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Chapter 10. Upgrades

This chapter examines how to upgrade a pre-existing Red Hat Satellite to Satellite 5.8. The upgrade workflow consists of the following high-level steps. Each step is described in more detail.
  1. Complete the upgrade requirements.
  2. Perform the upgrade.
  3. Optionally, complete the post-installation tasks.

10.1. Upgrade Requirements

Before proceeding with the Satellite 5 upgrade, the following requirements must be met.

10.1.1. Content Synchronization Changes

From Red Hat Satellite 5.8, the tool used to synchronize content depends on the content source. If content is being synchronized from the Red Hat Content Delivery Network (CDN) via the Internet, the Content Delivery Network Synchronization (cdn-sync) tool is used. If content is being synchronized from Red Hat Network Channel Content ISOs, or from one Satellite instance to another Satellite instance, the Satellite Synchronization (satellite-sync) tool is used. The sections in this chapter explain the use of each tool and its use with each content source type. The new tool was introduced with Red Hat Satellite 5.8 because of the retirement of the Red Hat Network.
If you have scheduled synchronization of content, such as with cron, review and amend those scheduled jobs as necessary. To ease the transition, the cdn-sync and satellite-sync tools have many of the same parameters, but they are not equivalent. For further details of each tool, see Chapter 8, Content and Synchronization.

10.1.2. Backup the Satellite 5 Instance

Ensure you have a means of recovering the Satellite 5 instance as it was, prior to the upgrade. If the Satellite 5 instance is on a virtual machine, take a snapshot. If it is on a physical host, take a full backup of the Satellite 5 instance, its database, and the underlying operating system. If the Satellite database is hosted on a Managed Database instance, take the same backup measures as for the Satellite 5 server.

10.1.3. PostgreSQL Upgrade

For the Embedded Database and Managed Database configurations, the Satellite installation program will upgrade PostgreSQL to version 9.5. For the External Database configuration it is recommended, but not required, that PostgreSQL be upgraded to version 9.5.

10.1.4. Confirming Database Disk Space

Changes occur in the Satellite database during the upgrade process. Before starting the upgrade, confirm the available disk space at least matches the current size of the existing PostgreSQL data directory.

Procedure 10.1. Confirm Database Disk Space

  1. Calculate the disk space occupied by the embedded database.
    1. For Satellite 5.6
      The embedded database is stored in directory /var/lib/pgsql. After the upgrade, the embedded database will be stored in directory /var/opt/rh/rh-postgresql95/lib/pgsql. 
      # du --summarize -h /var/lib/pgsql
      Example output of the du command. 
      81M	/var/lib/pgsql
    2. For Satellite 5.7
      The embedded database is stored in directory /opt/rh/postgresql92/root/var/lib/pgsql. After the upgrade, the embedded database will be stored in directory /var/opt/rh/rh-postgresql95/lib/pgsql. 
      # du --summarize -h /opt/rh/postgresql92/root/var/lib/pgsql
      Example output of the du command. 
      81M	/opt/rh/postgresql92/root/var/lib/pgsql
  2. Confirm the available disk space in the embedded database's location for Satellite 5.8. 
    # df -h /var
    Example output of the df command. 
    Filesystem    Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/mapper/vg_testhost01-lv_root
              50G  3.4G   44G   8% /
  3. Compare the disk space occupied by the embedded database and the available disk space. If the available disk space is less than the total disk space occupied by the embedded database, do not proceed until this has been corrected.

10.1.5. Downloading a Satellite 5.8 Manifest

In previous versions of Red Hat Satellite 5, details of product subscriptions were contained in a Satellite certificate. You downloaded a certificate from the Red Hat Customer Portal and imported it into Satellite. From Satellite 5.8, all subscriptions are hosted by Red Hat Subscription Manager, replacing Red Hat Network. Instead of a certificate, a manifest file takes the place of the certificate in Satellite 5.8. This file's format is specific to Satellite 5.8 and contains details of product subscriptions.

Procedure 10.2. Download a Satellite 5.8 Manifest

  1. Log on to the Customer Portal and click Subscriptions.
  2. Click Satellite Organizations.
  3. Click Satellite.
  4. Click the name of the Satellite instance to be upgraded.
  5. Select Satellite 5.8 from the Version: drop-down list, and click Update.
  6. Click Download manifest and save the manifest file.
  7. Copy the manifest file to the Satellite 5 host which is being upgraded. 
    # scp manifest_file.zip root@satellite.example.com:/root

10.1.6. Downloading Satellite 5.8 ISO

The Satellite 5.8 installation media is available for download from the Red Hat Customer Portal in ISO format.

Procedure 10.3. Download the Installation Media

  1. Log on to the Customer Portal.
  2. Click Downloads.
  3. Click Red Hat Satellite.
  4. Select 5.8 for RHEL 6 from the Versions drop-down list.
  5. Select x86_64 or s390x from the Architecture list.
  6. Download the Red Hat Satellite 5.8 Binary DVD.
  7. Depending on your upgrade requirements, either burn the DVD ISO image to DVD media, or copy it to the host on which Red Hat Satellite will be installed.
    Run the following command on the host containing the DVD ISO image to copy it to the Satellite host. In this example, the ISO image is copied to the directory /root. 
    # scp satellite.iso root@satellite.example.com:/root
    If you will be upgrading Red Hat Satellite from a DVD, burn the download ISO image to a writeable DVD.

10.1.7. Migrating Registration to Red Hat Subscription Manager

Red Hat Network is nearing end of life, so existing Red Hat Satellite 5 installations must be migrated to Red Hat Subscription Management. Before the existing Satellite 5 instance is upgraded, complete the migration. For full details, see Chapter 11, Migrating from RHN to RHSM.