "deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial main restricted universe multiverse" > /etc/apt/sources.list

sudo apt clean && sudo apt update -y && sudo apt upgrade -y

sudo apt install -y update-manager-core

sudo do-release-upgrade

3) If the above procedures succeed and you reboot, you should be on Ubuntu 18.04 LTS :-). Before installing BigBlueButton 2.3, run the following commands. You can change the repository links to your preferred mirror.

sudo cat > /etc/apt/sources.list << HERE
# See http://help.ubuntu.com/community/UpgradeNotes for how to upgrade to
# newer versions of the distribution.
deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic main restricted
# deb-src http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic main restricted

## Major bug fix updates produced after the final release of the
## distribution.
deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-updates main restricted
# deb-src http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-updates main restricted

## N.B. software from this repository is ENTIRELY UNSUPPORTED by the Ubuntu
## team. Also, please note that software in universe WILL NOT receive any
## review or updates from the Ubuntu security team.
deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic universe
# deb-src http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic universe
deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-updates universe
# deb-src http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-updates universe

## N.B. software from this repository is ENTIRELY UNSUPPORTED by the Ubuntu
## team, and may not be under a free licence. Please satisfy yourself as to
## your rights to use the software. Also, please note that software in
## multiverse WILL NOT receive any review or updates from the Ubuntu
## security team.
deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic multiverse
# deb-src http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic multiverse
deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-updates multiverse
# deb-src http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-updates multiverse

## N.B. software from this repository may not have been tested as
## extensively as that contained in the main release, although it includes
## newer versions of some applications which may provide useful features.
## Also, please note that software in backports WILL NOT receive any review
## or updates from the Ubuntu security team.
deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-backports main restricted universe multiverse
# deb-src http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-backports main restricted universe multiverse

## Uncomment the following two lines to add software from Canonical's
## 'partner' repository.
## This software is not part of Ubuntu, but is offered by Canonical and the
## respective vendors as a service to Ubuntu users.
# deb http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu bionic partner
# deb-src http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu bionic partner

deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-security main restricted
# deb-src http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-security main restricted
deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-security universe
# deb-src http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-security universe
deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-security multiverse
# deb-src http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-security multiverse
HERE

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y && sudo apt autoremove -y
# if new Linux kernel was installed then better to reboot again before install BBB 2.3
sudo reboot 

4) Now it's time to install BigBlueButton 2.3 ;-)

wget -qO- http://ubuntu.bigbluebutton.org/bbb-install.sh | bash -s -- -v bionic-23 -s bbb.example.com -e This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Replace the host name and email address with yours. This should install BigBlueButton 2.3 on your server and allow you to use your BigBlueButton 2.2 recordings. If you require assistance, can contact with us. Take a look at our BigBlueButton services and BigBlueButton Hosting.

Common Problems:

============

Problem 1:

failed to create endpoint optimistic_haibt on network bridge: failed to add the host (veth6bc15c7) <=> sandbox (veth2de3a97) pair interfaces: operation not supported
dpkg: error processing package bbb-libreoffice-docker (--configure):

Solution: This usually occurs when a new Kernel has been installed. As a result, you'll need to restart your server and attempt again to run:

sudo apt -f install

It should resolve the issue, after which you should rerun bbb-install.sh to keep going.