Move from CentOS Linux 7 to Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 on Amazon AWS

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For users of CentOS Linux 7 on Amazon Web Services, ensuring business continuity beyond the end-of-life (EOL) date of June 30, 2024, is of utmost importance. In response to this requirement, Red Hat offers solutions that a.) provide a streamlined conversion to Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 and b.) extend time for migration planning and ongoing software updates even after the EOL of CentOS Linux 7.

This article aims to guide customers through migrating existing CentOS Linux 7 instances on AWS to Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 with Extended Lifecycle Support (ELS). By making this transition, customers can receive support for an additional four years beyond the standard lifecycle of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 and have the flexibility to allocate sufficient time for successful application migration.

The benefits of this migration include:

  • Transitioning to an enterprise-grade OS - Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 (RHEL 7).
  • Leveraging Red Hat’s industry-leading reputation for security & compliance.
  • Accessing the comprehensive RHEL ecosystem and life cycle with an additional four years of maintenance.
  • Taking advantage of Red Hat Insights for performance, analytics and a growing list of managed services included at no additional cost.

This migration of your CentOS Linux instances to Red Hat Enterprise Linux instances on AWS establishes a direct relationship between you and Red Hat that allows you to get support, access the knowledge base, and the ability to make requests for enhancements. You may also qualify for a no-cost RHEL subscription for development use cases via the Developer Subscription for Teams offering.

Existing Red Hat customers should contact their account team to discuss options for converting theirCentOS Linux instances running on AWS to Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

If you are not a current customer, converting through the AWS Marketplace offering called “Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Third Party Linux Migration with ELS (Global Listing, EMEA Listing)” or contacting Red Hat Sales are the best two options.

Included CentOS Linux versions:

  • CentOS Linux 7.9

Applicable public cloud environment:

  • AWS

Steps to complete:

Firstly, if you do not have a Red Hat login, you must create a free account at our Hybrid Cloud Console. After that, you can complete the following steps to get things set up with Red Hat.

Buy the RHEL for 3rd party migration listing

This step is performed on the AWS console. You’ll need to access the AWS marketplace and subscribe to Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Third Party Linux Migration with ELS listing (Global Listing, EMEA Listing). This will subscribe your AWS account at AWS. Now that you’ve subscribed to the listing, you must connect your AWS account to your Red Hat account. At the top right of your screen, you will see “Set up your account.” Clicking this will redirect you to the Red Hat Hybrid Cloud console, where you will complete the account connection. Once the account is connected, you will be redirected to this page. This landing page will detail steps similar to those in this blog for using this listing.

Register with Insights for Enterprise Linux

To take advantage of the system analytics services included with your subscription, review the Insights for Enterprise Linux data sheet and install the Insights client.

  1. Run this command to install the client:
sudo yum -y install insights-client
  1. Then, register your system to Red Hat with Insights with the following command:
sudo insights-client --register

Set up a reporting source

Red Hat needs access to some of the AWS cost reporting data to properly bill you for your new Red Hat Enterprise Linux subscription. Luckily, there is a way to export this reporting and store it in a place that can be accessed automatically by setting up an S3 bucket to be used as a source for these reports. The instructions for this are a bit out of scope for this blog, but you can find the detailed documentation on how to set this up in our cost management documentation.

Tag your systems

To properly label which systems are now RHEL, and which add-ons they consume, you’ll need to tag them properly using AWS Cost Allocation Tags. The cost management system will use these tags to identify the instances it needs to track in the report. Some tags are required as they identify the system as RHEL, and others are optional, like add-on subscriptions you may have elected to add to your systems. You can find a list of these tags, in the following article.
If you would like Information on how to add tags to systems, you can view the following documentation: Configuring tags on your integrations.

Enabling Metering on your AWS Integration

Metering will also need to be enabled in your AWS integration on the Hybrid Cloud Console. You can follow the steps in this documentation to achieve this.

Note: If you are currently in a commercial relationship with a 3rd party provider of CentOS Linux, you may need to evaluate whether or not you should resolve that relationship post-conversion.

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