What does Beta mean in Red Hat Enterprise Linux and can I upgrade a RHEL Beta installation to a General Availability (GA) release?

Environment

• Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) Beta

Issue

• Can I upgrade from a Red Hat Enterprise Linux Beta version to the Generally Available (GA) release?
• Does Red Hat provide the support on the software in its Beta or High-Touch Beta repositories?
• Can RHEL Beta releases be considered for production use cases?
• I want to participate in testing RHEL before it is released. Is this possible?

Resolution

• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Beta releases are made available only for testing purposes. Red Hat provides these Beta releases and revisions as a courtesy to facilitate early testing by users prior to a Generally Availability (GA) release, and to solicit feedback from users on the Beta functionality.

• Red Hat does not support the usage of RHEL Beta releases in production use cases. NOTE: Beta cases are handled as Severity 4.

• Upgrading to or from any RHEL Beta release is not an upgrade path that is supported by Red Hat. Red Hat Enterprise Linux Beta deployments cannot be directly updated to a non-beta Red Hat Enterprise Linux release, or vice-versa.

  • To upgrade from a supported RHEL release to a RHEL Beta release, Red Hat recommends a fresh installation of the Beta release.
  • To upgrade from a RHEL Beta release to a supported and generally-available RHEL release, Red Hat recommends a fresh installation of the GA release.

• Please see Red Hat's Scope of Coverage documentation for further helpful information: Production Support Scope of Coverage

Diagnostic Steps

• On an installed RHEL system, look at the file /etc/redhat-release to determine if shows that that installation as a "Beta" release.

  # cat /etc/redhat-release
  Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server release 7.6 Beta (Maipo)
  

  If this reflects a Beta release, then the conditions in the Resolution section above apply.

• Even if /etc/redhat-release does not shows the installation as a "Beta" release, RPMs that were installed from a Beta release may be installed on the system. Check rpm -qa output for packages that originated from a RHEL Beta release.

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