The Leapp utility is a framework for in-place upgrade of operating systems and applications.
Currently, Oracle only supports upgrading operating systems from Oracle Linux 7 to Oracle Linux 8 and Oracle Linux 8 to Oracle Linux 9. It doesn’t support any other operating systems or versions. Leapp supports systems running on-premises and Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI); it operates in two phases.
- Pre-upgrade: checking the system configuration for upgrade.
- Upgrade: performing the actual upgrade.
In-place upgrading saves significant time and costs for organizations. Currently, Leapp will only upgrade packages provided by Oracle and not third-party packages. So, if third-party applications are running on the systems, then you should review all requirements carefully before using Leapp.
Systems with features such as ISV applications, Oracle Linux Manager, systems registered with ULN, running FIPS mode, or Secure Boot are not supported by Leapp. These requirements are the same for both the OL7-to-OL8 and OL8-to-OL9 upgrade scenarios. Refer to the Oracle documentation for more details.
There are some restrictions around supported kernel upgrades. An Oracle Linux x86_64 system not using the Btrfs file system can be upgraded from OL7/OL8 RHCK to OL8/OL9 RHCK & OL7/OL8 UEK to OL8/OL9 UEK. An Oracle Linux x86_64 system using the Btrfs file system can be upgraded from OL7 RHCK to OL8 UEK & OL7 UEK to OL8 UEK. An Oracle Linux x86_64 system using the Btrfs file system can only be upgraded from OL8
UEK to OL9 UEK.
For more details around kernel upgrades, refer to Oracle documentation.
To Leapp, the system is straightforward. Here are the main commands you will run to upgrade the system. You still have to go through the system backup and resolve any issues identified during the pre-upgrade check, etc.
To install the package:
# yum install -y leapp-upgrade –enablerepo=ol7_leapp,ol7_latest
To run the pre-upgrade check:
# leapp preupgrade –oraclelinux
To upgrade the system:
# leapp upgrade –oraclelinux
# reboot
At this point, the system has been upgraded, and you can perform any custom post-installation tasks and/or report any issues during the pre-upgrade check.
Here is the screenshot of the verification commands:
As you’ve noticed, the Leapp process is very simple and valuable when you need to upgrade many physical or virtual systems. But at the same time, there are quite a few restrictions as we went over here, so it is very critical to evaluate your environment before choosing the upgrade path. Systems running third-party applications/packages may be candidates for out-of-place upgrades.
You can find Oracle Linux’s lifetime support policy at https://www.oracle.com/a/ocom/docs/elsp-lifetime-069338.pdf.
Mythics provides Technical Account Manager (TAM) services for Oracle Linux to customers. As a customer, you also get access to a tailored knowledge base that covers topics across various Linux technologies, such as Leapp, Oracle Linux Automation Manager (OLAM), and Migration to Oracle Linux automation.
