Upgrading SLE Micro from Previous Releases

To check the SLE Micro version, view the file /etc/os-release. Machine-readable XML output is available with zypper:

      > sudo zypper --no-remote --no-refresh --xmlout --non-interactive products
      -i
      
<?xml version='1.0'?>
<stream>
<message type="info">Ignoring repository 'SLE-Micro-5.5-Debuginfo-Pool' because of 'no-remote' option.</message>
<message type="info">Ignoring repository 'SLE-Micro-5.5-Debuginfo-Updates' because of 'no-remote' option.</message>
<message type="info">Ignoring repository 'SLE-Micro-5.5-Pool' because of 'no-remote' option.</message>
<message type="info">Ignoring repository 'SLE-Micro-5.5-Source-Pool' because of 'no-remote' option.</message>
<message type="info">Ignoring repository 'SLE-Micro-5.5-Updates' because of 'no-remote' option.</message>
<message type="info">Loading repository data...</message>
<message type="info">Reading installed packages...</message>
<product-list>
<product name="SLE-Micro" version="5.5" release="1" epoch="0" arch="x86_64" vendor="SUSE" summary="SUSE Linux Enterprise Micro 5.5" repo="@System" productline="SLE-Micro" registerrelease="" shortname="SUSE Linux Enterprise Micro" flavor="" isbase="true" installed="true"><endoflife time_t="1809043200" text="2027-04-30T00:00:00Z"/><registerflavor/><description>SUSE Linux Enterprise Micro 5.5</description></product>
</product-list>
</stream>

Find a list of all changes, new features, and known issues in the release notes. You can also find the release notes on the installation media in the docu directory.

The release notes usually only contain the changes between two subsequent releases.

Check the release notes to see whether:

On registration, the system receives repositories from the SUSE Customer Center (see https://scc.suse.com/) or a local registration proxy like SMT. The repository names map to specific URIs in the customer center. To list all available repositories on your system, use zypper as follows:

# zypper repos -u

This gives you a list of all available repositories on your system. Each repository is listed by its alias, name and whether it is enabled and will be refreshed. The option -u also gives you the URI from where it originated.

To register your machine, run the transactional-update command as follows:

 > sudo transactional-update register -r REGCODE

To check your locally installed products and their status, use the following command:

# SUSEConnect -s

Upgrading the system is only supported from the most recent patch level. Make sure the latest system updates are installed by running:

      > sudo transactional-update patch

Before upgrading, back up your data by copying the existing configuration files to a separate medium (such as tape device or removable hard disk). This primarily applies to files stored in /etc and some directories and files in /var and /opt. You may also want to write the user data in /home (the HOME directories) to a backup medium.

Back up all data as root. Only root has sufficient permissions for all local files.

Software tends to grow from version to version. Therefore, take a look at the available partition space before updating. If you suspect you are running short of disk space, back up your data before increasing the available space by resizing partitions, for example. There is no general rule regarding how much space each partition should have. Space requirements depend on your particular partitioning profile and the software selected.

On a Btrfs file system, the output of df can be misleading, because in addition to the space the raw data allocates, a Btrfs file system also allocates and uses space for metadata.

Consequently, a Btrfs file system may report being out of space even though it seems that plenty of space is still available. In that case, all space allocated for the metadata is used up.

Make sure there is enough free space as the root file system uses Btrfs and might consume a significant amount of space. Check the available space on all mounted partitions. In the worst case, an upgrade needs as much disk space as the current root file system (without /.snapshot) for a new snapshot.

The following recommendations have been proven:

If your machine serves as a VM Host Server for KVM, make sure to properly shut down all running VM Guests prior to the update. Otherwise, you may not be able to access the guests after the update.