Alma or Rocky?

[PCZero]

So after reading the information at cPanel elevate documentation I am still unsure which of these upgrades I should choose for my current CentOS7 box. The factors that are important to me include:

Minimize down time while upgrading
Minimize risk of the upgrade failing
Ease of future upgrades to newer version of the OS
Level of available support for the OS
Works with csf and imunifyAV

Any comments, suggestions, pointers, and/or death threats are welcome.


DISCLAIMER: Death threats are subject to being ignored.

 

[cPRex]

Hey hey! I'm a big Alma fan. Rocky is the latest OS we support, but it's only been out for one cPanel release cycle, so I'd go with Alma.

 

[PCZero]

Well as apprehsnsive as I am to attempt a live in place OS upgrade on my server... fingers crossed and voodoo goddesses chanting in the background... I guess I am going to give it a shot!

 

[ServerHealers]

We have installed/managed cPanel on both AlmaLinux and RockyLinux servers and both went fine with the installation and management. However, I'd go with AlmaLinux over RockyLinux because the RockyLinux support is recently introduced by cPanel.

 

[PCZero]

I just went into the box and ran Security Advisor before starting the OS upgrade process and fgot the following error/warning:


The system detected the following issues which would prevent cPanel ELevate from upgrading the system to AlmaLinux 8:
System is not up to date


Uh ok, what part of the system are we referring to and how to I get it up to date?

 

[PCZero]

Thanks I ran yum -y update and all is well

 

[JoseDieguez]

Well as apprehsnsive as I am to attempt a live in place OS upgrade on my server... fingers crossed and voodoo goddesses chanting in the background... I guess I am going to give it a shot!

is your only option?

I know the OS in-place upgrade can work.
But it can also not.

We have personally performed server migrations of many of our servers, but doing migration to new servers, and with little to no issues. just several notices to clients and spending a little extra $, because you have to have 2 servers running at the same time for some time.

 

[PCZero]

OK folsk I am in the midst of teh upgrade. I just ran the 'sudo leapp preupgrade' command going from CentOS 7.9 to Alma, this is the xxx file output. I am not suer whre to go next!


Title: Packages not signed by Red Hat found on the system
Summary: The following packages have not been signed by Red Hat and may be removed during the upgrade process in case Red Hat-signed packages to be removed during the upgrade depend on them:
- cpanel-ace-editor
- cpanel-analog
- cpanel-analytics
- cpanel-angular-chosen
- cpanel-angular-growl-2
- cpanel-angular-minicolors
- cpanel-angular-ui-bootstrap
- cpanel-angular-ui-bootstrap-devel
- cpanel-angular-ui-scroll
- cpanel-angularjs
- cpanel-awstats
- cpanel-banners-plugin
- cpanel-bindp
- cpanel-bootstrap
- cpanel-bootstrap-devel
- cpanel-bootstrap-rtl
- cpanel-bootstrap5
- cpanel-chosen
- cpanel-ckeditor
- cpanel-common-licenses
- cpanel-d3-js
- cpanel-dnspython
- cpanel-dovecot
- cpanel-dovecot-xaps
- cpanel-editarea
- cpanel-elfinder
- cpanel-eventsource-polyfill-js
- cpanel-exim
- cpanel-fetch-polyfill-js-v3.0
- cpanel-fontawesome
- cpanel-geoipfree-data
- cpanel-git
- cpanel-git-gitweb
- cpanel-git-templates
- cpanel-handlebarsjs
- cpanel-jquery

 

[cPRex]

While that "looks" right to me, cPanel doesn't provide support for the leapp tools, so I can't say for sure.

Our system, ELevate, can be found here:

cPanel elevate documentation

cpanel.github.io

and that works with all cPanel tools on the server. It's still experimental, but I've used it several times with good results.

 

[PCZero]

For some reason (probably me being a DFU), the entire results did not paste. Here is the stuff that was omitted....


Risk Factor: high (inhibitor)
Title: Missing required answers in the answer file
Summary: One or more sections in answerfile are missing user choices: remove_pam_pkcs11_module_check.confirm
For more information consult Asking user questions — Leapp 0.15.0 documentation
Remediation: [hint] Please register user choices with leapp answer cli command or by manually editing the answerfile.
[command] leapp answer --section remove_pam_pkcs11_module_check.confirm=True
Key: d35f6c6b1b1fa6924ef442e3670d90fa92f0d54b
----------------------------------------
Risk Factor: high
Title: Packages from unknown repositories may not be installed
Summary: 1 packages may not be installed or upgraded due to repositories unknown to leapp:
- kernel-uek (repoid: ol8-uek)
Remediation: [hint] Please file a bug in Red Hat Bugzilla Main Page for leapp-repository component of the Red Hat Enterprise Linux product.
Key: 9a2b05abf8f45fd7915e52542887bb334bb218ea
----------------------------------------
Risk Factor: high
Title: BIND configuration issues found
Summary: Default value of listen-on-v6 have changed, but it is not present in configuration. named service will now listen on INET6 sockets also.
Key: 45608d77dbf0f5b3c0903831a3130c641eb60889
----------------------------------------
Risk Factor: high
Title: Difference in Python versions and support in RHEL 8
Summary: In RHEL 8, there is no 'python' command. Python 3 (backward incompatible) is the primary Python version and Python 2 is available with limited support and limited set of packages. Read more here: Configuring basic system settings Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 | Red Hat Customer Portal
Remediation: [hint] Please run "alternatives --set python /usr/bin/python3" after upgrade
Key: 0c98585b1d8d252eb540bf61560094f3495351f5
----------------------------------------
Risk Factor: high
Title: GRUB core will be updated during upgrade
Summary: On legacy (BIOS) systems, GRUB core (located in the gap between the MBR and the first partition) does not get automatically updated when GRUB is upgraded.
Key: baa75fad370c42fd037481909201cde9495dacf4
----------------------------------------


It looks pretty scary. Do I need to address any of this before starting the upgrade?

 

[PCZero]

Well when I run the script to chcek to see if I am ready I get this.... (I thik it look promising)



[root@morpheus ~]# /scripts/elevate-cpanel --check --upgrade-to=almalinux
info [elevate-cpanel] Successfully verified signature for cpanel (key types: release).
* 2023-01-18 20:09:58 [INFO] Checking if your system is up to date:
* 2023-01-18 20:09:58 [INFO] Running: /usr/bin/yum clean all
* 2023-01-18 20:09:58 [INFO]
* 2023-01-18 20:09:58 [INFO] Loaded plugins: fastestmirror, universal-hooks
* 2023-01-18 20:09:58 [INFO] Cleaning repos: EA4 cpanel-addons-production-feed cpanel-plugins
* 2023-01-18 20:09:58 [INFO] : Mysql-connectors-community Mysql-tools-community
* 2023-01-18 20:09:58 [INFO] : Mysql80-community base elevate extras imunify360
* 2023-01-18 20:09:58 [INFO] : imunify360-rollout-1 imunify360-rollout-2 imunify360-rollout-3
* 2023-01-18 20:09:58 [INFO] : imunify360-rollout-4 kernelcare mysql-connectors-community
* 2023-01-18 20:09:58 [INFO] : mysql-tools-community updates
* 2023-01-18 20:09:58 [INFO] Cleaning up list of fastest mirrors
* 2023-01-18 20:09:58 [INFO] Other repos take up 19 M of disk space (use --verbose for details)
* 2023-01-18 20:09:58 [INFO]
* 2023-01-18 20:09:58 [INFO] Running: /usr/bin/yum check-update -q
* 2023-01-18 20:09:58 [INFO]
* 2023-01-18 20:10:08 [INFO]
* 2023-01-18 20:10:08 [INFO] Checking /scripts/sysup
* 2023-01-18 20:10:08 [INFO] Running: /scripts/sysup
* 2023-01-18 20:10:08 [INFO]
* 2023-01-18 20:10:08 [INFO] checkyum version 22.3 (excludes: bind-chroot)
* 2023-01-18 20:10:08 [INFO] All Needed Packages are already installed.
* 2023-01-18 20:10:08 [INFO]
* 2023-01-18 20:10:08 [INFO] Checking EasyApache profile compatibility with AlmaLinux 8.
* 2023-01-18 20:10:08 [INFO] Running: /usr/local/bin/ea_current_to_profile --target-os=AlmaLinux_8 --output=/tmp/u1z_VkBVjB/ea_profile.json
* 2023-01-18 20:10:09 [INFO] Backed up EA4 profile to /tmp/u1z_VkBVjB/ea_profile.json
* 2023-01-18 20:10:09 [INFO] There is no known blockers to start the elevation process.
You can consider running:
/scripts/elevate-cpanel --start
[root@morpheus ~]#

 

[cPRex]

That looks good to me - make sure you have data backups just in case, but you should be good to go!

 

[PCZero]

OK I ran the upgrade and rebooted my ser, no nothing at all resolved. No web sites, WHM, webmail. cPanel, noting.... Suggestions?


When I log into my server provider and check the server status it says the box is powered on.

 

[PCZero]

Sorry for the crappy typing above. I was typing with no lights on... Anyway now when I get to a remote console and log into the ox I run
/scripts/elevate-cpanel --status

I get the message -> [ERROR] Elevation process ha not yet started

 

[PCZero]

cat /etc/redhat-release
AlmaLinux release 8.7 (Stone Smilodon)

cat /etc/os-release
ALMALINUX_MANISBT_PROJECT="AlmaLinux-8"
ALMALINUX_MANISBT_PROJECT_VERSION="8.7"
REDHAT_SUPPORT_PROJECT ="AlmaLinux-8"
REDHAT_SUPPORT_PROJECT_VERSION =8.7"

rpm -qa | grep centos
NOTHING - Returns to the prompt

rpm -qa | grep el7
A LOT of output. I redirected the output to a txt fiel and it si 2965 bytes long. Attempting to get a copy locally now.

 

[PCZero]

Thank you to all who assisted me with this issue, especially CPRex. Everythin is up and running perfectly on AlmaLinux 8.7 now. As with any upgrade, I had a plan . I did take the tiem to back up all my accounts, settings, and plugins, etc prior to starting the script. When it failed (probably because of me making a DFU error). I contacted my server provider and had them perform an OS reload to AlmaLinux 8.7 and reinstall cPanel. Once that was done I ran the script to revalidate my cPanel license amf proceed to peform the steps that I have here outlining server setups/web site restore. It took a minute or two, but now I have a 100% clean set up and everyone is happy!

Thanks again...

 

[qianglu]

I won't upgrade from Centos7 to Alma8, I did once and was successful in July 2023. However, after the upgrade, the server start to freeze frequently, and the time between each frozen become shorter and shorter, I have to reboot from AWS every time.. Eventually I have to reinstall a new system and cpanel. I couldn't figure out what's wrong, nor did cPanel staff.

Also I installed a brand new Alma9 and cPanel, and the server was frozen once in one month, I have to restart it in Azure.