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CentOS 8.x AlmaLinux AlmaLinux Announces ELevate Project to Migrate centos 7 to Almalinux 8

Discussion in 'CentOS, Redhat & Oracle Linux News' started by Pasta, Oct 20, 2021.

  1. Pasta

    Pasta New Member

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    https://almalinux.org/elevate

    This should be an easy upgrade path in the future for centminmod users.

     
  2. eva2000

    eva2000 Administrator Staff Member

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    Thanks for sharing - beat me to the news! :)

    This will indeed be a great tool in future once Centmin Mod is compatible with EL8 for CentOS 8, AlmaLinux 8 and Rocky Linux 8. Not there yet for compatibility https://community.centminmod.com/threads/centmin-mod-centos-8-compatibility-worklog.18372/.

    Though this does mean more work for me as I would have to test and ensure EL7 to EL8 migration would work with Centmin Mod LEMP stacks which rely on 3rd party YUM repos, custom RPMs and source compilation for some stuff. Pretty sure some stuff would break in Centmin Mod if we tried AlamaLinux Elevate for EL7 to EL8 migration before compatibility is there :)
     
  3. buik

    buik “The best traveler is one without a camera.”

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    LOL.... Leap is already there for many many years.

     
  4. Matt

    Matt Well-Known Member

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    I've tested this on multiple servers now.

    Really basic CentOS7 servers - upgrade went OK (with Hetzner / HW RAID)
    Really basic CentOS7 server - upgrade got to the reboot phase and couldn't find the software raid partitions, as they changed from md0/1/2/3 to md24/25/26/27. Ended up with a CentOS7 system that reported itself as AlmaLinux, and multiple rpms from EL8 and C7 installed. Had to rebuild server with OS re-install.
    CentOS7 server with docker and gitrunner plus some other things running on VMWare, prebuild fails due to kernel modules installed. Gave up and re-installed straight to Rocky8.

    So as they say, YMMV.
     
  5. eva2000

    eva2000 Administrator Staff Member

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    Thanks @Matt for sharing! Seems a real mix of experiences there.
    hmm that would be concerning with software mdraid!
     
  6. Matt

    Matt Well-Known Member

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    Yeah, and I've seen this is a few times on CentOS as well with OVH.

    Servers with additional HDD running them in SW RAID.

    After a reboot:

    upload_2021-10-28_14-18-39.png

    md2 had changed to md27

    upload_2021-10-28_14-19-9.png
     
  7. buik

    buik “The best traveler is one without a camera.”

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    I'm always curious about Enterprise Linux (EL) related software and gave the ELevate software a test run.
    In the time before New Year's Eve, I tested ELevate on some dedicated servers.

    ELevate is basically in a nutshell the Leapp migration framework with a few extra patches:
    1. An analysis tool that examines and reports on the current CentOS 7 installation + configuration.
    2. A preparation tool that downloads the required RPMs and other equipment.
    3. A rescue distro that then boots through the current system, using Grub, and does the actual conversion + migration.
    4. Afterwards Leapp cleans everything up and there you see, you are all in EL8 now.
    The migration process is so fast and unattended, that you can't see what is being modified.
    You can of course take a look at the logs later but they are largeeeeeeee. You will very easily overlook something.

    The question remains, of course, whether it all went well afterall over the long term.
    Despite Leapp saying the operation was successful.

    If you have a VPS server or a dedi server with no custom software like Centmin Mod, no extra repo, no software raid or shiny extra hardware like raid controllers, video cards, etc. (Often a server vendor like Dell or HP bakes raid drivers etc into the bootCD. Something about drivers that Leapp may not see. Leading to the system not booting on EL8, or not booting anymore at all.) Then a migration goes pretty smoothly. At least what I tested.

    However, I do not recommend a migration like this.
    But always a fresh installation.

    The small time it saves versus the long run. In which there could be malfunctioning software because the old configuration from the old software is copied on the new software (just like the md case above). This may also not become apparent until much later. When the converted EL8 software is updated with new features and improvements. For example after the future installation of Enterprise Linux 8.6.

    This migration does not outweigh a fresh installation.
    A fresh installation that is very easy to roll out with management software these days.
    In addition, Red Hat supports the Leapp based migration only in a few cases.

    This software, in my opinion, is there to lower the threshold to consider a migration.
    But when planning the migration in question. You often come to the conclusion that for whatever reason. The migration does not seem feasible with ELevate/Leapp.

     
    Last edited: Jan 4, 2022
  8. eva2000

    eva2000 Administrator Staff Member

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    Yeah pretty much spot on, Elevate will most likely not work for Centmin Mod so a fresh EL8 system install would be best migration path for CentOS 7.x to future supported AlmaLinux 8 or RockyLinux 8.
     
  9. andybond

    andybond Member

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  10. Andy

    Andy Active Member

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    so i can migrate my centminmod centos 7 to a new OS that @eva2000 is working on?
     
  11. duderuud

    duderuud Premium Member Premium Member

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  12. eva2000

    eva2000 Administrator Staff Member

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    You'd need to manually migrate data like you would moving servers from CentOS 7 to EL8 OS like AlmaLinux 8 or Rocky Linux 8 as outlined at https://community.centminmod.com/posts/97657/. My goal is the new centmin.sh menu option 21 mentioned in that link when ready for public testing will help with such migrations.