Migrating to AlmaLinux
Given recent reminders about the shorter lifespan of CentOS Stream releases, I decided to rethink what I run on my server. The two main options for those who want the full life cycle of RHEL without actually running RHEL are AlmaLinux and Rocky Linux. For reasons I don't fully understand, I get a better vibe from AlmaLinux. You'll want to do your own research to see what works best for you.
I still like the idea of CentOS Stream, but I also like the idea of leaving this server on the same OS for ~6 more years. Instead of trying to do an unsupported upgrade to Stream 9, let's migrate to AlmaLinux!
Is that it?
Because my server runs very little and has a fairly simple configuration, migrating to AlmaLinux took literally two commands as root:
# curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/AlmaLinux/almalinux-deploy/master/almalinux-deploy.sh
# bash almalinux-deploy.sh -d
This is of course using their helpful migration script. A reboot sealed the deal, and now I'm running AlmaLinux 8.7.
Break it down now
While it really was that simple, I will highlight the -d switch that
I had to use. That is specifically for the case where you're moving
from a Stream install as it may have packages newer than what's in the
current release version of RHEL.
I should also mention that I had the epel-next-release package
installed for EPEL, so I removed that since it's no longer
needed. I didn't seem to have any packages from that anyway, but you
could run a dnf distro-sync to be sure.
I think we're done here
I should now be set until 2029. Works for me!
"There will be stability in your times, abundance of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge."
Isaiah 33:6a, WEB
Tags: how-to, server-info