Chapter 1. Upgrade Overview
This chapter details the prerequisites and available upgrade paths to Red Hat Satellite 6.5. Review this information before upgrading your current Red Hat Satellite 6 installation.
In this guide, the terms update, upgrade, and migrate have the following meanings:
- Upgrading
- The process of advancing your Satellite Server and Capsule Server installations from a y-stream release to the next, for example Satellite 6.4 to Satellite 6.5.
- Updating
- The process of advancing your Satellite Server and Capsule Server installations from a z-stream release to the next, for example Satellite 6.5.0 to Satellite 6.5.1.
- Migrating
- The process of moving an existing Satellite installation to another Red Hat Enterprise Linux server.
For interactive upgrade instructions, you can also use the Red Hat Satellite Upgrade Helper on the Red Hat Customer Portal. This application provides you with an exact guide to match your current version number. You can find instructions that are specific to your upgrade path, as well as steps to prevent known issues. For more information, see Satellite Upgrade Helper on the customer portal.
The Red Hat Satellite Server and Capsule Server y-stream versions must match. For example, a 6.4 Satellite Server is not compatible with a 6.5 Capsule Server and a 6.5 Satellite Server is not compatible with a 6.4 Capsule Server. Mismatching Satellite Server and Capsule Server versions will result in the Capsule Server failing silently. However, a Capsule Server using one z-stream version older than the Satellite Server is supported. For example, a Satellite 6.5.1 Satellite Server is compatible with a 6.5.0 Capsule Server.
1.1. Prerequisites
Upgrading to Satellite 6.5 affects your entire Satellite infrastructure. Before proceeding, complete the following:
- Read the Red Hat Satellite 6.5 Release Notes.
- Review this guide so that you are aware of the upgrade process and its impact.
- Plan your upgrade path. For more information, see Section 1.2, “Upgrade Paths”.
- Plan for the required Satellite downtime. The upgrade process requires that Satellite services be shut down for the duration.
- Plan for the storage requirements. The storage requirements for Red Hat Satellite 6.5 have changed from the previous version. For more information, see Storage Requirements and Guidelines in Installing Satellite Server from a Connected Network.
- Back up your Satellite Server and all Capsule Servers. For more information, see Backing Up and Restoring Satellite Server and Capsule Server in the Administering Red Hat Satellite 6.4 guide.
- Plan for updating any scripts you use that contain Satellite API commands because some API commands differ between versions of Satellite. For more information about changes in the API, see the Knowledgebase article API Changes Between Satellite Versions on the Red Hat Customer Portal.
If you customize configuration files, manually or use a tool such as Hiera, these customizations are overwritten when the installation script runs during upgrading or updating. You can use the --noop option with the satellite-installer script to test for changes. For more information, see the Red Hat Knowledgebase solution How to use the noop option to check for changes in Satellite config files during an upgrade.
1.2. Upgrade Paths
You can upgrade to Red Hat Satellite 6.5 from Red Hat Satellite 6.4. Satellite Servers and Capsule Servers on earlier versions must first be upgraded to Satellite 6.4. For more details, see the Satellite 6.4 Upgrading and Updating Red Hat Satellite guide.
Figure 1.1. Overview of Satellite 6.5 Upgrade Paths
Upgrading from the Beta to GA version is not supported.
The high level steps in upgrading to Satellite 6.5 are as follows.
- Clone your existing Satellite Servers. For more information, see Chapter 2, Cloning Satellite Server.
- Upgrade Satellite Server and all Capsule Servers to Satellite 6.5. For more information, see Section 3.1, “Upgrading Satellite Server”.
- Upgrade the Satellite tools on all Satellite clients. For more information, see Section 3.4, “Upgrading Satellite Clients”.
Self-Registered Satellites
You cannot upgrade a self-registered Satellite. You must migrate a self-registered Satellite to the Red Hat Content Delivery Network (CDN) and then perform the upgrade. To migrate a self-registered Satellite to the CDN, see Migrating Self-Registered Satellites in the Satellite 6.3 Upgrading and Updating Red Hat Satellite guide.
1.3. Following the Progress of the Upgrade
Because of the lengthy upgrade time, use a utility such as screen to suspend and reattach a communication session. You can then check the upgrade progress without staying connected to the command shell continuously. For more information about using the screen command, see How do I use the screen command? article in the Red Hat Knowledge Base. You can also see the screen manual page for more information.
If you lose connection to the command shell where the upgrade command is running you can see the logs in /var/log/foreman-installer/satellite.log to check if the process completed successfully.
