Installing leapp-upgrade on RHEL 7.9 fails with 'Error: Package: audit-libs-python-2.8.5-4.el7.x86_64 (rhel-7-server-rpms)

Environment

• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.9
• leapp

Issue

• While attempting to install the leapp-upgrade package on a RHEL 7.9 system to perform an in-place upgrade to RHEL 8.10, the following dependency error occurs:

  Error: Package: audit-libs-python-2.8.5-4.el7.x86_64 (rhel-7-server-rpms)
             Requires: audit-libs(x86-64) = 2.8.5-4.el7
             Installed: audit-libs-2.8.5-4.el7_9.1.x86_64 (@rhel-7-server-els-rpms)
                 audit-libs(x86-64) = 2.8.5-4.el7_9.1
  

Resolution

• To resolve this issue:

1. Renew or reactivate the Extended Lifecycle Support (ELS) subscription for RHEL 7.9. For more information refer Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Extended Lifecycle Support Maintenance Policy

2. Enable the rhel-7-server-els-rpms repository:

   # subscription-manager repos --enable=rhel-7-server-els-rpms
   

3. Install the leapp-upgrade package again:

   # yum install leapp-upgrade -y
   

   The ELS repository will provide compatible versions of audit-libs and audit-libs-python, resolving the dependency conflict.

Root Cause

• The audit-libs package currently installed on the system originates from the ELS repository (rhel-7-server-els-rpms), providing version audit-libs-2.8.5-4.el7_9.1, which is newer than the version available in the standard RHEL 7 repositories (2.8.5-4.el7).

• When the ELS subscription expires or the ELS repository is disabled, yum attempts to resolve dependencies using only the standard repositories. This leads to a version mismatch between audit-libs and audit-libs-python, causing dependency conflicts during the leapp-upgrade package installation.

Diagnostic Steps

1. Check current audit packages:

   # rpm -qa | grep audit
   

Example output:

audit-2.8.5-4.el7_9.1.x86_64
audit-libs-2.8.5-4.el7_9.1.x86_64

2. Verify available repositories:

   # yum repolist
   

3. Confirm ELS repository availability:

   # subscription-manager repos --list | grep -i rhel-7-server-els-rpms
   

4. Attempt installation and review dependency error:

   # yum install leapp-upgrade -y
   

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