Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7

Upgrading from RHEL 6 to RHEL 7

Instructions for an in-place upgrade from Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 to Red Hat
Enterprise Linux 7

Last Updated: 2021-03-22

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Upgrading from RHEL 6 to RHEL 7
Instructions for an in-place upgrade from Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 to Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7
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Abstract
This document provides instructions on how to perform an in-place upgrade from Red Hat
Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 6 to RHEL 7. During the in-place upgrade, the existing RHEL 6 operating
system is replaced by the RHEL 7 version.
 Table of Contents

Table of Contents
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3. . . . . . . . . . . . .
PREFACE

. . . . . . . . . . . . . FEEDBACK
PROVIDING . . . . . . . . . . . . ON
. . . .RED
. . . . .HAT
. . . . .DOCUMENTATION
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4. . . . . . . . . . . . .

. . . . . . . . . . . 1.. .PLANNING
CHAPTER . . . . . . . . . . . .AN
. . . UPGRADE
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5. . . . . . . . . . . . .

. . . . . . . . . . . 2.
CHAPTER . . PREPARING
.............A
. . RHEL
. . . . . . .6. SYSTEM
. . . . . . . . . .FOR
. . . . .THE
. . . . .UPGRADE
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7. . . . . . . . . . . . .

.CHAPTER
. . . . . . . . . . 3.
. . ASSESSING
. . . . . . . . . . . . . UPGRADE
. . . . . . . . . . . SUITABILITY
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9. . . . . . . . . . . . .
3.1. ASSESSING UPGRADE SUITABILITY FROM THE COMMAND LINE 9
3.2. ASSESSING UPGRADE SUITABILITY FROM A WEB UI 10
3.3. PRE-UPGRADE ASSESSMENT RESULT CODES 12

. . . . . . . . . . . 4.
CHAPTER . . .UPGRADING
. . . . . . . . . . . . . YOUR
. . . . . . .SYSTEM
. . . . . . . . . FROM
. . . . . . .RHEL
. . . . . .6
. .TO
. . . .RHEL
. . . . . .7. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
..............

.CHAPTER
. . . . . . . . . . 5.
. . TROUBLESHOOTING
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
..............
5.1. TROUBLESHOOTING RESOURCES 18
5.2. FIXING DEPENDENCY ERRORS 18
5.3. INSTALLING MISSING PACKAGES 18
5.4. KNOWN ISSUES 19
5.5. ROLLING BACK THE UPGRADE 19
5.6. OBTAINING SUPPORT 20

. . . . . . . . . . . 6.
CHAPTER . . .ADDITIONAL
. . . . . . . . . . . . . RESOURCES
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
..............

1
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Upgrading from RHEL 6 to RHEL 7

2
 PREFACE

PREFACE
This document describes steps for an in-place upgrade from RHEL 6 to RHEL 7. The supported in-place
upgrade path is from RHEL 6.10 to RHEL 7.9.

If you are using SAP HANA, follow How do I upgrade from RHEL 6 to RHEL 7 with SAP HANA instead.
Note that the upgrade path for RHEL with SAP HANA might differ.

The process of upgrading from the latest version of RHEL 6 to the latest version of RHEL 7 consists of
the following steps:

1. Check that Red Hat supports the upgrade of your system. See Chapter 1, Planning an upgrade
for more information.

2. Prepare your system for the upgrade by installing required repositories and packages and by
removing unsupported packages. See Chapter 2, Preparing a RHEL 6 system for the upgrade
got more information.

3. Check your system for problems that might affect your upgrade using the Preupgrade
Assistant. See Chapter 3, Assessing upgrade suitability for more information.

4. Upgrade your system by running the Red Hat Upgrade Tool. See Chapter 4, Upgrading your
system from RHEL 6 to RHEL 7 for more information.

3
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Upgrading from RHEL 6 to RHEL 7

PROVIDING FEEDBACK ON RED HAT DOCUMENTATION

We appreciate your input on our documentation. Please let us know how we could make it better. For
submitting your feedback, create a Bugzilla ticket:

1. Go to the Bugzilla website.

2. As the Component, use Documentation.

3. Fill in the Description field with your suggestion for improvement. Include a link to the relevant
part(s) of documentation.

4. Click Submit Bug.

4
 CHAPTER 1. PLANNING AN UPGRADE

CHAPTER 1. PLANNING AN UPGRADE

An in-place upgrade is the recommended way to upgrade your system to a later major version of RHEL.

To ensure that you are aware of all major changes between RHEL 6 and RHEL 7, consult the Migration
Planning Guide before beginning the in-place upgrade process. You can also verify whether your system
is supported for an in-place upgrade by running the Preupgrade Assistant. The Preupgrade Assistant
assesses your system for potential problems that could interfere or inhibit the upgrade before any
changes are made to your system. See also Known Issues.

NOTE

Once you perform an in-place upgrade on your system, it is possible to get the previous
working system back in limited configurations of the system by using the Red Hat
Upgrade Tool integrated rollback capability or by using suitable custom backup and
recovery solution, for example, by using the Relax-and-Recover (ReaR) utility. For more
information, see Rolling back the upgrade.

This RHEL 6 to RHEL 7 upgrade procedure is fully supported if your RHEL system meets the following
criteria:

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.10: Your system must have the latest RHEL 6.10 packages installed.

Architecture and variant: Only the indicated combinations of architecture and variant from the
following matrix are supported:

Product Variant Intel 64-bit IBM POWER, big IBM Z Intel 32-bit
architecture endian architecture

Server Edition Supported Supported Supported Unsupported

HPC Compute Supported N/A N/A Unsupported

Node

Desktop Edition Unsupported N/A N/A Unsupported

Workstation Unsupported N/A N/A Unsupported

Edition

Server running Unsupported N/A N/A N/A

CloudForms
software

Server running Unsupported. To N/A N/A N/A

Satellite upgrade Satellite
software environments
from RHEL 6 to
RHEL 7, see the
Red Hat Satellite
Installation
Guide.

NOTE
5
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Upgrading from RHEL 6 to RHEL 7

NOTE

Upgrades of IBM Z systems are supported unless Direct Access Storage Device
(DASD) with Linux Disk Layout (LDL) is used.

Supported groups of packages: Only packages from the following groups can be installed on the
system before an in-place upgrade:

Minimal (@minimal)

Base (@base)

Web Server (@web-server)

DHCP Server

NFS File Server (@nfs-server)

Print Server (@print-server)

CIFS file server

NOTE

Although upgrades of other packages and groups are not supported, certain
packages can be uninstalled from the RHEL 6 system and reinstalled on the
upgraded RHEL 7 system.

File systems: The file system type from the RHEL 6 system is preserved during an in-place
upgrade and cannot be changed.

Desktop: System upgrades with GNOME and KDE installs are unsupported.

Virtualization: Upgrades with KVM or VMware virtualization are supported. Upgrades of RHEL
on Microsoft Hyper-V are unsupported.

High Availability: Upgrades of systems using the High Availability add-on are unsupported.

Public Clouds: The in-place upgrade is unsupported for on-demand instances on Public Clouds.

Third-party packages: The in-place upgrade is unsupported on systems using third-party

packages, especially packages with third-party drivers that are needed for booting.

The /usr directory: The in-place upgrade is unsupported on systems where the /usr directory is
on a separate partition. For more information, see Why does Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 to 7 in-
place upgrade fail if /usr is on separate partition?.

6
 CHAPTER 2. PREPARING A RHEL 6 SYSTEM FOR THE UPGRADE

CHAPTER 2. PREPARING A RHEL 6 SYSTEM FOR THE

UPGRADE
This procedure describes the steps that are necessary before performing an in-place upgrade to RHEL
7.

Prerequisites

You have verified that your system setup is supported for an upgrade from RHEL 6 to RHEL 7.
See Planning an upgrade for more information.

Procedure

1. Ensure that your system is registered to Red Hat Subscription Management (RHSM) .
If your RHEL 6 system is registered to Red Hat Network (RHN), you must migrate to RHSM. See
Migrating from RHN to RHSM in Red Hat Enterprise Linux for details.

2. Ensure that you have access to the latest RHEL 6 content. If you use the yum-plugin-
versionlock plug-in to lock packages to a specific version, clear the lock:

# yum versionlock clear

See How to restrict yum to install or upgrade a package to a fixed specific package version? for
more information.

3. Enable the Extras repository, which contains necessary packages for a pre-upgrade assessment
and an in-place upgrade.

a. For the Server variant on the 64-bit Intel architecture on server edition:

# subscription-manager repos --enable rhel-6-server-extras-rpms --enable rhel-6-server-

optional-rpms

b. For IBM POWER, big endian systems:

# subscription-manager repos --enable rhel-6-for-power-extras-rpms --enable rhel-6-for-

power-optional-rpms

c. For the IBM Z architecture:

# subscription-manager repos --enable rhel-6-for-system-z-extras-rpms --enable rhel-6-

for-system-z-optional-rpms

d. For the HPC Compute Node variant on the 64-bit Intel architecture:

# subscription-manager repos --enable rhel-6-for-hpc-node-extras-rpms --enable rhel-6-

for-hpc-node-optional-rpms

4. Install the Preupgrade Assistant and Red Hat Upgrade Tool:

# yum install preupgrade-assistant preupgrade-assistant-el6toel7 redhat-upgrade-tool

5. Remove all unsupported package groups:

7
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Upgrading from RHEL 6 to RHEL 7

# yum remove @group

Replace group with each unsupported group name.

6. Check Known Issues and apply workarounds where applicable. Especially, on systems with
multiple network interfaces:

a. If the system has static routes configured, replace the static route file. See redhat-
upgrade-tool fails to reconfigure the static routes on the network interfaces, preventing the
upgrade to happen for more information.

b. If the system runs NetworkManager, stop NetworkManager prior to running the upgrade
tool. See redhat-upgrade-tool fails to reconfigure the network interfaces, preventing the
upgrade to happen for more information.

7. Update all packages to their latest RHEL 6 version:

# yum update

8. Reboot the system:

# reboot

9. Back up all your data before performing the upgrade to prevent potential data loss.

Verification steps

1. Verify that you are registered with the Red Hat Subscription Manager:

# yum update

The Loaded plug-ins: entry must contain subscription-manager.

2. Verify that only supported package groups are installed:

# yum grouplist

8
 CHAPTER 3. ASSESSING UPGRADE SUITABILITY

CHAPTER 3. ASSESSING UPGRADE SUITABILITY

The Preupgrade Assistant assesses your system for any potential problems that might occur during an
in-place upgrade before any changes to your system are made.

The Preupgrade Assistant does the following:

Leaves your system unchanged except for storing information or logs. It does not modify the
assessed system.

Assesses the system for possible in-place upgrade limitations, such as package removals,
incompatible obsoletes, name changes, or deficiencies in some configuration file compatibilities.

Provides a report with the assessment result.

Provides post-upgrade scripts to address more complex problems after the in-place upgrade.

You should run the Preupgrade Assistant multiple times. Always run the Preupgrade Assistant after you
resolve problems identified by the pre-upgrade report to ensure that no critical problems remain before
performing the upgrade.

You can review the system assessment results using one of the following methods:

Locally on the assessed system using the command line.

Remotely over the network using the web user interface (UI). You can use the web UI to view
multiple reports at once.

IMPORTANT

The Preupgrade Assistant is a modular system. You can create your own custom modules
to assess the possibility of performing an in-place upgrade. For more information, see
How to create custom Preupgrade Assistant modules for upgrading from RHEL 6 to
RHEL 7.

3.1. ASSESSING UPGRADE SUITABILITY FROM THE COMMAND LINE

Viewing a Preupgrade Assistant report locally ensures that you do not expose the data about your
system to the network. The pre-upgrade assessment results can be viewed locally using the following
methods:

As result codes in the standard output on the command line.

As a detailed HTML file in a web browser.

When the preupg command is run without further options, it produces the result.html and
preupg_results-*.tar.gz files in the /root/preupgrade/ directory.

Prerequisites

You have completed the preparation steps described in Preparing a RHEL 6 system for the
upgrade.

Procedure

9
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Upgrading from RHEL 6 to RHEL 7

1. Run the Preupgrade Assistant to perform an assessment of the system.

# preupg

2. Review each assessment result entry:

a. Inspect result codes on the standard output For more information on assessment codes,
see the Assessment result codes table .

b. View the assessment report in greater detail by opening the HTML file with results in a web
browser:

# web_browser file:///root/preupgrade/result.html

3. View the README file in the /root/preupgrade/ directory for more information about the
output directory structure, exit codes, and risk explanations associated with the Preupgrade
Assistant utility.

4. Resolve problems found by the Preupgrade Assistant during the assessment by following the
Remediation text in the report.

IMPORTANT

The assessment report might require you to perform certain tasks after you have
completed the in-place upgrade to RHEL 7. Take note of these post-upgrade
tasks and perform them after the upgrade.

5. Run the Preupgrade Assistant again. If there are no new problems to be resolved, you can
proceed with upgrading your system.

3.2. ASSESSING UPGRADE SUITABILITY FROM A WEB UI

The Preupgrade Assistant browser-based interface can collect assessment reports from multiple
systems and provides convenient filtering of the results. Because the upgrade procedure does not
support upgrading the GNOME desktop, this procedure gives you a way to display the Preupgrade
Assistant results on a remote GUI desktop.

IMPORTANT

To use the Preupgrade Assistant web UI remotely, you must install and configure the
Apache HTTP Server, add files to the /etc/httpd/conf.d/ directory and run the httpd
service on the system to serve the content.

If you are concerned about exposing the data about your system to the network, or if you
want to avoid adding content to the system you are upgrading, you can review the pre-
upgrade assessment results using the following alternative methods:

Locally using the Preupgrade Assistant web UI on localhost (127.0.0.1) without

configuring the Apache HTTP Server.

Remotely following the procedure described in Assessing upgrade suitability

from the command line, copying the /root/preupgrade/result.html file to a
remote system, and opening the HTML file in a web browser in the remote
system.

10
 CHAPTER 3. ASSESSING UPGRADE SUITABILITY

Prerequisites

You have completed the preparation steps described in Preparing a RHEL 6 system for the
upgrade.

Procedure

1. Install the Apache HTTP Server and the Preupgrade Assistant web UI:

# yum install httpd preupgrade-assistant-ui

2. To make the Preupgrade Assistant web UI available to all network interfaces on the local system
through TCP port 8099 by default, change the default private httpd pre-upgrade configuration
to the public configuration:

# cp /etc/httpd/conf.d/99-preup-httpd.conf.public /etc/httpd/conf.d/99-preup-httpd.conf

3. Optional: To access the Preupgrade Assistant using a host name instead of an IP address, for
example, preupg-ui.example.com:

Ensure you have a DNS CNAME record pointing the preupg-ui.example.com name to the
system you are upgrading.

Change the NameVirtualHost line in the 99-preup-httpd.conf file to NameVirtualHost

preupg-ui.example.com:8099.

4. If you have a firewall running and SELinux in enforcing mode, allow access to the port needed by
the Preupgrade Assistant web UI service:

# setsebool httpd_run_preupgrade on
# iptables -I INPUT -m state --state NEW -p tcp --dport 8099 -j ACCEPT

5. Restart the httpd service to load the new configuration.

# service httpd restart

6. From a web browser on another system, access the Preupgrade Assistant web UI service by
using either an IP address (for example, http://192.168.122.159:8099) or a hostname (for
example, http://preupg-ui.example.com:8099).

7. When accessing the Preupgrade Assistant web UI for the first time, decide whether to access
the UI with or without authentication.

a. To access the UI with authentication, log in as an existing user or create a new one. When
you select Submit to create a new user, the authentication system is automatically enabled.

b. To access the UI without authentication, select Disable Authentication.

8. Return to the system you plan to upgrade and run the Preupgrade Assistant in the command
line with an automatic submission to the Preupgrade Assistant web UI server:

# preupg -u http://hostname:port/submit/

For example:

11
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Upgrading from RHEL 6 to RHEL 7

# preupg -u http://preupg-ui.example.com:8099/submit/

9. Return to your web browser on the remote server and reload the Preupgrade Assistant Web UI.

10. In the web UI, find and expand the assessment report that you generated by running the
Preupgrade Assistant. Go through each item in the report and resolve the reported problems.
For information on assessment result codes, see the Assessment result codes table .

IMPORTANT

The assessment report might require you to perform certain tasks after you have
completed the in-place upgrade to RHEL 7. Take note of these post-upgrade
tasks and perform them after the upgrade.

11. Run the Preupgrade Assistant again and upload the report to the web UI. If there are no new
problems to be resolved, you can proceed with the upgrade.

3.3. PRE-UPGRADE ASSESSMENT RESULT CODES

When you run the Preupgrade Assistant, an assessment result is generated. Each result in the
assessment is assigned a code. Refer to the table below for an explanation of each code and a potential
action to take.

Table 3.1. Pre-upgrade assessment result codes

Result code Explanation

PASS No problems found.

FAIL Extreme upgrade risk. In-place upgrade is

impossible.

12
 CHAPTER 3. ASSESSING UPGRADE SUITABILITY

Result code Explanation

NEEDS_ACTION High upgrade risk. You must resolve the problem

before running the Red Hat Upgrade Tool.

NEEDS_INSPECTION Medium or lower upgrade risks. The upgrade might

not fail, but it might result in a system that is not fully
operational. You must check certain parts of the
system and, if needed, fix the problems.

FIXED Changes required for the upgrade were applied

automatically. You do not need to perform any
action.

INFORMATIONAL Useful, but not critical, information.

NOT_APPLICABLE The assessed package is not installed on your system.

ERROR An error occurred in the tooling. Report this type of

problem to Red Hat Support.

notchecked The respective module has not been checked. See

Known issues for more details.

13
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Upgrading from RHEL 6 to RHEL 7

CHAPTER 4. UPGRADING YOUR SYSTEM FROM RHEL 6 TO

RHEL 7
After you have corrected all problems reported by the Preupgrade Assistant, use the Red Hat Upgrade
Tool to upgrade your system from RHEL 6.10 to RHEL 7.9. Always perform any necessary post-install
tasks to ensure your system is up-to-date and to prevent upgrade-related problems.

IMPORTANT

Test the upgrade process on a safe, non-production system before you perform it on any
production system.

Prerequisites

You have completed the preparation steps described in Preparing a RHEL 6 system for the
upgrade, including a full system backup.

You have performed the pre-upgrade system assessment and resolved all reported problems.
For details, see Assessing system upgrade suitability .

Procedure

1. Prepare source repositories or media with RHEL 7 packages in one of the following locations:

An installation repository created from a binary DVD ISO where you download RHEL 7
packages, for example, an FTP server or an HTTPS site that contains the RHEL 7.9
packages. For more information, see Preparing installation sources.

Mounted installation media

An ISO image
In any of the above options, you can configure custom repositories and additional
repositories provided by Red Hat. For example, certain packages available in the RHEL 6
Base system are provided in the RHEL 7 Extras repository and are not on a RHEL 7 DVD.

If you know that your system requires packages that are not in the RHEL 7 Base repository,
you can install a separate RHEL 7 system to act as a yum repository that provides the
required packages over FTP or HTTP.

To set up an additional repository that you can use during the upgrade, follow instructions in
How to create a local repository for updates . Then use the --addrepo=REPOID=URL option
with the redhat-upgrade-tool command.

2. Disable active repositories to prevent problems with combining packages from different major
releases of RHEL.

a. Install the yum-utils package:

# yum install yum-utils

b. Disable active repositories:

# yum-config-manager --disable \*

14
 CHAPTER 4. UPGRADING YOUR SYSTEM FROM RHEL 6 TO RHEL 7

For more information, see Can I install packages from different versions of RHEL .

3. Run the Red Hat Upgrade Tool to download RHEL 7 packages and prepare the package
installation. Specify the location of the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 packages:

Installation repository

# redhat-upgrade-tool --network 7.9 --instrepo ftp-or-http-url --cleanup-post

Mounted installation media

# redhat-upgrade-tool --device device_path --cleanup-post

If you do not specify the device path, the Red Hat Upgrade Tool scans all mounted
removable devices.

ISO image

# redhat-upgrade-tool --iso iso_path --cleanup-post

IMPORTANT

You can use the following options with the redhat-upgrade-tool command
for all three locations:

--cleanup post: Automatically removes Red Hat-signed packages that

do not have a RHEL 7 replacement. Required on UEFI systems to
prevent the boot loader from breaking. Recommended on non-UEFI
systems. If you do not use the --cleanup-post option, you must remove
all remaining RHEL 6 packages after the in-place upgrade to ensure that
your system is fully supported. For more information on UEFI system
requirements, see Inplace upgrade fails to boot the server while
upgrading from Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 to 7.

--snapshot-root-lv and --snapshot-lv: Creates snapshots of system

volumes. Snapshots are required to perform a rollback of the RHEL
system in case of upgrade failure. For more information, see Rollbacks
and cleanup after upgrading RHEL 6 to RHEL 7.

4. Reboot the system when prompted.

# reboot

Depending on the number of packages being upgraded, this process can take up to several
hours to complete.

5. Manually perform any post-upgrade tasks described in the pre-upgrade assessment result.

6. If your system architecture is 64-bit Intel, upgrade from GRUB Legacy to GRUB 2. See the
System Administrators Guide for more information.

7. If Samba is installed on the upgraded host, manually run the testparm utility to verify the
/etc/samba/smb.conf file. If the utility reports any configuration errors, you must fix them
before you can start Samba.

15
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Upgrading from RHEL 6 to RHEL 7

8. Optional: If you did not use the --cleanup-post option when running the Red Hat Upgrade Tool,
clean up orphaned RHEL 6 packages:

# rpm -qa | grep .el6 &> /tmp/el6.txt

# rpm -e $(cat /tmp/el6.txt) --nodeps


WARNING

Be careful not to accidentally remove custom packages that are compatible

with RHEL 7.


WARNING

Using the rpm command to remove orphaned packages might cause

broken dependencies in some RHEL 7 packages. Refer to Fixing
dependency errors for information on how to fix those dependency errors.

9. Update your new RHEL 7 packages to their latest version.

# yum update
# reboot

Verification steps

1. Verify that the system was upgraded to the latest version of RHEL 7.

# cat /etc/redhat-release
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server release 7.9 (Maipo)

2. Verify that the system is automatically resubscribed for RHEL 7.

# yum repolist
Loaded plugins: product-id, subscription-manager
repo id repo name status
rhel-7-server-rpms/7Server/x86_64 Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Server (RPMs) 23,676

If the repository list does not contain RHEL repositories, run the following commands to
unsubscribe the system, resubscribe the system as a RHEL 7 system, and add required
repositories:

# subscription-manager remove --all

# subscription-manager unregister
# subscription-manager register

16
 CHAPTER 4. UPGRADING YOUR SYSTEM FROM RHEL 6 TO RHEL 7

# subscription-manager attach --pool=poolID

# subscription-manager repos --enable=repoID

If any problems occur during or after the in-place upgrade, see Troubleshooting for assistance.

17
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Upgrading from RHEL 6 to RHEL 7

CHAPTER 5. TROUBLESHOOTING
Troubleshoot and solve package-related issues after the in-place upgrade from RHEL 6.10 to RHEL 7.9.

5.1. TROUBLESHOOTING RESOURCES

You can refer to the following troubleshooting resources.

Console Output

By default, only error and critical log level messages are printed to the console output by the Pre-
upgrade Assistant. To also print debug, info, and warning messages, use the --debug option with the
redhat-upgrade-tool command.

Logs

The /var/log/upgrade.log file lists issues found during the upgrade phase.

Reports

The /root/preupgrade/result.html file lists issues found during the pre-upgrade phase. This report is
also available in the web console. For more information, see Assessing upgrade suitability from a web UI .

5.2. FIXING DEPENDENCY ERRORS

During an in-place upgrade, certain packages might be installed without some of their dependencies.

Procedure

1. Identify dependencies errors:

# yum check dependencies

If the command displays no output, no further actions are required.

2. To fix dependency errors, reinstall the affected packages. During this operation, the yum utility
automatically installs missing dependencies. If the required dependencies are not provided by
repositories available on the system, install those packages manually.

5.3. INSTALLING MISSING PACKAGES

Certain packages might be missing after the upgrade from RHEL 6 to RHEL 7. This problem can occur
for several reasons:

You did not provide a repository to the Red Hat Upgrade Tool that contained these packages.
Install missing packages manually.

Certain problems are preventing some RPMs from being installed. Resolve these problems
before installing missing packages.

You are missing NetworkManager because the service was not configured and running before
the upgrade. Install and configure NetworkManager manually. For more information, see
Getting started with NetworkManager.

Procedure

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 CHAPTER 5. TROUBLESHOOTING

Procedure

1. Review which packages are missing from your RHEL 7 system using one of the following
methods:

Review the pre-upgrade report.

Run the following command to generate a list of expected packages in RHEL 7 and
compare with the packages that are currently installed to determine which packages are
missing.

$ /root/preupgrade/kickstart/RHRHEL7rpmlist* | grep -v "#" | cut -d "|" -f 3 | sort | uniq

2. Install missing packages using one of the following methods:

Locate and install all missing packages at once. This is the quickest method of getting all
missing packages.

# cd /root/preupgrade
# bash noauto_postupgrade.d/install_rpmlist.sh kickstart/RHRHEL7rpmlist_kept

If you know that you want to install only some of the missing packages, install each package
individually.

# yum install package

NOTE

For further details about other files with lists of packages you should install on the
upgraded system, see the /root/preupgrade/kickstart/README file and the pre-
upgrade report.

5.4. KNOWN ISSUES

The following are issues known to occur when upgrading from RHEL 6 to RHEL 7:

In-place upgrade from a RHEL 6 system to RHEL 7 is impossible with FIPS mode enabled

In-place upgrade on IBM Z fails and causes a data loss if the LDL format is used

The Preupgrade Assistant reports notchecked if certain packages are missing on the system

redhat-upgrade-tool fails to reconfigure the network interfaces, preventing the upgrade to

happen

redhat-upgrade-tool fails to reconfigure the static routes on the network interfaces, preventing
the upgrade to happen

Inplace upgrade fails to boot the server while upgrading from Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 to 7
(UEFI)

Why does Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 to 7 in-place upgrade fail if /usr is on separate partition?

5.5. ROLLING BACK THE UPGRADE

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Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Upgrading from RHEL 6 to RHEL 7

If the in-place upgrade to RHEL 7 is unsuccessful, it is possible to get the previous RHEL 6 working
system back in limited configurations using one of the following methods:

The rollback capability integrated in the Red Hat Upgrade Tool. For more information, see
Rollbacks and cleanup after upgrading RHEL 6 to RHEL 7 .

A custom backup and recovery solution, for example, the Relax-and-Recover (ReaR) utility. For
more information, see the ReaR documentation and What is Relax and Recover (ReaR) and how
can I use it for disaster recovery?.

5.6. OBTAINING SUPPORT

If you experience problems during the in-place upgrade, notify Red Hat so that these problems can be
addressed. There are several methods for obtaining support.

Open an sosreport using one of the following methods:

Open a support case, select RHEL 7 as the product, and provide an sosreport from your
system.

Generate an sosreport directly on your system:

# sosreport

Note that you can leave the case ID empty.

Submit a bug report.

Submit a debug log in the upgraded system in the /var/log/upgrade.log file.

For details on generating a sosreport, see the solution What is an sosreport and how to create one in
Red Hat Enterprise Linux?.

For more information on opening and managing a support case on the Customer Portal, see the article
How do I open and manage a support case on the Customer Portal? .

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 CHAPTER 6. ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

CHAPTER 6. ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Migration Planning Guide

Upgrading from RHEL 7 to RHEL 8

Upgrading from RHEL 6 to RHEL 8

How do I upgrade from RHEL 6 to RHEL 7 with SAP HANA

How to create custom Preupgrade Assistant modules for upgrading from RHEL 6 to RHEL 7

Red Hat Upgrade Tool - rollbacks and cleanup after upgrading RHEL 6 to RHEL 7

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