Migrating, moving, and updating: How to move to a later version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux

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There are a lot of different pathways for moving from one system or version to another. We typically refer to an upgrade as something that is happening “in-place” - on the same physical system and with the same operating system (usually with minor versions). A migration is usually a larger move, either moving physical systems, moving between distributions, or moving to another major version of a distribution.

For Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), upgrading a minor version can be as simple as running a command like yum update. However, depending on your overall infrastructure, the operating system version you’re moving to, and the workloads on those systems, the path to a newer version of RHEL can get complicated.

There are different upgrade tools, depending on your needs:

  • LEAPP, which migrates from RHEL 7 to RHEL 8
  • The preupgrade and upgrade tools to move from RHEL 6 to RHEL 7
  • convert2rhel, which moves a community distribution like CentOS or Oracle Linux to RHEL

Even still, the applications running on your RHEL systems can affect how you decide to upgrade. There could be instances where it is simply easier to use a new build and migrate over an application or where you should use more advanced deployment tools like Red Hat Ansible or Red Hat Smart Management.

There are benefits - from enhanced features to more current security configuration - to moving to the latest version of RHEL, but it is an action that requires planning and prioritization. Identify factors that are most important to your organization: is it more important to reduce downtime or to maintain consistent system configuration and identification? What workloads are most critical and what upgrade options (and supported configurations) are available for them? What physical and team resources are available for a migration? How will that impact other daily system operations?

There is no one upgrade path. Explore the different scenarios and work out the best strategy for each system and workload within your infrastructure.

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