1 Upgrade paths and methods #
SUSE® Linux Enterprise (SLE) allows upgrading an existing system to a later version or service pack. No new installation is needed. Existing data, such as home and data directories and system configuration, is kept intact. You can update from a local CD or DVD drive or from a central network installation source.
This chapter explains how to manually upgrade your SUSE Linux Enterprise system, be it by DVD, network, an automated process, or SUSE Manager.
1.1 Upgrading versus fresh installation #
Upgrades between two major releases of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server are supported by SUSE. Whether it is better to upgrade or perform a fresh installation depends on your specific scenario. While upgrades involve less work, fresh installations ensure you benefit from all the new features of a release such as disk layout changes, specific file system features, and other improvements. To get the most out of your system, SUSE therefore recommends fresh installations in most scenarios.
In both cases—upgrade as well as a fresh installation—customers need to check if system settings and default values still fit their requirements.
For updates from one service pack of a specific release to another one of the same codestream, SUSE recommends to do it in-place, and not to perform a fresh installation. Nevertheless there may be reasons and scenarios for a customer to perform a fresh installation in this case, too. The decision of which is more suitable can only be made by the customer.
1.2 Supported upgrade paths to SLES 15 SP4 #
Before you perform any migration, read Chapter 3, Preparing the upgrade.
Cross-architecture upgrades, such as upgrading from a 32-bit version of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server to the 64-bit version, or upgrading from big endian to little endian are not supported!
Specifically, SLE 11 on POWER (big endian) to SLE 15 SP4 on POWER (new: little endian!) is not supported.
Also, since SUSE Linux Enterprise 15 is 64-bit only, upgrades from any 32-bit SUSE Linux Enterprise 11 systems to SUSE Linux Enterprise 15 and later are not supported.
To make a cross-architecture upgrade, you need to perform a new installation.
The easiest upgrade path is consecutively installing all service packs. For the SUSE Linux Enterprise 15 product line (GA and the subsequent service packs) it is also supported to skip up to two service packs when upgrading. For example, upgrading from SLE 15 SP1 to 15 SP4 is supported (as long as SLE 15 SP1 is supported).
The upgrade paths described here apply only to SUSE Linux Enterprise as the operating system of a machine, not to all the applications it runs. If you have workloads such as PostgreSQL or MariaDB databases, intermediate OS upgrades may be required in order to upgrade your applications.
Before upgrading the operating system, consult the Release Notes for information about database versions. If a new major version is shipped, refer to Chapter 3, Preparing the upgrade for upgrade instructions.
- Upgrading from SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11
Upgrading from SLES 11 directly is not supported. You need at least SLES 11 SP4 and you can only upgrade to SLES 15 SP3 before you can proceed to SLES 15 SP4.
If you cannot do a fresh installation, first upgrade your installed SLES 11 service pack to SLES 11 SP4. This upgrade is described in the SLES 11 SP4 Deployment Guide. Next, perform an offline upgrade to SLES 15 SP3. This upgrade is described in the SLES 15 SP3 Deployment Guide. Then follow the instructions in this guide to upgrade to SLES 15 SP4.
- Upgrading from SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 GA / SP1 / SP2 / SP3 / SP4
Upgrading from SLES 12 SP4 or older service packs directly is not supported. You need at least SLES 12 SP5 before you can proceed to SLES 15 SP4.
If you cannot do a fresh installation, first upgrade your installed SLES 12 service pack to SLES 12 SP5. This upgrade is described in the SLES 12 SP5 Deployment Guide
- Upgrading from SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 SP3 with LTSS
Upgrading from SLES 12 SP3 with LTSS directly is no longer supported. You need at least SLES 12 SP4 with LTSS before you can proceed to SLES 15 SP4.
- Upgrading from SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 SP4 with LTSS
Upgrading from SLES 12 SP4 with LTSS is only supported via an offline upgrade. Refer to Chapter 4, Upgrading offline for details.
- Upgrading from SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 SP5
Upgrading from SLES 12 SP5 is only supported via an offline upgrade. Refer to Chapter 4, Upgrading offline for details.
- Upgrading from SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 GA / SP1 / SP2
Upgrading from SLES 15 GA, SP1, or SP2 directly is no longer supported. You need at least SLES 15 SP3 before you can proceed to SLES 15 SP4.
- Upgrading from SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 GA / SP1 / SP2 with LTSS or ESPOS
Upgrading from SLES 15 GA, SP1, or SP2 with LTSS or ESPOS is supported both online and offline. Refer to Section 1.3, “Online and offline upgrade” for details.
- Upgrading from SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP3
Upgrading from SLES 15 SP3 is supported both online and offline. Refer to Section 1.3, “Online and offline upgrade” for details.
- Upgrading SUSE Linux Enterprise public cloud guests
For instructions on upgrading SLE guests in public clouds, see Using the SUSE Distribution Migration System.
- Upgrading from openSUSE Leap 15.0 / 15.1 / 15.2
Upgrading from openSUSE Leap 15.0, 15.1, or 15.2 directly is no longer supported. You need at least openSUSE Leap 15.3 before you can proceed to SLES 15 SP4.
- Upgrading from openSUSE Leap 15.3 / 15.4
Upgrading from openSUSE Leap 15.3 or 15.4. is supported. See Section 5.9, “Upgrading from openSUSE Leap to SUSE Linux Enterprise Server”. Only the server installation of Leap is supported for an upgrade.
For some products, SUSE offers Extended Service Pack Overlap Support (ESPOS) under the same conditions as LTSS. For more information about ESPOS, refer to the documentation of the respective SUSE Linux Enterprise product and the Product Lifecycle Support Policies webpage.
1.3 Online and offline upgrade #
SUSE supports the following upgrade and migration methods. For more information about the terminology, see Section 2.1, “Terminology”. The methods are:
- Online
Upgrades that are executed from the running operating system itself (system up and running state). Examples: online update with Zypper or YaST, connected through SUSE Customer Center or Repository Mirroring Tool (RMT), Salt Policy via SUSE Manager.
For details, see Chapter 5, Upgrading online.
When migrating between Service Packs of the same major release, we suggest following Section 5.4, “Upgrading with the online migration tool (YaST)” or Section 5.5, “Upgrading with Zypper”.
- Offline
Upgrading offline implies that the operating system to be upgraded is not running (system down state). Instead, the installer for the target operating system is booted (for example, from the installation media, via network or via local boot loader), and performs the upgrade.
For details, see Chapter 4, Upgrading offline.
If your machine is managed by SUSE Manager, update it as described in the SUSE Manager documentation. The Client Migration procedure is described in the SUSE Manager Upgrade Guide, available at https://documentation.suse.com/suma/.