upgrade to RHEL 6.5

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I have two systems currently at RHEL6.2. Is there an easy way to update to RHEL6.5? I need to limit the update to 6.5 because of an application I'm running is certified only to run on RHEL6.5.
thanks in advance

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Hi Gerald,

edited, additionally see the good tips also below by Jan Gerrit Kootstra

One method, you could a RHEL 6.5 server iso and create & use (only) a local yum repo you have created from the RHEL 6.5 disk, then perform the upgrade.

Important for your scenario, avoid accidental upgrade to a higher RHEL version:

Now be careful to determine if the server(s) in question are or are not currently registered with either a Red Hat Satellite server or with Red Hat Inc if they face the public internet. I say this because I had someone tell me they wanted to do an upgrade from a lower version of RHEL 6.x to 6.4 a while back. I provided them with a RHEL 6.4 disk (and verified it was 6.4, you can probably see where this is going) I asked them if their server was or was not connected to a Red Hat Satellite server, they said no, it was not connected to a satellite server. Unfortunately for them, they were wrong (and it was not one of my satellite servers). I gave them the instructions to make a local yum, which they did. When they did their upgrade, they went to RHEL 6.5 (because they were connected to a RHEL 6.5 repo via the satellite server they were registered to, even though they told me they were not registered to any satellite server), and then they (incorrectly) said I gave them a RHEL 6.5 disk. I did not, I did indeed give them a RHEL 6.4 disk, and reminded them that they could not have any competing/additional repositories presented by either a satellite server, a repo file they were unaware of, or being connected to Red Hat Inc through the public facing Internet. Mercifully, in their case, they were able to still function at RHEL 6.5 even though they only wanted 6.4 So in your case -- please really do measure twice and cut once.

Do "yum repolist" several times, verify beyond any shadow of a doubt the systems you intend to bring to RHEL 6.5 will only see the localized yum repository that you have created. Verfiy verify verify. When you do the upgrade, AS A TEST perform the following command to -test- to see what rpms you will have upgraded:

echo n | yum update

The "echo n | " prior to the "yum update" will cause the yum update to exit immediately, but you'll be able to scroll up and verify the rpms and the architecture and rpm version and carefully note which repo is providing your update and verify. take additional steps beyond what I have mentioned and absolutely verify beyond any shadow of a doubt that it is safe to proceed. If you have --any-- doubt, contact Red Hat Support.

Kind Regards, I wish you well with this.

p.s. if you are using VMware, take a snapshot first.

Hi Gerald,

Do you have access to a Satellite server or do you only have Red Hat Network access?

1) Ask the Satellite admin to clone the RHEL 6 base channel and the subchannels to a date before 14 Oct 2014. Have your servers moved to the new cloned base channel and have the cloned subchannels you need attached to the servers.
This can safely be done with RH Satellite 5.6 or higher (did not test it on RH Satellite 6.0) with spacewalk-clone-channel with option -z without this option back dated patches may be cloned too, causing unpredictable clones.

2) Boot from a RHEL 6.5 DVD and run an update

3) mount a RHEL 6.5 iso and create a local repository.
for example mount /media/dvd
install createrepo
cd /media
createrepo --database .

zip /etc/sysconfig/rhn/update and all files in /etc/yum.repo.d
create a new file in /etc/yum.repod.d/mydvd.repo and point it to you DVD iso repo directory.

====== cut here ======================
[mydvd]
name=RHEL 6.5 ISO
baseurl=file:///media
gpgkey=file:///etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY
gpgcheck=1
enabled=1
==== cut here ====================

yum update

check for redhat-release-server
redhat-release-server-6Server-6.6.0.2.el6.x86_64
would show you have a RHEL 6.6 repository connected to the server you try to update.

Kind regards,

Jan Gerrit Kootstra

Thanks Jan

Gerald,

Jan's advise is very good - especially if you do have access to a Satellite server. I was not sure you really did have access to a satellite server and suspected you may not.

I've found also that after creating a yum repo, it helps to import your red hat pki keys

rpm --import /etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-redhat*  -vv 

(the "-vv" is not mandatory, but will tell you what keys you ingested to the keyring)
Oddly, I have seen key signing issues until the above is ran on occasion.

Also, along with the "createrepo" rpm, you will need two others, "python-deltarpm" and "deltarpm".

Thank you. Currently I do not have access to a Satellite server and want to register with Subscription Management service after the update for the purposes of receiving security updates, etc. Will that be a problem?

Hi Gerald,

This may cause problems for the security patches are RHEL 6.6 based.

You need EUS subscriptions for RHEL 6.5 to have security updates for your two servers.
https://access.redhat.com/support/policy/updates/errata
describes when EUS per minor release will end.

Kind regards,

Jan Gerrit Kootstra

If you want just RHEL 6.5 with latest fixes, you can purchase the Extended Update Support Add-On

You'd then change your system's RPM package channel from the "RHEL Server Channel" to "RHEL 6.5 EUS Channel".

EUS is intended to supply a longer upgrade path, but the EUS versions are not maintained forever. More info at the product lifecycle page.

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