Convert CentOS 8 to Rocky Linux 8 [100% Working]


Rocky Linux

Author: Omer Cakmak
Reviewer: Deepak Prasad

As you know, CentOS Linux 8 became the end of life on 31 Dec 2021. It will now continue its life as CentOS Stream 8. Many people/organizations using CentOS are migrating to different distributions. Rocky Linux is one of these distributions. After CentOS became the end of life, this community-released distribution seems to have replaced CentOS.

Of course, Rocky Linux can be installed on systems to be installed for the first time, but how can we move old systems to Rocky Linux? How do we switch from CentOS 8 to Rocky Linux?

 

How to upgrade CentOS 8 to Rocky Linux?

The Rocky Linux team has prepared a script for the upgrade from CentOS to Rocky Linux. By downloading and running this script, you can upgrade from CentOS 8 to Rocky Linux. You can get this script with 2 different methods.

First, you can install git package and pull script in git repository. The second method is with cURL, you can just pull the script and then run it.

Let's take a look at the features of the system before upgrading:

[foc@centos8 ~]$ hostnamectl 
   Static hostname: centos8
         Icon name: computer-vm
           Chassis: vm
        Machine ID: e965f8895bc44256abc749a36aea7f45
           Boot ID: dbc7f2a31f7b4ba6a141f4435e232d2e
    Virtualization: kvm
  Operating System: CentOS Stream 8
       CPE OS Name: cpe:/o:centos:centos:8
            Kernel: Linux 4.18.0-408.el8.x86_64
      Architecture: x86-64

 

Method-1: Download the script from git

Install the git package to pull the git repo:

[foc@centos8 ~]$ sudo dnf install git -y

Then clone the repo:

[foc@centos8 ~]$ git clone https://github.com/rocky-linux/rocky-tools.git

Change to the directory where the script is located:

[foc@centos8 ~]$ cd rocky-tools/migrate2rocky

Give the script execute permission

[foc@centos8 rocky-tools]$ sudo chmod  +x migrate2rocky.sh

And run the script, sit back:

[foc@centos8 rocky-tools]$ sudo ./migrate2rocky.sh -r

 

Method-2: Download the script with cURL

If your system does not have cURL, install it with the following command:

[foc@centos8 rocky-tools]$ sudo dnf install curl -y

Then pull the upgrade script:

[foc@centos8 ~]$ curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/rocky-linux/rocky-tools/main/migrate2rocky/migrate2rocky.sh -o migrate2rocky.sh
  % Total    % Received % Xferd  Average Speed   Time    Time     Time  Current
                                 Dload  Upload   Total   Spent    Left  Speed
  0     0    0     0    0     0      0      0 --:--:-- --:--:-- --:--:--  0     0    0     0    0     0      0      0 --:--:-- --:--:-- --:--:--100 44912  100 44912    0     0  85060      0 --:--:-- --:--:-- --:--:-- 84899

Give the upgrade script execute permission:

[foc@centos8 ~]$ chmod u+x migrate2rocky.sh

And the script is run:

[foc@centos8 ~]$ sudo ./migrate2rocky.sh -r
migrate2rocky - Begin logging at Sun 08 Jan 2023 15:12:01 EST.


Removing dnf cache
Preparing to migrate CentOS Stream 8 to Rocky Linux 8.

Determining repository names for CentOS Stream 8.
.....

Found the following repositories which map from CentOS Stream 8 to Rocky Linux 8:
CentOS Stream 8  Rocky Linux 8
appstream        appstream
baseos           baseos
extras           extras

Getting system package names for CentOS Stream 8..........

Found the following system packages which map from CentOS Stream 8 to Rocky Linux 8:
CentOS Stream 8        Rocky Linux 8
centos-logos-ipa       rocky-logos-ipa
...

You can follow the processes done during the upgrade on the screen.

...
Installed:
  grub2-tools-efi-1:2.02-142.el8.rocky.0.2.x86_64                               
  kernel-4.18.0-425.3.1.el8.x86_64                                              
  kernel-core-4.18.0-425.3.1.el8.x86_64                                         
  kernel-modules-4.18.0-425.3.1.el8.x86_64                                      

Complete!
Last metadata expiration check: 0:05:45 ago on Sun Jan  8 15:14:21 2023.
Dependencies resolved.
Nothing to do.
Complete!

CentOS Stream Migration Notes:

Because CentOS Stream leads RockyLinux by the next point release many packages
in Stream will have higher version numbers than those in RockyLinux, some will
even be rebased to a new upstream version.  Downgrading these packages to the
versions in RockyLinux carries the risk that the older version may not
recognize config files, data or other files generated by the newer version in
Stream.

To avoid issues with this the newer package versions from CentOS Stream have
been retained.  Also the CentOS Stream repositories have been retained but
renamed with a prefix of "stream-" to avoid clashing with RockyLinux
repositories, but these same repos have also been disabled so that future
package installs will come from the stock RockyLinux repositories.

If you do nothing except update to the next point release of RockyLinux when it
becomes available then the packages retained from Stream should be replaced at
that time.  If you need to update a package from Stream (eg: to fix a bug or
security issue) then you will need to enable the appropriate repository to do
so.

Done, please reboot your system.
A log of this installation can be found at /var/log/migrate2rocky.log
...

Upgrade completed. Reboot the system:

[foc@centos8 ~]$ sudo reboot

You can see Rocky Linux in the grub menu.

upgrade Centos 8 to Rocky Linux

Now let's check the system information:

[foc@centos8 ~]$ hostnamectl 
   Static hostname: centos8
         Icon name: computer-vm
           Chassis: vm
        Machine ID: e965f8895bc44256abc749a36aea7f45
           Boot ID: 509e56690044483da477564592dff946
    Virtualization: kvm
  Operating System: Rocky Linux 8.7 (Green Obsidian)
       CPE OS Name: cpe:/o:rocky:rocky:8:GA
            Kernel: Linux 4.18.0-425.3.1.el8.x86_64
      Architecture: x86-64

You can see the Operating System as "Rocky Linux 8.7 (Green Obsidian)".

 

Summary

The upgrade script has a few simple parameters. You can use the -h parameter to view it.

[foc@centos8 rocky-tools]$ sudo ./migrate2rocky/migrate2rocky.sh -h
migrate2rocky - Begin logging at Sun 08 Jan 2023 15:28:45 EST.

Usage: migrate2rocky.sh [OPTIONS]

Options:
-h Display this help
-r Convert to rocky
-V Verify switch
   !! USE WITH CAUTION !!

Although the upgrade process may seem simple, it should be done carefully. Systems running on the operating system should be checked and data redundancy should be ensured. Perhaps most importantly, snapshots should be taken if possible.

 

References

docs.rockylinux.org - How to Migrate to Rocky Linux from CentOS

 

Omer Cakmak

Omer Cakmak

He is highly skilled at managing Debian, Ubuntu, CentOS, Oracle Linux, and Red Hat servers. Proficient in bash scripting, Ansible, and AWX central server management, he handles server operations on OpenStack, KVM, Proxmox, and VMware. You can connect with him on his LinkedIn profile.

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