Supported in-place upgrade paths for Red Hat Enterprise Linux
An in-place upgrade provides a way of upgrading a system to a new major release of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) by replacing the existing operating system.
RHEL in-place upgrade with Leapp
Starting from RHEL 7, the in-place upgrade to the next major version release of RHEL is performed by using the Leapp utility.
In-place upgrade paths strategy
The current strategy for standard RHEL systems is to provide in-place upgrade paths for synchronous RHEL releases, where the latest releases are developed in parallel, for example, RHEL 9.6 and RHEL 10.0.
NOTE: The final release of the source system has a different lifecycle than non-final target system releases.
To provide a sufficient time period for planning and performing the in-place upgrade, upgrade paths will be supported as long as both the source and target releases are supported:
- 2 years for EUS releases
- 6 months for other releases, with the exception of the final upgrade path for final minor releases. This upgrade path will be supported for RHEL 8 and newer until the end of the Maintenance Support 2 phase of the source system.
For RHEL with SAP HANA, upgrade paths will be delivered only for EUS/E4S releases, including final minor releases. SAP certification is granted some time after a GA release. Therefore, always verify that the target system has already been certified for SAP before performing an in-place upgrade.
NOTE: The delayed SAP certification of particular RHEL releases does not prolong the support of these releases as described in the following table. E4S channels also do not prolong the 2 years lifecycle.
IMPORTANT: In-place upgrade paths in this Knowledgebase article are guaranteed only for systems that use Red Hat Subscription Manager (RHSM). For Pay-As-You-Go (PAYG) RHEL systems that use Red Hat Update Infrastructure (RHUI), only the latest available upgrade path is supported. Note that this does not impact RHEL systems with SAP HANA installed.
In general, upgrade paths between the source system (RHEL X) and the target system (RHEL Y) will be the following:
| RHEL X (source) | RHEL Y (target) | Lifecycle in months |
|---|---|---|
| RHEL X.6 | RHEL Y.0 | 24 |
| RHEL X.7 | RHEL Y.1 | 6 |
| RHEL X.8 | RHEL Y.2 | 24 |
| RHEL X.9 | RHEL Y.3 | 6 |
| RHEL X.10 | RHEL Y.4 | 24 |
| ... | ... | ... |
| RHEL X.10 | RHEL Y.9 | 6 |
| RHEL X.10 | RHEL Y.10 | Until the end of support for RHEL X. Note that the level of support might differ based on the Extended Life-cycle Support (ELS) subscription availability. For more information, see RHEL In-place upgrade Support Policy. |
For more information about RHEL lifecycles, see Red Hat Enterprise Linux Life Cycle.
NOTE: If your RHEL system release is not supported for the in-place upgrade, you can update the system to a newer minor version by using either the yum update or dnf update command and then perform the in-place upgrade to the next major release of RHEL.
In-place upgrade from RHEL 9 to RHEL 10
The procedure for upgrading from RHEL 9 to RHEL 10 by using the Leapp utility is documented in Upgrading from RHEL 9 to RHEL 10. Major differences between RHEL 9 and RHEL 10 are documented in Considerations in adopting RHEL 10.
In-place upgrade from RHEL 9 to RHEL 10 strategy
The following are the planned upgrade paths for upgrades from RHEL 9 to RHEL 10 and the planned support periods for each upgrade path:
Currently supported upgrade paths from RHEL 9 to RHEL 10
Currently, it is possible to perform an in-place upgrade from RHEL 9 to the following target RHEL 10 minor versions:
| System configuration | Source OS version | Target OS version |
|---|---|---|
| RHEL | RHEL 9.6 (EUS) | RHEL 10.0 (EUS) |
| RHEL | RHEL 9.7 | RHEL 10.1 |
In-place upgrade from RHEL 8 to RHEL 9
The procedure for upgrading from RHEL 8 to RHEL 9 by using the Leapp utility is documented Upgrading from RHEL 8 to RHEL 9. Major differences between RHEL 8 and RHEL 9 are documented in Considerations in adopting RHEL 9.
The procedure for upgrading from RHEL 8 to RHEL 9 on systems with SAP HANA is documented in Upgrading SAP environments from RHEL 8 to RHEL 9.
In-place upgrade from RHEL 8 to RHEL 9 strategy
The following are the planned upgrade paths for upgrades from RHEL 8 to RHEL 9 and the planned support periods for each upgrade path:
Currently supported upgrade paths from RHEL 8 to RHEL 9
Currently, it is possible to perform an in-place upgrade from RHEL 8 to the following target RHEL 9 minor versions:
| System configuration | Source OS version | Target OS version |
|---|---|---|
| RHEL | RHEL 8.10 | RHEL 9.4 (EUS) |
| RHEL 9.6 (EUS) | ||
| RHEL 9.7 | ||
| RHEL with SAP HANA | RHEL 8.10 | RHEL 9.4 |
| RHEL 9.6 |
In-place upgrade from RHEL 7 to RHEL 8
The procedure of upgrading from RHEL 7 to RHEL 8 by using the Leapp utility is documented in Upgrading from RHEL 7 to RHEL 8. Major differences between RHEL 7 and RHEL 8 are documented in Considerations in adopting RHEL 8.
The procedure for upgrading from RHEL 7 to RHEL 8 on systems with SAP HANA is documented in This content is not included.How to in-place upgrade SAP environments from RHEL 7 to RHEL 8. Note that because SAP HANA 1.0 is not supported on RHEL 8, you must first upgrade to SAP HANA 2.0.
In-place upgrade from RHEL 7 to RHEL 8 strategy
The following are the planned upgrade paths for upgrades from RHEL 7 to RHEL 8 and the planned support periods for each upgrade path:
Currently supported upgrade paths from RHEL 7 to RHEL 8
Currently, it is possible to perform an in-place upgrade from RHEL 7 to the following target RHEL 8 minor versions:
| System configuration | Source OS version | Target OS version |
|---|---|---|
| 64-bit Intel, IBM POWER 8 (little endian), and 64-bit IBM Z | RHEL 7.9 | RHEL 8.10 |
| RHEL with SAP HANA | RHEL 7.9 | RHEL 8.10 |
NOTE: RHEL 7.6 was the last RHEL 7 minor release to support installation on IBM POWER 9. As it is not possible to install RHEL 7.9 on POWER 9 machines, this architecture is not supported anymore for upgrades.
In-place upgrade from RHEL 6 to RHEL 7
The procedure of an in-place upgrade from RHEL 6 to RHEL 7 and the usage of the Preupgrade Assistant and the Red Hat Upgrade Tool is documented in the Upgrading from RHEL 6 to RHEL 7 guide. Major changes between RHEL 6 and RHEL 7 and migration considerations are documented in the RHEL 7 Migration Planning Guide.
Available upgrade path from RHEL 6 to RHEL 7
Red Hat currently supports in-place upgrade from RHEL 6.10 to RHEL 7.9.
NOTE: For RHEL 6.10, only the Extended Life Phase (ELP) support is available.
The supported upgrade path on systems with SAP HANA is from RHEL 6.10 to RHEL 7.9. For details, see How do I upgrade from Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 to Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 with SAP HANA.