Any problems/tips transitioning to RHEL?

Issues related to applications and software problems and general support
Post Reply
mphelpsmd
Posts: 52
Joined: 2013/06/09 18:42:22

Any problems/tips transitioning to RHEL?

Post by mphelpsmd » 2021/09/21 14:15:17

I'm currently running CentOS 8.4 for my home server. After the announcement last year of the change in CentOS's future, I elected to take a deep breath and not make any sudden moves to allow the landscape to become more clear.

My choice is to move to RHEL with a free account.

I've read Red Hat's instructions for doing so (https://access.redhat.com/documentation ... 001OH7EAAW) and my understanding is that most of the legwork is done automatically with the convert2rhel tool.

I just wanted to get feedback from others who have done this to see how well it worked for them, any potential pitfalls, etc.

Thanks again,

Michael

lightman47
Posts: 1521
Joined: 2014/05/21 20:16:00
Location: Central New York, USA

Re: Any problems/tips transitioning to RHEL?

Post by lightman47 » 2021/09/21 19:57:08

I've never tried an "upgrade" as they seem to create more problems than they are worth. I did (several) clean RHEL 8 installs and all went great! The issues I am having are not with RHEL 8, but rather with epel support for a couple programs upon which I depend and missing dependencies. Bug reports were both "meh!". One got worked on and went to 'testing' but no further, the other got shuffled-off to 'see if they wish to maintain it'.

Rhel 8 itself seems very stable/reliable.

mphelpsmd
Posts: 52
Joined: 2013/06/09 18:42:22

Re: Any problems/tips transitioning to RHEL?

Post by mphelpsmd » 2021/09/28 13:18:23

I can appreciate the value of a fresh install, and I'm fully prepared to do that (with backups/configurations saved) if necessary.

But my desire is to do a seamless conversion from CentOS 8 to RHEL 8, and to solicit feedback from people who have done just that. One of the reasons for selecting RHEL is the possibility of an easy transition. Otherwise, I would have considered more options (Debian, etc).

Thanks again for any and all feedback/suggestions!

Mike

User avatar
TrevorH
Site Admin
Posts: 33191
Joined: 2009/09/24 10:40:56
Location: Brighton, UK

Re: Any problems/tips transitioning to RHEL?

Post by TrevorH » 2021/09/28 13:55:04

I suspect that many people have read the almost incomprehensible T&C's that come with the free RH developer subscription and decided to avoid RHEL just in case. However, Red Hat wrote and presumably support the convert2rhel script so I guess they have confidence in it.

You could try the script on some test machines with a random selection of the packages you use in production installed and see what the results are. After it completes, you should be able to install and run the keychecker utility and see what packages are left that are not signed with the RH key. Hmm, keychecker doesn't seem to be in EPEL for 8. That's useful.
The future appears to be RHEL or Debian. I think I'm going Debian.
Info for USB installs on http://wiki.centos.org/HowTos/InstallFromUSBkey
CentOS 5 and 6 are deadest, do not use them.
Use the FAQ Luke

Post Reply