Leapp upgrade FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)

Updated

Overview

This article provides answers to some of the most frequently asked questions related to the Leapp utility, support related topics and also gives insights with respect to how to upgrade to a supported Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL).

What is Leapp?

Leapp is an officially supported component of RHEL that upgrades the system into a supportable RHEL state, retaining existing configurations.

Where can I learn more about using Leapp upgrade?

What are the supported in-place upgrade paths for Red Hat Enterprise Linux?

The authoritative list is documented in Chapter 1. Supported upgrade paths of official Documentation. Also, you can refer to this article.

Is it possible to in-place upgrade directly from RHEL 7 to RHEL 9?

It is not possible to perform an in-place upgrade directly from RHEL 7 to RHEL 9. However, you can perform an in-place upgrade from RHEL 7 to RHEL 8 and then perform a second in-place upgrade to RHEL 9.

What are the considerations to take into account before in-place upgrading?

Can I upgrade to other intermediate versions than what are mentioned "Chapter 1. Supported upgrade paths" of official Documentation?

Red Hat does not support upgrades to any other intermediate version other than those mentioned in Chapter 1. Supported upgrade paths of official Documentation.

How to check if my hardware is certified for latest RHEL version ?

You can check this article to verify if the hardware is certified or not for particular RHEL version.

How long does the upgrade process take?

Essentially, the process is roughly equivalent to a RHEL minor release upgrade, in which every RHEL RPM package on the system is replaced. Third party and non-Red Hat packages are not replaced. Therefore, the amount of time can vary depending on how many packages need to be replaced, network speed, storage speed, and similar variables. A good analogy is to ask your own staff, “How quickly can we apply minor updates and reboot the system for a single node as well as many nodes at once”. A minimal RHEL install in a virtual machine typically takes around 45-60 minutes, but this is dependent on the environment.

Can I upgrade systems connected to the Red Hat Satellite?

With an extra step as defined in 3.2. Preparing a Satellite-registered system for the upgrade of official Documentation, it explains steps that are necessary to prepare a system that is registered to Satellite for the upgrade.

Can I use the same subscription on upgraded system or do I need to purchase a new subscription ?

The same RHEL subscription can be used on upgraded system. There is no need to purchase a new subscription as subscription is not version specific.

Can Ansible Automation Platform automate these upgrades?

Red Hat recommends using automation to achieve the scale required to perform Leapp upgrades in environments with hundreds or thousands of RHEL hosts. For information about an end-to-end automation approach, see This content is not included.How to automate upgrades before RHEL 7 end of maintenance. The same automation approach works for other RHEL versions, even going back to RHEL 6 to 7 and also for RHEL 9 to 10.

Can I upgrade systems running [Some_Application]?

The only content and applications tested are what is provided in official RHEL content repositories. Typically, the binary compatibility results in no issues, but there are possibilities for incompatibilities. It is always recommended to make backups before upgrading, as directed in the documentation. Additionally, it is recommended to test critical third party applications for compatibility after upgrading. Support regarding third party applications, including third party kernel modules (drivers) is defined in Red Hat support policy regarding third party packages in RHEL.
    Furthermore, you can migrate applications installed on your system by using Leapp. However, in certain cases, you have to create custom actors, which specify actions to be performed by Leapp during the upgrade, for example, reconfiguring an application or installing a specific hardware driver. For more information, see Handling the migration of your custom and third-party applications. Note that Red Hat does not support custom actors.

What are the known issues with Leapp?

The authoritative list is documented in Chapter 9. Troubleshooting of official Documentation. Also this article describes few of the issues that can occur during preupgrade, upgrade or post upgrade phase of RHEL 7 to RHEL 8 upgrade.

Can I get a consolidated troubleshooting article for Red Hat Satellite 6.x Leapp issues?

You can refer to this article for a collection of knowledge base articles describing known issues.

Can I in-place upgrade a RHEL system on Google Cloud Platform (GCP) using Red Hat Update Infrastructure (RHUI)?

Yes you can but Red Hat does not have an option to serve the packages via GCP client repositories, we provide them via this article.

Can I in-place upgrade SAP environments?

Can I upgrade the offline system using a local repository?

Yes, you can upgrade the system offline using a local or custom repository. But --target option is not honored with local or custom repository, hence you should share the supported version of RHEL local repository. For more information, refer solution.

Can Leapp be used with cloud images, such as for AWS, Azure, GCP, and similar?

The in-place upgrade is supported for on-demand Pay-As-You-Go (PAYG) instances on Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform with This content is not included.Red Hat Update Infrastructure (RHUI). The in-place upgrade is also supported for Bring Your Own Subscription instances on all public clouds that use Red Hat Subscription Manager (RHSM) for a RHEL subscription.

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