How to update RHEL from 7.* to 7.9 on Cloud images with the "RHEL for SAP with High Availability and Update Services" subscription

Updated -

Whereas RHEL for SAP 7.x (where x ≠ 9) is available in E4S and/or EUS, RHEL for SAP 7.9 is not. Instead, the content is available in unversioned repositories. Consequently, to update a system running SAP on RHEL 7.x to RHEL 7.9, several manual steps are necessary.

The given document is applicable to RHEL 7.* systems running any compatible SAP software. In other words, if both releases RHEL 7.* and 7.9 are supported for a particular SAP software, the minor release update procedure is supported too. For extra information, please see SAP Software on Linux: General information - SAP Note 2369910

Please notice that RHEL 7.9 is the final RHEL 7 release and maintenance is defined by the Maintenance Support 2 Phase policy.

For instructions on how to update RHEL from 8.* to 8.10, see the other article.

Contents

Prerequisites

Before performing the update,

  • make sure that the target OS version is certified and compatible for the corresponding SAP system,
  • check on SAP notes/documentation on OS update of your SAP system, and particularly information about how to stop SAP processes and make a backup. SAP processes should be stopped during the OS update procedure.
  • back up your SAP system and store it at location different from a node(s) which you are going to update,
  • root access or sudo access is needed to perform the update OS operations,
  • reboot is required
  • timing of the update procedure varies and depends on multiple factors, e.g. instance type, downloading speed, size of packages to be downloaded, etc + reboot operation.

NOTE

For example, for more information on ensuring OS/HANA compatibility during update of HANA/OS, see SAP Note 2407244. For more information on SAP HANA Supported Operating Systems, see SAP Note 2235581.

Procedure

For bring-your-own-subscription (BYOS) images of all clouds

Before performing the update, please ensure all steps of the Prerequisites section of the current document have been completed.

1. Disable a release lock on your RHEL 7.x system (where x ≠ 9):

# subscription-manager release --unset

2. Enable RHEL 7.9 repositories:

On x86_64 system:

# subscription-manager repos \
--disable="*" \
--enable="rhel-7-server-rpms" \
--enable="rhel-sap-hana-for-rhel-7-server-rpms"

On ppc64le system:

# subscription-manager repos \
--disable="*" \
--enable="rhel-7-for-power-le-rpms" \
--enable="rhel-sap-hana-for-rhel-7-for-power-le-rpms" \
--enable="rhel-ha-for-rhel-7-server-for-power-le-rpms"

3. If a node is used for running NetWeaver or other non-HANA SAP software, please also enable the corresponding RHEL 7.9 repository:

On x86_64 system:

# subscription-manager repos --enable="rhel-sap-for-rhel-7-server-rpms"

On ppc64le system:

# subscription-manager repos --enable="rhel-sap-for-rhel-7-for-power-le-rpms"

4. The system can now be updated to RHEL 7.9:

# yum update

5. Complete the update by rebooting the system:

# reboot

6. After reboot verify the installed release is RHEL 7.9:

# cat /etc/redhat-release

Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server release 7.9 (Maipo)

For pay-as-you-go (PAYG) images of Amazon Web Services

Take the following steps on the RHEL 7.x system:

Before performing the update, please ensure all steps of the Prerequisites section of the current document have been completed.

If you use RHEL 7.5 and earlier, you can't fetch content from RHUI, since the RHUI client configuration package installed on these old images points to RHUI 2, which is not supported anymore. Consequently, you can't download the SAP bundle package, required for updating a system to 7.9, directly from your VM. Instead, please open a case with Red Hat or AWS support to get the package, depending on whose customer you are. With the package obtained from either support team, uninstall RHUI 2 client configuration RPMs by running rpm -e $(rpm -qa rh-amazon-rhui-client*), and start from step 4 in the procedure below, skipping all previous steps, which are only applicable to RHEL 7.6 and later.

1. Download the RHUI client package for RHEL for SAP 7.9:

# yumdownloader rh-amazon-rhui-client-sap-bundle

2. Uninstall the currently installed RHUI client package for SAP:

# rpm -e rh-amazon-rhui-client-sap-bundle-*

3. Unset the version which was originally set in yum configuration:

# rhui-set-release --unset

If the above command doesn’t work for you, please use

# rm /etc/yum/vars/releasever

and request your Cloud Provider to upgrade RHUI version.

4. Install the new RHUI client package, which you downloaded in the first step or obtained from Red Hat or AWS support:

# rpm -i rh-amazon-rhui-client-sap-bundle*

Note: An asterisk is used in the previous command to allow the actually downloaded package version to be installed, so that this document does not have to be updated every time the package is updated. You can now delete the file, optionally:

# rm rh-amazon-rhui-client-sap-bundle*

5. The system can now be updated to RHEL 7.9:

# yum update

6. Complete the update by rebooting the system:

# reboot

7. After reboot, werify the installed release is RHEL 7.9:

# cat /etc/redhat-release

Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server release 7.9 (Maipo)

For PAYG images of Microsoft Azure

Below steps were tested for RHEL for SAP releases: 7.4, 7.6, and 7.7.
Pending testing: RHEL for SAP 7.2 and 7.3. If you have such systems to update, please open a case with Red Hat support.

Before performing the update, please ensure all steps of the Prerequisites section of the current document have been completed.

Take the following steps on the RHEL 7.x system:

1. Uninstall the currently installed RHUI client package for SAP with E4S/EUS:

# yum --disablerepo='*' remove 'rhui-azure-rhel7-e*s'

2. Unset the version which was originally set in yum configuration:

# rhui-set-release --unset

If the above command doesn’t work for you, please use

# rm /etc/yum/vars/releasever

and request your Cloud Provider to upgrade RHUI version.

3. Install RHEL 7 repositories:

# yum --config='https://rhelimage.blob.core.windows.net/repositories/rhui-microsoft-azure-rhel7.config' install 'rhui-azure-rhel7'

4. Install RHEL 7 SAP HA and US repositories or SAP Applications repositories:

If you use the "RHEL for SAP HA and US" image, install the following configuration:

# yum --config='https://rhelimage.blob.core.windows.net/repositories/rhui-microsoft-azure-rhel7-base-sap-ha.config' install 'rhui-azure-rhel7-base-sap-ha'

This configuration provides access to the following repositories:

rhel-sap-for-rhel-7-server-rhui-debug-rpms
rhel-ha-for-rhel-7-server-rhui-debug-rpms
rhel-sap-hana-for-rhel-7-server-rhui-rpms
rhel-sap-for-rhel-7-server-rhui-source-rpms
rhel-ha-for-rhel-7-server-rhui-rpms
rhel-ha-for-rhel-7-server-rhui-source-rpms
rhel-sap-hana-for-rhel-7-server-rhui-source-rpms
rhel-sap-for-rhel-7-server-rhui-rpms
rhel-sap-hana-for-rhel-7-server-rhui-debug-rpms
rhui-microsoft-azure-rhel7-base-sap-ha

One host can be used for both SAP HANA and other SAP applications, for example NetWeaver. In this case, all the repositories above are needed. Optionally, please edit the /etc/yum.repos.d/rh-cloud-base-sap-ha.repo file according to the scenario of your system:

SAP app Standalone:
rhui-microsoft-azure-rhel7-base-sap-ha
rhel-sap-for-rhel-7-server-rhui-rpms
rhel-sap-for-rhel-7-server-rhui-debug-rpms
rhel-sap-for-rhel-7-server-rhui-source-rpms

SAP app HA:
rhel-sap-for-rhel-7-server-rhui-debug-rpms
rhel-sap-for-rhel-7-server-rhui-source-rpms
rhel-sap-for-rhel-7-server-rhui-rpms
rhel-ha-for-rhel-7-server-rhui-rpms
rhel-ha-for-rhel-7-server-rhui-debug-rpms
rhel-ha-for-rhel-7-server-rhui-source-rpms
rhui-microsoft-azure-rhel7-base-sap-ha

SAP HANA standalone:
rhel-sap-for-rhel-7-server-rhui-debug-rpms
rhel-sap-hana-for-rhel-7-server-rhui-rpms
rhel-sap-for-rhel-7-server-rhui-source-rpms
rhel-sap-hana-for-rhel-7-server-rhui-source-rpms
rhel-sap-for-rhel-7-server-rhui-rpms
rhel-sap-hana-for-rhel-7-server-rhui-debug-rpms
rhui-microsoft-azure-rhel7-base-sap-ha


SAP HANA  HA:
rhel-sap-for-rhel-7-server-rhui-debug-rpms
rhel-ha-for-rhel-7-server-rhui-debug-rpms
rhel-sap-hana-for-rhel-7-server-rhui-rpms
rhel-sap-for-rhel-7-server-rhui-source-rpms
rhel-ha-for-rhel-7-server-rhui-rpms
rhel-ha-for-rhel-7-server-rhui-source-rpms
rhel-sap-hana-for-rhel-7-server-rhui-source-rpms
rhel-sap-for-rhel-7-server-rhui-rpms
rhel-sap-hana-for-rhel-7-server-rhui-debug-rpms
rhui-microsoft-azure-rhel7-base-sap-ha

If you use the "RHEL for SAP Applications" image, please install:

# yum --config='https://rhelimage.blob.core.windows.net/repositories/rhui-microsoft-azure-rhel7-base-sapapps.config' install 'rhui-azure-rhel7-base-sap-apps'

It provides the access to the follow repositories:

rhel-sap-for-rhel-7-server-rhui-debug-rpms
rhel-sap-for-rhel-7-server-rhui-rpms
rhel-sap-for-rhel-7-server-rhui-source-rpms
rhui-microsoft-azure-rhel7-base-sap-apps

5. The system can now be updated to RHEL 7.9:

# yum update

6. Complete the update by rebooting the system:

# reboot

7. After reboot verify the installed release is RHEL 7.9:

# cat /etc/redhat-release

Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server release 7.9 (Maipo)

For PAYG images of Google Cloud

Before performing the update, please ensure all steps of the Prerequisites section of the current document have been completed.

Note: Please note that the google-rhui-client-rhel79-sap-ANY package is only relevant in the PAYG model (and only in Google Cloud). If you are using RHSM (anywhere), you do not need RHUI.

Take the following steps on the RHEL 7.* system:

1. Download the RHUI client package for SAP on RHEL 7.9:

# yumdownloader google-rhui-client-rhel79-sap

2. Uninstall the currently installed RHUI client package for SAP with E4S/EUS:

# rpm -e google-rhui-client-rhel7-sap

3. Unset the version which was originally set in yum configuration:

# rhui-set-release --unset

If the above command doesn’t work for you, please use

# rm /etc/yum/vars/releasever

and request your Cloud Provider to upgrade RHUI version.

4. Install the new RHUI client package, which you downloaded in the first step:

# rpm -i *google-rhui-client-rhel79-sap*

Note: An asterisk is used in the previous command to allow the actually downloaded package version to be installed, so that this document does not have to be updated every time the package is updated. You can now delete the file:

# rm *google-rhui-client-rhel79-sap*

5. The system can now be updated to RHEL 7.9:

# yum update

6. Complete the update by rebooting the system:

# reboot

7. Verify the installed release is RHEL 7.9:

# cat /etc/redhat-release

Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server release 7.9 (Maipo)

Additional recommendations for HA cluster nodes using the RHEL HA Add-On

Before performing the update, please ensure all steps of the Prerequisites section of the current document have been completed.

The nodes of a cluster system are updated one by one, separately. To prepare a cluster and a chosen node for the OS update, please follow instructions in Recommended Practices for Applying Software Updates to a RHEL High Availability or Resilient Storage Cluster in addition to the below steps of the current document. Please notice that

  • First you will need to prepare the cluster and the chosen node for the update, as steps #1-4 of the referenced document say, then
  • Update a single node according to one of the scenarios of the current document which match your HA system scenario, e.g. a PAYG image on one of the clouds, but do not reboot a node after yum update command finished right away. In other words, step #5 of the RHEL High Availability or Resilient Storage Cluster corresponds to the current document.
  • Please notice that prior to the reboot procedure of the updated node, the step #6 of the referenced document should be completed. Then you can reboot the updated node.
  • Continue with steps of the referenced document
  • Repeat the given steps till every node in your cluster is updated to 7.9

Post-update steps

After you completed the OS update, you can start your SAP software and run any necessary verification steps to ensure that your SAP system is fully operational.

Additional references

OS/HANA compatibility during update of HANA/OS - SAP Note 2407244
SAP HANA Supported Operating Systems - SAP Note 2235581
Recommended Practices for Applying Software Updates to a RHEL High Availability or Resilient Storage Cluster

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