Performing Major Version Upgrades of SUSE Linux Enterprise

To upgrade your SUSE Linux Enterprise system to a newer service pack, there are tools available which allow for an online upgrade of the system. This means that new packages are installed while the system is running. After the installation of the packages, a reboot is necessary.

This process has the advantage that you only need access to the system, be it a local console or an SSH session. You do not need to configure the firmware to boot a different media.

However, upgrading a system to a new major version cannot be performed online. To perform an upgrade, you need to boot the system from the installation media (DVD, USB stick), or start it via PXE boot.

In some environments, it is not possible to insert a new media to the server, configure the firmware to boot from a different or even a virtual disk, or prepare the PXE boot environment for starting the upgrade process. This can be the case for example in clouds or in remote server rooms.

This document describes how the existing boot loader can be used in such environments to perform an upgrade from SUSE Linux Enterprise 11 to SUSE Linux Enterprise 12, or from SUSE Linux Enterprise 12 to SUSE Linux Enterprise 15.

While the examples below focus on the AMD64 or Intel 64 system architecture, a similar approach can be applied to other architectures too.

The Installation Media is the media you use to boot the installation. It can be either a physical DVD or USB stick, an ISO image attached to a virtual machine, or the content on such media available via a network share.

For SUSE Linux Enterprise 12 products, the installation medium is the first DVD of the respective product. For SUSE Linux Enterprise 15 products, it is the unified installer DVD.

The Installation Repository contains packages for installation and metadata. It is included in the installation media. Online repositories, which are for example mirrored on the Subscription Management Tool (SMT), can serve the same purpose.

The Installation System is the environment which contains all tools that are needed to perform the installation (including for example YaST). It is also available from the installation media.

To perform an upgrade, you need to have prepared the following components:

The installation repository should be either copied to a local disk, or made available via the network. The installer supports all common transfer protocols, like HTTP(S), FTP, NFS, SMB. For local media, it supports a local disk or a CD/DVD drive. It is recommended to copy the entire content of the installation media, so that the installation system is included. The required disk space is approximately 5 GB for upgrading to SUSE Linux Enterprise 12, and approximately 1 GB for upgrading to SUSE Linux Enterprise 15, on top of the disk space needed for the upgrade itself.

The installation kernel and initrd must be made available in the boot area of the respective hardware architecture. For example, for legacy booting of AMD64 or Intel 64 systems, this is the /boot directory. The required disk space is approximately 100 MB.

Preparing the installation repository is an easy task. Extract the content of the installation media to the respective location either on your local system or on a network share. Use the content of DVD1 of any SUSE Linux Enterprise 12 product, or the Installer DVD of the unified SUSE Linux Enterprise 15 installer.

If you intend to put the installation media to a local storage, either use a second disk or a stand-alone partition, which is not mounted by your system by default. The reason behind is that YaST mounts all partitions during the upgrade process. This would result in the partition being mounted twice at the same time.

If you use a network share, make sure that it is accessible from the host you aim to upgrade. You can test this for example via a Web browser.

If you use the installation media, copy its entire content to ensure it includes the installation system.

If you have a local Subscription Management Tool (SMT) or Repository Mirroring Tool (RMT) server available, the repository may already be mirrored on that server. If this is the case, point the installer to the POOL repository of the product you want to upgrade to. Ensure that the installation system is available too.

To boot the installer, you need to extract the installation kernel and initrd from the media and put it to the location where the boot loader can load it from. There are two ways to obtain the installation kernel and initrd:

The examples below require as system architecture AMD64 or Intel 64 with legacy booting, and as product SUSE Linux Enterprise Server. For other products or architectures, the paths or package names may differ.

# cp /mnt/boot/x86_64/loader/initrd /boot/initrd.install
# cp /mnt/boot/x86_64/loader/linux /boot/linux.install

# rpm -i tftpboot-installation-SLES-12-SP4-x86_64-14.337.5-1.33.noarch.rpm
# cp /srv/tftpboot/SLES-12-SP4-x86_64/boot/x86_64/loader/linux /boot/linux.install
# cp /srv/tftpboot/SLES-12-SP4-x86_64/boot/x86_64/loader/initrd /boot/initrd.install
# rpm -e tftpboot-installation-SLES-12-SP4-x86_64

To perform the upgrade, you need to configure the boot loader of the old and still running system.

title SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 Update
    root (hd0,1)
    kernel /boot/linux.install <options>
    initrd /boot/initrd.install

# grubonce 2
Using entry #2: SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 Installer

menuentry 'SLES 12-SP4'  --class sles --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os $menuentry_id_option 'gnulinux-simple-cd77493e-f701-4624-8074-21f0061e0727' {
        load_video
        set gfxpayload=keep
        insmod gzio
        insmod part_msdos
        insmod ext2
        set root='hd0,msdos2'
        if [ x$feature_platform_search_hint = xy ]; then
          search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root --hint='hd0,msdos2'  cd77493e-f701-4624-8074-21f0061e0727
        else
          search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root cd77493e-f701-4624-8074-21f0061e0727
        fi
        echo    'Loading Linux 4.12.14-94.41-default ...'
        linux   /boot/vmlinuz-4.12.14-94.41-default root=UUID=cd77493e-f701-4624-8074-21f0061e0727  resume=/dev/vda1 splash=silent quiet showopts
        echo    'Loading initial ramdisk ...'
        initrd  /boot/initrd-4.12.14-94.41-default
}

menuentry 'SLES 15 Upgrade' {
        load_video
        set gfxpayload=keep
        insmod gzio
        insmod part_msdos
        insmod ext2
        set root='hd0,msdos2'
        if [ x$feature_platform_search_hint = xy ]; then
          search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root --hint='hd0,msdos2'  cd77493e-f701-4624-8074-21f0061e0727
        else
          search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root cd77493e-f701-4624-8074-21f0061e0727
        fi
        echo    'Loading Linux 4.12.14-94.41-default ...'
        linux   /boot/linux.install  <options>
        echo    'Loading initial ramdisk ...'
        initrd  /boot/initrd.install
}

# grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/grub2/grub.cfg
Generating grub configuration file ...
Found theme: /boot/grub2/themes/SLE/theme.txt
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-4.12.14-94.41-default
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd-4.12.14-94.41-default
done
# grub2-once --list
0 SLES 12-SP4
1 Advanced options for SLES 12-SP4>SLES 12-SP4, with Linux 4.12.14-94.41-default
2 Advanced options for SLES 12-SP4>SLES 12-SP4, with Linux 4.12.14-94.41-default (recovery mode)
3 SLES 15 Upgrade
4 halt
# grub2-once 3

SMT or RMT provide the repository mirrored from SUSE Customer Center (SCC). However, this repository does not include the installation system, which is necessary to start the upgrade. Since the release of SUSE Linux Enterprise 15, it is possible to get the installation system from a different location than the installation repository.

The installation system is located on the installation media under the path /boot/<architecture>/root. It is also located in the directory /srv/tftpboot/<product>-<version>-<architecture>/boot/<architecture>/root, which is shipped with the online repositories of the respective product (package tftpboot-installation-<product>-<version>-<architecture>.noarch.rpm). To use the installation environment from a different path, copy this patch from the installation media to another location, where the installer can fetch it (the same limitations as for the installation repository apply).

The full kernel parameters for booting usually look as follows:

upgrade=1
instsys=tftp://<server-IP>/SLE-15-x86_64/boot/x86_64/root
install=http://<server-IP>/repo/SUSE/Products/SLE-Product-SLES/15/x86_64/product/

The paths above are based on the standard path on the SMT server and on the location of the installation system provided by the package from the repository. Adjust them if necessary.

After having set the boot loader, reboot your system. Choose the custom boot loader entry to start the upgrade process. The upgrade itself looks the same as if you booted the installation media and selected “Upgrade” from its boot menu.

When the system is upgraded, remove the newly created boot loader section if it is still present. Next, set your default boot loader section as needed.

Finally, remove the kernel and initrd you copied to your system and used for the upgrade.

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