Chapter 1. Introduction

Satellite enables you to perform the transition from Satellite 5 Server to Satellite 6 Server. There is a significant difference between Satellite 5 and Satellite 6. Therefore, the in-place upgrade process (such as from version 4.x to 5.x) does not apply for version 5 to 6. You need to install Satellite 6 on a new server and migrate clients to the new Satellite 6 instance. Consequently, this is referred to as a transition process and not an upgrade process. Red Hat gives customers a whole year of duplicate Satellite subscriptions so that you can build and test a Satellite 6 Server before migrating only the Satellite 5 clients to the new system.

Transitioning Workflow

The transition process from Satellite 5 to Satellite 6 consists of the following steps:

  1. Review the documentation, learn and understand the basics of the Satellite 6 Product. If you have Satellite 5.8 running on a s390 system, you must build a fresh Satellite 6 on an x86_64 architecture system. Satellite 6 cannot run on s390 systems.
  2. Install Satellite 6 on a new machine, activate it with a manifest and synchronize Red Hat content from CDN.
  3. Install the bootstrap script on client systems.
  4. Make sure that you meet the prerequisites and run the bootstrap script to migrate your clients.

Supported Versions of Red Hat Enterprise Linux

Unlike Satellite 5, Satellite 6 does not support clients run on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 and older. Ensure all your clients are configured on one of the following Red Hat Enterprise Linux versions before you start the transition:

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.7 and later.
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.1 and later.
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.0 and later.