Upgrade a 4.x Installation using a newer ISO image
Introduction
If you have a valid subscription or you have enabled the "pve-no-subscription" repositories the upgrade process should be as easy as upgrading packages, i.e.
apt-get update && apt-get dist-upgrade
see Wiki article Downloads for exact steps for the upgrade of each releases, it is recommended to process according to it whenever possible.
In exceptional cases, if you don't have access to internet but you have a 4.x ISO containing newer packages than your current 4.x installation you can use it to upgrade according the following example which describes an upgrade from 4.0 to 4.1.
Step by step upgrade process
Create a mount point and update /etc/fstab accordingly
mkdir /media/cdrom echo '/dev/sr0 /media/cdrom iso9660 noauto,ro 0 0' >> /etc/fstab # optional
Mount the CD or an ISO image
If you have a real CD/DVD or if running the Proxmox VE in another VM and using the ISO image:
mount /dev/sr0 /media/cdrom
or just (if you have an entry in the /etc/fstab):
mount /media/cdrom
If you have the downloaded ISO image:
mount -o loop /path/to/proxmox-ve_4.1-2f9650d4-21.iso /media/cdrom
Mount an empty directory over /media/cdrom/dev
Using apt-cdrom will fail while trying to scan /media/cdrom/dev/proc/self/fd directory. As a workaround create an empty file-system and mount it over /media/cdrom/dev:
mkfs.cramfs /mnt /tmp/empty-image.img # /mnt being an empty directory mount -o loop /tmp/empty-image.img /media/cdrom/dev ls -l /media/cdrom/dev # shows an empty content
Add a CD repository
apt-cdrom --no-auto-detect --cdrom /media/cdrom --no-mount add
This should scan the CD content, ask you for a name (use Proxmox 4.1) and add a repository in your /etc/apt/sources.list file. It creates also an entry in the /var/lib/apt/cdroms.list using the CD ID and given name. The content of the /var/lib/apt/cdroms.list should look like:
CD::aa2253e1b6b98e93b17b38bef5b4d256-2 "Proxmox 4.1";
The added lines to the /etc/apt.sources.list should look like:
deb cdrom:[Proxmox 4.1]/ jessie pve deb cdrom:[Proxmox 4.1]/proxmox/packages/ /
Update and upgrade packages
apt-get update && apt-get dist-upgrade
Reboot
systemctl reboot
The packages should be updated from the CD/ISO image, a new kernel version should be 4.2.6-1-pve.
Cleanup: Remove the CD repository
You can disable or remove the CD repository by commenting out the corresponding lines in the /etc/apt/sources.list file, you can also remove the /var/lib/apt/cdroms.list file. Run apt-get update afterwards.