Is it possible to manually upgrade a specific package in Red Hat Enterprise Linux CoreOS (RHCOS)?

Solution Verified - Updated

Environment

  • Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform (RHOCP) 4.x
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux CoreOS (RHCOS)

Issue

  • How to manually upgrade a package in Red Hat Enterprise Linux CoreOS (RHCOS)?
  • Is it supported to upgrade a specific package in Red Hat Enterprise Linux CoreOS (RHCOS)?
  • Need to upgrade a specific package

Resolution

it’s not possible to manually upgrade a specific package in Red Hat Enterprise Linux CoreOS (RHCOS).

Root Cause

RHCOS is designed to be managed more tightly than a default RHEL installation. Management is performed remotely from the OpenShift Container Platform cluster. When you set up your RHCOS machines, you can modify only a few system settings. This controlled immutability allows OpenShift Container Platform to store the latest state of RHCOS systems in the cluster so it is always able to create additional machines and perform updates based on the latest RHCOS configurations.

The Machine Config Operator handles operating system upgrades. Instead of upgrading individual packages, as is done with yum upgrades, rpm-ostree delivers upgrades of the OS as an atomic unit. The new OS deployment is staged during upgrades and goes into effect on the next reboot. If something goes wrong with the upgrade, a single rollback and reboot returns the system to the previous state. RHCOS upgrades in OpenShift Container Platform are performed during cluster updates.

See the official documentation about Red Hat Enterprise Linux CoreOS (RHCOS)

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