Applies to SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 SP5

21 Upgrading Offline #

This chapter describes how to upgrade an existing SUSE Linux Enterprise installation using YaST which is booted from an installation medium. The YaST installer can, for example, be started from a DVD, over the network, or from the hard disk the system resides on.

21.1 Conceptual Overview #

Before upgrading your system, read Section 20.3, “Preparing the System” first.

To upgrade your system, boot from an installation source, as you would do for a fresh installation. However, when the boot screen appears, you need to select Upgrade (instead of Installation). The upgrade can be started from:

Removable Media. This includes media such as CDs, DVDs or USB mass storage devices. For more information, see Section 21.2, “Starting the Upgrade from an Installation Medium”.
Network Resource. You can either boot from the local medium and then select the respective network installation type, or boot via PXE. For more information, see Section 21.3, “Starting the Upgrade from a Network Source”.

21.2 Starting the Upgrade from an Installation Medium #

The procedure below describes booting from a DVD, but you can also use another local installation medium like an ISO image on a USB mass storage device. The medium and boot method to select depends on the system architecture and on whether the machine has a traditional BIOS or UEFI.

Procedure 21.1: Manually Upgrading from SLE 11 SP4 to SLE 12 SP5 #

Select and prepare a boot medium, see Section 6.2, “System Start-up for Installation”.
Insert DVD 1 of the SUSE Linux Enterprise 12 SP5 installation medium and boot your machine. A Welcome screen is displayed, followed by the boot screen.
Start up the system by selecting Upgrade in the boot menu.
Proceed with the upgrade process as described in Section 21.5, “Upgrading SUSE Linux Enterprise”.

21.3 Starting the Upgrade from a Network Source #

To start an upgrade from a network installation source, make sure that the following requirements are met:

Requirements for Upgrading from a Network Installation Source #

Network Installation Source

A network installation source is set up according to Chapter 8, Setting Up the Server Holding the Installation Sources.

Network Connection and Network Services

Both the installation server and the target machine must have a functioning network connection. Required network services are:

Domain Name Service
DHCP (only needed for booting via PXE, IP can be set manually during setup)
OpenSLP (optional)

Boot Medium

You have a SUSE Linux Enterprise Server DVD 1 (or a local ISO image) at hand to boot the target system or a target system that is set up for booting via PXE according to Section 9.5, “Preparing the Target System for PXE Boot”. Refer to Chapter 11, Remote Installation for in-depth information on starting the upgrade from a remote server.

21.3.1 Manually Upgrading via Network Installation Source—Booting from DVD #

This procedure describes booting from a DVD as an example, but you can also use another local installation medium like an ISO image on a USB mass storage device. The way to select the boot method and to start up the system from the medium depends on the system architecture and on whether the machine has a traditional BIOS or UEFI. For details, see the links below.

Insert DVD 1 of the SUSE Linux Enterprise 12 SP5 installation media and boot your machine. A Welcome screen is displayed, followed by the boot screen.
Select the type of network installation source you want to use (FTP, HTTP, NFS, SMB, or SLP). Usually you get this choice by pressing F4, but in case your machine is equipped with UEFI instead of a traditional BIOS, you may need to manually adjust boot parameters. For details, see Installing from a Network Server in Chapter 6, Installation with YaST.
Proceed with the upgrade process as described in Section 21.5, “Upgrading SUSE Linux Enterprise”.

21.3.2 Manually Upgrading via Network Installation Source—Booting via PXE #

To perform an upgrade from a network installation source using PXE boot, proceed as follows:

Adjust the setup of your DHCP server to provide the address information needed for booting via PXE. For details, see Section 9.5, “Preparing the Target System for PXE Boot”.
Set up a TFTP server to hold the boot image needed for booting via PXE. Use DVD 1 of your SUSE Linux Enterprise 12 SP5 installation media for this or follow the instructions in Section 9.2, “Setting Up a TFTP Server”.
Prepare PXE Boot and Wake-on-LAN on the target machine.
Initiate the boot of the target system and use VNC to remotely connect to the installation routine running on this machine. For more information, see Section 11.3.1, “VNC Installation”.
Proceed with the upgrade process as described in Section 21.5, “Upgrading SUSE Linux Enterprise”.

21.4 Enabling Automatic Upgrade #

The upgrade process can be executed automatically. To enable the automatic update, the kernel parameter autoupgrade=1 must be set. The parameter can be set on boot in the Boot Options field. For details, see Chapter 1, Introduction.

21.5 Upgrading SUSE Linux Enterprise #

Before you upgrade your system, read Section 20.3, “Preparing the System” first. To perform an automated migration, proceed as follows:

After you have booted (either from an installation medium or the network), select the Upgrade entry on the boot screen. If you want to do the upgrade as described in the next steps manually, you need to disable the automatic upgrade process. Refer to Section 21.4, “Enabling Automatic Upgrade”.
Warning: Wrong Choice May Lead to Data Loss
If you select Installation instead of Upgrade, data may be lost later. You need to be extra careful not to destroy your data partitions by doing a fresh installation.
Make sure to select Upgrade here.
YaST starts the installation system.
On the Welcome screen, choose Language and Keyboard and accept the license agreement. Proceed with Next.
YaST checks your partitions for already installed SUSE Linux Enterprise systems.
On the Select for Upgrade screen, select the partition to upgrade and click Next.
YaST mounts the selected partition and displays all repositories that have been found on the partition that you want to upgrade.
On the Previously Used Repositories screen, adjust the status of the repositories: enable those you want to include in the upgrade process and disable any repositories that are no longer needed. Proceed with Next.
On the Registration screen, select whether to register the upgraded system now (by entering your registration data and clicking Next) or if to Skip Registration. For details on registering your system, see Section 21.8, “Registering Your System”.
Review the Installation Settings for the upgrade, especially the Update Options. Choose between the following options:
- Only Update Installed Packages, in which case you might miss new features shipped with the latest SUSE Linux Enterprise version.
- Update with Installation of New Software and Features. Click Select Patterns if you want to enable or disable patterns and packages according to your wishes.
Note: Choice of Desktop
If you used KDE before upgrading to SUSE Linux Enterprise 12 (DEFAULT_WM in /etc/sysconfig/windowmanager was set to kde*), your desktop environment will automatically be replaced with GNOME after the upgrade. By default, the KDM display manager will be replaced with GDM.
To change the choice of desktop environment or window manager, adjust the software selection by clicking Select Patterns.
If all settings are according to your wishes, start the installation and removal procedure by clicking Update.
Tip: Upgrade Failure on SMT Clients
If the machine to upgrade is an SMT client, and the upgrade fails, see Procedure 20.1, “De-registering a SUSE Linux Enterprise Client from an SMT Server” and restart the upgrade procedure afterward.
After the upgrade process has finished successfully, perform post-upgrade checks as described in Section 21.5.1, “Post-upgrade Checks”.

21.5.1 Post-upgrade Checks #

Check for any “orphaned packages”. Orphaned packages are packages which belong to no active repository anymore. The following command gives you a list of these:
```
tux > zypper packages --orphaned
```
With this list, you can decide if a package is still needed or can be uninstalled safely.
Check for any *.rpmnew and *.rpmsave files, examine their content, and possibly merge desirable changes. When an upgrade includes changes to a default configuration file, instead of overwriting the configuration file, the package will write one of these file types. While *.rpmnew contains the new default configuration and leaves your original file untouched, *.rpmsave is a copy of your original configuration that has been replaced by the new default file.
You do not need to search the whole file system for *.rpmnew and *.rpmsave files, the most important are stored in the /etc directory. Use the following command to list them:
```
tux > find /etc -print | egrep "rpmnew$|rpmsave$"
```

21.6 Updating via SUSE Manager #

SUSE Manager is a server solution for providing updates, patches, and security fixes for SUSE Linux Enterprise clients. It comes with a set of tools and a Web-based user interface for management tasks. See https://www.suse.com/products/suse-manager/ for more information about SUSE Manager.

SUSE Manager can support you with SP Migration or a full system upgrade.

SP Migration: SP Migration allows migrating from one Service Pack (SP) to another within one major version (for example, from SLES 12 SP1 to 12 SP2). For more information, see the SUSE Manager Best Practices, chapter “Client Migration”: https://documentation.suse.com/external-tree/en-us/suma/3.2/susemanager-best-practices/html/book.suma.best.practices/bp.client.migration.html.
System Upgrade: With SUSE Manager, you can perform a system upgrade. With the integrated AutoYaST technology, upgrades from one major version to the next are possible (for example, from SLES 11 SP3 to 12 SP2). For more information, see the SUSE Manager Best Practices, chapter “Client Migration”: https://documentation.suse.com/external-tree/en-us/suma/3.2/susemanager-best-practices/html/book.suma.best.practices/bp.client.migration.html.

21.7 Updating Registration Status after Rollback #

When performing a service pack upgrade, it is necessary to change the configuration on the registration server to provide access to the new repositories. If the upgrade process is interrupted or reverted (via restoring from a backup or snapshot), the information on the registration server is inconsistent with the status of the system. This may lead to you being prevented from accessing update repositories or to wrong repositories being used on the client.

When a rollback is done via Snapper, the system will notify the registration server to ensure access to the correct repositories is set up during the boot process. If the system was restored any other way or the communication with the registration server failed for any reason (for example, because the server was not accessible because of network issues), trigger the rollback on the client manually by calling:

snapper rollback

We suggest always checking that the correct repositories are set up on the system, especially after refreshing the service using:

zypper ref -s

This functionality is available in the rollback-helper package.

21.8 Registering Your System #

If you skipped the registration step during the installation, you can register your system at any time using the Product Registration module in YaST.

Registering your systems has these advantages:

Eligibility for support
Availability of security updates and bug fixes
Access to SUSE Customer Center

Start YaST and select Software › Product Registration to open the Registration dialog.
Provide the E-mail address associated with the SUSE account you or your organization uses to manage subscriptions. In case you do not have a SUSE account yet, go to the SUSE Customer Center home page (https://scc.suse.com/) to create one.
Enter the Registration Code you received with your copy of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server.
To start the registration, proceed with Next. If one or more local registration servers are available on your network, you can choose one of them from a list. Alternatively, to ignore the local registration servers and register with the default SUSE registration server, choose Cancel.
During the registration, the online update repositories will be added to your upgrade setup. When finished, you can choose whether to install the latest available package versions from the update repositories. This provides a clean upgrade path for all packages and ensures that SUSE Linux Enterprise Server is upgraded with the latest security updates available. If you choose No, all packages will be installed from the installation media. Proceed with Next.
After successful registration, YaST lists extensions, add-ons, and modules that are available for your system. To select and install them, proceed with Section 15.3, “Installing Modules and Extensions from Online Channels”.