Question In place upgrade of Almalinux or other Red Hat based?

[SteveITS]

Server operating system version

almalinux 8

Plesk version and microupdate number

18.0.52

I see plenty of posts about upgrading/converting from CentOS to AlmaLinux. Does/will Plesk support upgrading AlmaLinux? Or just Debian/Ubuntu? The latter is discussed at https://support.plesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/12377374654231-Does-Plesk-support-dist-upgrade- but that page doesn't mention any recent versions.

 

[scsa20]

There's a beta script available to upgrade CentOS 7 to AlmaLinux 8, you can find more information at https://support.plesk.com/hc/en-us/...n-place-upgrade-from-CentOS-7-to-AlmaLinux-8-

 

[SteveITS]

Yep, I'm aware of that. I was asking about, say, AlmaLinux 8 to 9. All I've found so far is Debian/Ubuntu based version upgrades.

 

[Peter99]

Yep, I'm aware of that. I was asking about, say, AlmaLinux 8 to 9. All I've found so far is Debian/Ubuntu based version upgrades.

I was actually inquiring our host about this a few days ago.
ELevate seems to have something that can do this, but from what i am told, Plesk is already working on such a feature.

It may take some time from what i am told, however the security updates on AlmaLinux 8 are good until May 2024 so i guess we should wait and see.

 

[Maarten]

Small correction:
Active support for AlmaLinux 8 ends on May 1, 2024, but it receives security updates until Mar 1, 2029:

AlmaLinux OS

Check end-of-life, release policy and support schedule for AlmaLinux OS.

endoflife.date

 

[SteveITS]

Plesk is already working on such a feature

I don't suppose that's in print somewhere? We're thinking of moving from containers to VMs for some servers to allow for OS upgrades but if they end up not supporting OS upgrades then an AlmaLinux VM doesn't gain us anything.

 

[Peter Debik]

The Plesk tool to migrate CentOS 7.x to Alma 8 is in a beta test stage and planned to go into production within the next three months (estimated).

 

[SteveITS]

The Plesk tool to migrate CentOS 7.x to Alma 8 is in a beta test stage and planned to go into production within the next three months (estimated).

Yes thank you but still not my question.

Or are you saying in the future it will also work for CentOS->CentOS, Alma->Alma, and other RH based distribution version upgrades?

 

[Peter Debik]

The Plesk tool focuses on migrating from CentOS to Alma 8. I am not aware that it supports other constellations, but maybe in the future such a feature could become a reality, if it is also supported by ELevate. At the moment as far as I know it is not planned.

 

[Peter99]

Small correction:
Active support for AlmaLinux 8 ends on May 1, 2024, but it receives security updates until Mar 1, 2029:

AlmaLinux OS

Check end-of-life, release policy and support schedule for AlmaLinux OS.

endoflife.date

My bad, you are correct.

I don't suppose that's in print somewhere? We're thinking of moving from containers to VMs for some servers to allow for OS upgrades but if they end up not supporting OS upgrades then an AlmaLinux VM doesn't gain us anything.

I was asking our hosting provider (and reseller) about this and they informed me that they are working closely with Plesk in terms of elevating Alma 8 to 9, inside of Plesk.
They said their first priority was to get Centos 7 upgraded to Alma 8 and the next step is Alma 8 to 9.
ETA - No idea. But surely within the timeframe of 2029.

 

[scsa20]

2029 is still a long ways ahead, so I wouldn't worry too much at the current moment, just get off of CentOS 7 and onto AlmaLinux 8 for now.

 

[Maarten]

2029 is still a long ways ahead, so I wouldn't worry too much at the current moment, just get off of CentOS 7 and onto AlmaLinux 8 for now.

True! I've decided not to wait until the ELevate project is mature enough, and I've migrated all the servers to AlmaLinux 8. I am glad I did! AlmaLinux 8 runs so much smoother than Centos 7.9! It's a huge difference. No more Apache error_logs filling up with AH0*** errors and much better overall performance.

 

[SteveITS]

2029 is still a long ways ahead, so I wouldn't worry too much at the current moment, just get off of CentOS 7 and onto AlmaLinux 8 for now.

Agree, we may just do that and hope it works down the road. The goal here was actually whether to set up new servers using Alma or Debian, with Debian 11 having only 3 years of support left.

 

[mr-wolf]

I've always preferred Debian/Ubuntu, but when I decided a distro for my authoritative DNS-server, I chose for CentOS.
I wish I didn't.

When I need a new Plesk I configure a complete new machine and migrate all the domains to it.
Never dared to do a dist-upgrade.
Only recently I heard about this script and Almalinux.

I'm very interested in a script which is aware that Plesk is running on it (it is Plesk related, is it??).
I still think I will wait another year...

Where can I find info to see how good it works in the real world???

 

[Peter Debik]

Currently, the Plesk ELevate script is in a late beta testing stage. It can be downloaded here:

Release Centos 7 to AlmaLinux 8 converter beta v0.2.0 · plesk/centos2alma

Changelog: Resolved an issue related to the removal of duplicate conflict packages Implemented a check for duplicate repositories before initiating the conversion Added packages "python36-argcompl...

github.com

It will reach production state in a few months. As far as I've seen it is already quite stable. The less special customizations you have on CentOS, the more likely the in-place upgrade to Alma will succeed. The script tests a whole lot of things and does not allow you to continue if something is suspicious or needs to be reconfigured before the upgrade is done.

 

[mr-wolf]

Thanks a lot for that info.

Like I said it's the main DNS-server (I'm not doing DNS on the different Plesks beside the Letsencrypt DNS for the wildcards).
Unlike all others, it's a VPS, so I should be able to recover with a snapshot.
It has a pivotal role, so I really can't be messing with it that much.

I have some special customization (manipulating DNS with scripts), but I don't expect any trouble there.
I also can't remember if Plesk was installed by the VPS-provider's script or I installed it myself.
I do know that the license came with the VPS.

I will wait some more until they themselves don't call it beta anymore (or are they the types to continue things under the flag of beta?)

 

[Dave W]

Considering the latest RHEL move, it might be worth considering moving to debian/ubuntu at this stage?

 

[Peter Debik]

It can't be right that Ubuntu is the only operating system left that is a reliable, up-to-date open source Linux. If you have the patience it might be a good idea to wait another few months before making such long-term, strategic decisions. Currently hundreds of thousands of servers serving millions of domains are affected by Red Hat's action. The whole RHEL cosmos could implode by the decision to put the code behind a paywall and I have doubts if that was such a smart decision by Red Hat, because without the open source community using Red Hat forks, their system may become a marginal note in IT history. They may have shot themselves in their feet.

But we do not know this yet, what will really happen. At the moment, this is the time to analyze the situation. Later decisions can be made.

 

[Dave W]

RedHat are IBM...IBM answer to shareholders...The termination of Centos8 as a downstream release was an initial attempt to kill off users of CentOS code. This is the next step in that procedure. From their perspective it makes complete sense. Why should they invest in anything that doesn't produce a return?

I'm guessing Canonical are looking at this closely too. Ubuntu-maker Canonical now plans to IPO in 2023