What packages do I need to install to migrate my CentOS 5.7 server to identical version of RHEL. I have RHN subscription but I don't want to create a fresh install and move files.
2 Answers
Despite the fact that both distributions are built from mostly the same sources the installed binaries are not the same.
For copyright reasons the CentOS team (just like the Unbreakable Linux team at Oracle) has to remove certain Red Hat owned material (logos etc.) and recompile.
So even if your install the necessary packages to make the system "look" like a RHEL system (package redhat-release is an obvious one) I doubt Red Hat would consider it a supported system.
It may not be the answer you're looking for but I suggest you do reinstall in order to avoid support issues at a time you need it.
You should be able to start from the kickstart file created by anaconda (/root/anaconda-ks.cfg) to quickly set up a new system identical to the existing system.
I realize that this question is about an old version of CentOS, but in case somebody is looking for a similar answer today: RedHat now offers a supported migration path from CentOS (and Oracle Linux) to official RedHat. The migration supports only the 64-bit versions of CentOS 6, 7 and 8.
It involves a utility named Convert2RHEL which is in the EPEL repository.
If you have access to RedHat's knowledge base (which you should since it comes with the RHEL subscription), the details are here: https://access.redhat.com/articles/2360841
This article comes with a big note that advises you to engage RedHat consulting, just in case.
The procedure basically is:
- Yum update everything on CentOS
- Make a full backup of your system
- Install convert2rhel
yum install -y convert2rhel - Activate the RHEL repositories. According to the article, the repo ID would be something similar to rhel-7-server rpms. It does not go into details.
convert2rhel --disable-submgr --enablerepo <RHEL_RepoID> --debug - wait until convert2rhel reinstalls all the RPMs from RHEL.
- Reboot to activate the RHEL kernel.
- Identify and remove RPMs that didn't have a RHEL counterpart
yum list extras --disablerepo="*" --enablerepo=<RHEL_RepoID> 