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Chapter 3. Upgrading Red Hat Enterprise Linux on Satellite or Capsule

Satellite and Capsule are supported on both Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9. You can use the following methods to upgrade your Satellite or Capsule operating system from Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 to Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9:

Leapp in-place upgrade
With Leapp, you can upgrade your Satellite or Capsule in-place therefore it is faster but imposes a downtime on the services.
Migration by using cloning
The Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 system remains operational during the migration using cloning, which reduces the downtime. You cannot use cloning for Capsule Server migrations.
Migration by using backup and restore
The Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 system remains operational during the migration using cloning, which reduces the downtime. You can use backup and restore for migrating both Satellite and Capsule operating system from Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 to Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.

You can use the Leapp tool to upgrade as well as to help detect and resolve issues that could prevent you from upgrading successfully.

Prerequisites

  • Review known issues before you begin an upgrade. For more information, see Known issues in Red Hat Satellite 6.16.
  • If you use an HTTP proxy in your environment, configure the Subscription Manager to use the HTTP proxy for connection. For more information, see Troubleshooting in Upgrading from RHEL 8 to RHEL 9.
  • Satellite 6.16 or Capsule 6.16 running on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8. Note that you can upgrade to Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 using LEAPP without updating to the latest Satellite 6.16 patch release version.

  • If you are upgrading Capsule Servers, enable and synchronize the following repositories to Satellite Server, and add them to the lifecycle environment and content view that is attached to your Capsule Server:

    Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 for x86_64 - BaseOS (RPMs)
    rhel-9-for-x86_64-baseos-rpms for the latest supported minor version: x86_64 9.Y, where Y represents the minor version. For information about the latest supported minor version for in-place upgrades, see Supported upgrade paths in Upgrading from RHEL 8 to RHEL 9.
    Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 for x86_64 - AppStream (RPMs)
    rhel-9-for-x86_64-appstream-rpms for the latest supported minor version: x86_64 9.Y, where Y represents the minor version. For information about the latest supported minor versions for in-place upgrades, see Supported upgrade paths in Upgrading from RHEL 8 to RHEL 9.
    Red Hat Satellite Capsule 6.16 for RHEL 9 x86_64 RPMs*
    satellite-capsule-6.16-for-rhel-9-x86_64-rpms
    Red Hat Satellite Maintenance 6.16 for RHEL 9 x86_64 RPMs
    satellite-maintenance-6.16-for-rhel-9-x86_64-rpms

Procedure

  1. Install required packages: 

    # satellite-maintain packages install leapp leapp-upgrade-el8toel9

  2. Let Leapp analyze your system: 

    # leapp preupgrade

    The first run will most likely report issues and inhibit the upgrade. Examine the report in the /var/log/leapp/leapp-report.txt file, answer all questions by using leapp answer, and manually resolve other reported problems.

  3. Run leapp preupgrade again and make sure that it does not report any more issues.

  4. Let Leapp create the upgrade environment: 

    # leapp upgrade

  5. Reboot the system to start the upgrade.

    After the system reboots, a live system conducts the upgrade, reboots to fix SELinux labels and then reboots into the final Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 system.

  6. Wait for Leapp to finish the upgrade. You can monitor the process with journalctl: 

    # journalctl -u leapp_resume -f

  7. Unlock packages: 

    # satellite-maintain packages unlock
  8. Verify the post-upgrade state. For more information, see Verifying the post-upgrade state in Upgrading from RHEL 8 to RHEL 9.
  9. Perform post-upgrade tasks on the RHEL 9 system. For more information, see Performing post-upgrade tasks on the RHEL 9 system in Upgrading from RHEL 8 to RHEL 9.

  10. Lock packages: 

    # satellite-maintain packages lock
  11. Change SELinux to enforcing mode. For more information, see Changing SELinux mode to enforcing in Upgrading from RHEL 8 to RHEL 9.

  12. Unset the subscription-manager release: 

    # subscription-manager release --unset

Additional resources

You can clone your existing Satellite Server from Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 to a freshly installed Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 system. Create a backup of the existing Satellite Server, which you then clone on the new Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 system.

Note

You cannot use cloning for Capsule Server backups.

Procedure

  1. Perform a full backup of your Satellite Server. This is the source Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 server that you are migrating. For more information, see Performing a full backup of Satellite Server in Administering Red Hat Satellite.
  2. Deploy a system with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 and the same configuration as the source server. This is the target server.
  3. Clone the server. Clone configures hostname for the target server. For more information, see Cloning Satellite Server in Administering Red Hat Satellite

You can migrate your existing Satellite Server and Capsule Server from Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 to a freshly installed Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 system. The migration involves creating a backup of the existing Satellite Server and Capsule Server, which you then restore on the new Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 system.

Procedure

  1. Perform a full backup of your Satellite Server or Capsule. This is the source Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 server that you are migrating. For more information, see Performing a full backup of Satellite Server or Capsule Server in Administering Red Hat Satellite.
  2. Deploy a system with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 and the same hostname and configuration as the source server. This is the target server.
  3. Restore the backup. Restore does not significantly alter the target system and requires additional configuration. For more information, see Restoring Satellite Server or Capsule Server from a backup in Administering Red Hat Satellite.
  4. Restore the Capsule Server backup. For more information, see Restoring Satellite Server or Capsule Server from a backup in Administering Red Hat Satellite.
  5. Shut down the old Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 Capsule Server and reassign its IP address to the new Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 system.

3.4. Upgrade Puppet agent 7 to OpenVox agent 8
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If you use Puppet to configure hosts, you can upgrade Puppet agent to OpenVox agent.

Puppet agent remains compatible with OpenVox in Satellite as a legacy alternative, but Red Hat recommends to upgrade to OpenVox agent. For more information, see OpenVox versions supported for integration with Satellite in Managing configurations by using Puppet integration.

Prerequisites

  • Red Hat Satellite Client 6 OpenVox repository is enabled on the host.

Procedure

  • On your hosts, upgrade the puppet-agent agent package to openvox-agent:

    • On hosts running Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 and above: 

      # dnf upgrade puppet-agent

    • On hosts running Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7: 

      # yum upgrade puppet-agent

      You can also use remote execution to upgrade the package on multiple hosts. For more information, see Upgrading a package in Managing hosts.

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