Evaggelos Balaskas - System Engineer

Upgrading CentOS 6.x to CentOS 7.x

Disclaimer : Create a recent backup of the system. This is an unofficial , unsupported procedure !

CentOS 6

CentOS release 6.9 (Final)
Kernel 2.6.32-696.16.1.el6.x86_64 on an x86_64

centos69 login: root
Password:
Last login: Tue May  8 19:45:45 on tty1

[root@centos69 ~]# cat /etc/redhat-release
CentOS release 6.9 (Final)

Pre Tasks

There are some tasks you can do to prevent from unwanted results.
Like:

• Disable selinux
• Remove unnecessary repositories
• Take a recent backup!

CentOS Upgrade Repository

Create a new centos repository:

cat > /etc/yum.repos.d/centos-upgrade.repo <<EOF
[centos-upgrade]
name=centos-upgrade
baseurl=http://dev.centos.org/centos/6/upg/x86_64/
enabled=1
gpgcheck=0
EOF

Install Pre-Upgrade Tool

First install the openscap version from dev.centos.org:

# yum -y install https://buildlogs.centos.org/centos/6/upg/x86_64/Packages/openscap-1.0.8-1.0.1.el6.centos.x86_64.rpm

then install the redhat upgrade tool:

# yum -y install redhat-upgrade-tool preupgrade-assistant-*

Import CentOS 7 PGP Key

# rpm --import http://ftp.otenet.gr/linux/centos/RPM-GPG-KEY-CentOS-7 

Mirror

to bypass errors like:

Downloading failed: invalid data in .treeinfo: No section: ‘checksums’

append CentOS Vault under mirrorlist:

 mkdir -pv /var/tmp/system-upgrade/base/ /var/tmp/system-upgrade/extras/  /var/tmp/system-upgrade/updates/

 echo http://vault.centos.org/7.0.1406/os/x86_64/       >  /var/tmp/system-upgrade/base/mirrorlist.txt
 echo http://vault.centos.org/7.0.1406/extras/x86_64/   >  /var/tmp/system-upgrade/extras/mirrorlist.txt
 echo http://vault.centos.org/7.0.1406/updates/x86_64/  >  /var/tmp/system-upgrade/updates/mirrorlist.txt 

These are enough to upgrade to 7.0.1406. You can add the below mirros, to upgrade to 7.5.1804

More Mirrors

 echo http://ftp.otenet.gr/linux/centos/7.5.1804/os/x86_64/  >>  /var/tmp/system-upgrade/base/mirrorlist.txt
 echo http://mirror.centos.org/centos/7/os/x86_64/           >>  /var/tmp/system-upgrade/base/mirrorlist.txt 

 echo http://ftp.otenet.gr/linux/centos/7.5.1804/extras/x86_64/ >>  /var/tmp/system-upgrade/extras/mirrorlist.txt
 echo http://mirror.centos.org/centos/7/extras/x86_64/          >>  /var/tmp/system-upgrade/extras/mirrorlist.txt 

 echo http://ftp.otenet.gr/linux/centos/7.5.1804/updates/x86_64/  >>  /var/tmp/system-upgrade/updates/mirrorlist.txt
 echo http://mirror.centos.org/centos/7/updates/x86_64/           >>  /var/tmp/system-upgrade/updates/mirrorlist.txt 

Pre-Upgrade

preupg is actually a python script!

# yes | preupg -v 

Preupg tool doesn't do the actual upgrade.
Please ensure you have backed up your system and/or data in the event of a failed upgrade
 that would require a full re-install of the system from installation media.
Do you want to continue? y/n
Gathering logs used by preupgrade assistant:
All installed packages : 01/11 ...finished (time 00:00s)
All changed files      : 02/11 ...finished (time 00:18s)
Changed config files   : 03/11 ...finished (time 00:00s)
All users              : 04/11 ...finished (time 00:00s)
All groups             : 05/11 ...finished (time 00:00s)
Service statuses       : 06/11 ...finished (time 00:00s)
All installed files    : 07/11 ...finished (time 00:01s)
All local files        : 08/11 ...finished (time 00:01s)
All executable files   : 09/11 ...finished (time 00:01s)
RedHat signed packages : 10/11 ...finished (time 00:00s)
CentOS signed packages : 11/11 ...finished (time 00:00s)
Assessment of the system, running checks / SCE scripts:
001/096 ...done    (Configuration Files to Review)
002/096 ...done    (File Lists for Manual Migration)
003/096 ...done    (Bacula Backup Software)
...
./result.html
/bin/tar: .: file changed as we read it
Tarball with results is stored here /root/preupgrade-results/preupg_results-180508202952.tar.gz .
The latest assessment is stored in directory /root/preupgrade .
Summary information:
We found some potential in-place upgrade risks.
Read the file /root/preupgrade/result.html for more details.
Upload results to UI by command:
e.g. preupg -u http://127.0.0.1:8099/submit/ -r /root/preupgrade-results/preupg_results-*.tar.gz .

this must finish without any errors.

CentOS Upgrade Tool

We need to find out what are the possible problems when upgrade:

# centos-upgrade-tool-cli --network=7
          --instrepo=http://vault.centos.org/7.0.1406/os/x86_64/ 

Then by force we can upgrade to it’s latest version:

# centos-upgrade-tool-cli --force --network=7
          --instrepo=http://vault.centos.org/7.0.1406/os/x86_64/
          --cleanup-post

Output

setting up repos...
base                                                          | 3.6 kB     00:00
base/primary_db                                               | 4.9 MB     00:04
centos-upgrade                                                | 1.9 kB     00:00
centos-upgrade/primary_db                                     |  14 kB     00:00
cmdline-instrepo                                              | 3.6 kB     00:00
cmdline-instrepo/primary_db                                   | 4.9 MB     00:03
epel/metalink                                                 |  14 kB     00:00
epel                                                          | 4.7 kB     00:00
epel                                                          | 4.7 kB     00:00
epel/primary_db                                               | 6.0 MB     00:04
extras                                                        | 3.6 kB     00:00
extras/primary_db                                             | 4.9 MB     00:04
mariadb                                                       | 2.9 kB     00:00
mariadb/primary_db                                            |  33 kB     00:00
remi-php56                                                    | 2.9 kB     00:00
remi-php56/primary_db                                         | 229 kB     00:00
remi-safe                                                     | 2.9 kB     00:00
remi-safe/primary_db                                          | 950 kB     00:00
updates                                                       | 3.6 kB     00:00
updates/primary_db                                            | 4.9 MB     00:04
.treeinfo                                                     | 1.1 kB     00:00
getting boot images...
vmlinuz-redhat-upgrade-tool                                   | 4.7 MB     00:03
initramfs-redhat-upgrade-tool.img                             |  32 MB     00:24
setting up update...
finding updates 100% [=========================================================]
(1/323): MariaDB-10.2.14-centos6-x86_64-client.rpm            |  48 MB     00:38
(2/323): MariaDB-10.2.14-centos6-x86_64-common.rpm            | 154 kB     00:00
(3/323): MariaDB-10.2.14-centos6-x86_64-compat.rpm            | 4.0 MB     00:03
(4/323): MariaDB-10.2.14-centos6-x86_64-server.rpm            | 109 MB     01:26
(5/323): acl-2.2.51-12.el7.x86_64.rpm                         |  81 kB     00:00
(6/323): apr-1.4.8-3.el7.x86_64.rpm                           | 103 kB     00:00
(7/323): apr-util-1.5.2-6.el7.x86_64.rpm                      |  92 kB     00:00
(8/323): apr-util-ldap-1.5.2-6.el7.x86_64.rpm                 |  19 kB     00:00
(9/323): attr-2.4.46-12.el7.x86_64.rpm                        |  66 kB     00:00
...
(320/323): yum-plugin-fastestmirror-1.1.31-24.el7.noarch.rpm  |  28 kB     00:00
(321/323): yum-utils-1.1.31-24.el7.noarch.rpm                 | 111 kB     00:00
(322/323): zlib-1.2.7-13.el7.x86_64.rpm                       |  89 kB     00:00
(323/323): zlib-devel-1.2.7-13.el7.x86_64.rpm                 |  49 kB     00:00
testing upgrade transaction
rpm transaction 100% [=========================================================]
rpm install 100% [=============================================================]
setting up system for upgrade
Finished. Reboot to start upgrade.

Reboot

The upgrade procedure, will download all rpm packages to a directory and create a new grub entry. Then on reboot the system will try to upgrade the distribution release to it’s latest version.

# reboot 

Upgrade

CentOS 7

CentOS Linux 7 (Core)
Kernel 3.10.0-123.20.1.el7.x86_64 on an x86_64

centos69 login: root
Password:
Last login: Fri May 11 15:42:30 on ttyS0

[root@centos69 ~]# cat /etc/redhat-release
CentOS Linux release 7.0.1406 (Core)