RHEL Conversion Support Policy

Updated -

Table of Contents

Overview

This document describes how Red Hat provides support for the Convert2RHEL utility, which allows select non-Red Hat Enterprise Linux systems to be converted to fully supported Red Hat Enterprise Linux installations.

Details

Supported conversions

The conversion paths linked below are supported while the post-conversion Red Hat Enterprise Linux version is in the Full Support Phase or in the corresponding Maintenance Support Phase (see note below for post-conversion Red Hat Enterprise Linux versions in Extended Life Phase). To learn more about when these phases are in effect, please reference the Life Cycle Dates section of the Red Hat Enterprise Linux Life Cycle policy:

  • For a list of existing conversion paths that are currently supported, visit Supported conversion paths Chapter

  • All systems which are to be converted are required to have valid and tested backups in place prior to attempting the conversion. These should be available and able to be reverted to if needed.

  • Conversions to RHEL 6 are not supported nor covered by ELS. As described in the FAQ under Can CentOS Linux 6 or Oracle Linux 6 be converted to RHEL 6.

  • For any conversions beyond the above, please reach out to your Red Hat Account representative to discuss additional options.

  • For additional technical limitations regarding the conversion process, please refer to the Additional resources section below.

NOTE: For conversions to Red Hat Enterprise Linux version that is in the Extended Life Phase Red Hat will provide limited ongoing technical support. No bug fixes, security fixes, hardware enablement or root-cause analysis will be available during this phase. For systems with Extended Life-cycle Support Add-On certain Red Hat defined Critical and Important security fixes and selected (at Red Hat discretion) urgent priority bug fixes and troubleshooting will be available.

How Red Hat Supports Conversion Process

The conversion process adheres to the Service Level Agreement (SLA) of the post-conversion RHEL subscription that will be in use. To learn more about the SLA that applies to your conversion process, please refer to the Production Support Terms of Service on the Red Hat Customer Portal.

  • Though self-support subscriptions traditionally include assistance for system Registration and Installation, the conversion process using Convert2RHEL is expressly not included. This exclusion applies to self-support subscriptions only. Standard and premium subscriptions include full support as outlined in this document.

  • Conversions are recommended only in use-cases where Production is not currently impacted by any delays or difficulties encountered during the process. In the event that unknown factors result in troubleshooting requiring an indeterminate period of time and resumption of Production Services is delayed, the use of system backups is required prior to further troubleshooting efforts. As such, Severity level 3 and lower is presumed for any support engagement as defined in the Production Support Terms of Service.

  • Review of the entire pre-conversion analysis report is required, even when the report finds no inhibitors to the conversion. The pre-conversion analysis report contains recommended actions to complete before the conversion to ensure that the converted RHEL system functions correctly. The pre-conversion analysis report cannot identify all inhibiting problems with your system. As a result, issues might still occur during the conversion even after you have reviewed and remediated all problems in the report.

  • In case there is no feasible remediation to all problems found during pre-conversion or conversion steps, advice for recovery from backup and migrating via Clean install option may be provided.

How Red Hat Supports the Converted Systems

Successfully converted systems are fully supported systems in accordance with the Production Support Subscription applied to the system.

NOTE: Your Red Hat Enterprise Linux subscription also entitles you to additional software delivered via Red Hat Software Collections for RHEL 7 and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 Application Streams for RHEL 8. Please visit the Product Life Cycle of Red Hat Software Collections for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 and the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 Application Streams Life Cycle to learn what software is currently supported.

Additional resources

For additional usage information and known issues and limitation, please refer to the following sources:

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