Convert a RHEL Desktop installation into a Workstation install
What steps are necessary to convert from a Desktop entitlement to a Workstation one? I have entitlements for both, but I have several systems that will need the migration soon, and a reinstall would be less than ideal.
These systems are being upgraded primarily for the max RAM capacity.
On my test network I tried doing this on my computer that was originally configured for Desktop, and migrating to Workstation via subscrtiption manager didn't quite work out, I could get access to the Java channel, but thats it.
Thanks,
Andrew.
Responses
Active Contributor
241 points
What I did do was do a
yum clean all && yum makecache
But the only repositories present were any custom ones I added (personal repo, epel, etc.) and the Java one from Red Hat. Thats why I am a bit confused as to what I may be missing. I wasn't able to see any files in /etc/* that I needed to change, nor did a quick rpm query for "Desktop" or "Red Hat" yield anything of use.
Active Contributor
241 points
Btw I reverted the system back to Desktop so I can await a response, but one other tidbit I did notice but forgot to mention.
In the Subscription Manager GUI tab for Installed Products, even when I am unattached to an entitlement, it shows Desktop as the installed product, not something generic like "Client". I just rechecked, and indeed that is what is there.
Thanks Jason for the thoughts.
Andrew.
Active Contributor
241 points
Follow up on a few things.
I noticed that RH uses digital certs for authorization to each channel. I gave a quick stab at figuring this all out and it did not end well. I have reinstalled using RHEL WS 7.2 installation media and all is good now.
For practical purposes, until someone scripts this out or RH makes this a simpler procedure, I would advise against doing this using any tactics I have utilized without fair warning. Granted, I likely just missed a few pems, and this may have been simpler with the removal of something and the reinstall, not sure. But a reinstall was the only thing that worked %100.
Red Hat
25369 points
Thanks for letting us know how you resolved it, Andrew, and thanks for the feedback.
Active Contributor
241 points
No problem!
If it wouldn't be too much to ask, could you spell out how one should do it -- even if a reinstall is the only sane method somewhere in the docs?
I found ages before I was using RHEL, that the Red Hat docs, Fedora docs, and any sponsored project's docs are the first place to look, as they are far better than anyone else's (I can see an argument for BSD's docs being superior though, but if so not by much). And I found nothing that was clear.
I can't imagine that I am the only one who ran into a client wanting to do this, especially with the RAM and CPU socket limitations.
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