Chapter 1. Updating the Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization Environment

1.1. Update Overview

This chapter covers both updating your Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization environment between minor releases, and upgrading to the next major version. Always update to the latest minor version of your current Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization Manager version before you upgrade to the next major version.
For interactive upgrade instructions, you can also use the RHEV Upgrade Helper available at https://access.redhat.com/labs/rhevupgradehelper/. This application asks you to provide information about your upgrade path and your current environment, and presents the relevant steps for upgrade as well as steps to prevent known issues specific to your upgrade scenario.
Upgrading Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization involves the following steps:
  • Upgrading Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization Manager:
    • Subscribe to the appropriate entitlements
    • Update the system
    • Run engine-setup
    • Remove repositories no longer required
  • Updating RHEV-H, RHVH, and RHEL hosts
  • Updating cluster and data center compatibility levels
The command used to perform the upgrade itself is engine-setup, which provides an interactive interface. While the upgrade is in progress, virtualization hosts and the virtual machines running on those virtualization hosts continue to operate independently. When the upgrade is complete, you can then upgrade your hosts to the latest versions of Red Hat Enterprise Linux or Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization Hypervisor.