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Debian-based servers have a unique ability to easily upgrade from one major version to another without re-installation and will little reconfiguration.
To begin you will need to specify the location of the new packages in /etc/apt/sources.list. In other words, APT will need to know where the new packages are.
To upgrade an entire distribution to a new version of it, just run the following command as root:
apt-get dist-upgrade
There are a couple of things to consider when performing a full upgrade. Do you really need any of the latest packages? If your current distribution is still supported, it may not be worth the risk, and the risk is that some packages might not install correctly. Furthermore, downloading and installing so many packages will slow down your server while it is upgrading.
It is best to weigh the pros against the cons and then decide if your system really needs the upgrade or if you can keep it updated and secure with the current version.
