Description of problem: The 4.7 release notes need a similar change to what we just did for 5.2 regarding "Upgrade mode". Here is the old text: "In order to upgrade an existing Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 installation to Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.7, you must use Red Hat Network to update those packages that have changed. You can also use Anaconda to perform a fresh installation of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.7 or to perform an upgrade from /the latest updated version/ of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4." Here is the suggested new text: "Red Hat recommends that users updating from one minor version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 (such as 4.5 or 4.6) to Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.7 do so from Red Hat Network using the hosted Web user interface or Red Hat Network Satellite. If no network connectivity is available, an update can still be performed offline using anaconda's "upgrade" functionality. Note that anaconda has limited abilities to handle issues such as dependencies on additional repositories or third-party applications, and anaconda reports installation errors in a log file, not interactively. Because of these limitations, Red Hat advises customers to test and verify offline updates using the exact configuration before applying the update to the actual target environment, and to carefully review the update log for errors after applying the update. Red Hat does not support in-place upgrades between major versions of Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Although anaconda's "upgrade" option will allow users to perform an upgrade from earlier major versions of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (such as Enterprise Linux 3 to Enterprise Linux 4), there is no guarantee that the upgrade will result in a working configuration. In-place upgrades across major releases do not preserve all system settings, services, and custom configurations. For this reason, Red Hat strongly recommends that you perform a fresh installation rather than a system upgrade between major versions.
thanks Denise, revising as: <quote> When updating from one minor version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 (such as 4.5 to 4.6) to Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.7, it is recommended that you do so using Red Hat Network, whether through the hosted web user interface or Red Hat Network Satellite. If you are upgrading a system with no available network connectivity, use the "Upgrade" functionality of Anaconda. However, note that Anaconda has limited abilities to handle issues such as dependencies on additional repositories or third-party applications. Further, Anaconda reports installation errors in a log file, not interactively. As such, it is recommended that when upgrading offline systems, you should test and verify the integrity of your upgrade configuration first. Be sure to carefully review the update log for errors before applying the upgrade to your production environment. In-place upgrades between major versions of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (for example, upgrading from Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 to Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.7) is not supported. While the "Upgrade" option of Anaconda allows you to perform this, there is no guarantee that the upgrade will result in a working installation. In-place upgrades accross major releases do not preserve all system settings, services, and custom configurations. For this reason, it is strongly recommended that you perform a fresh installation when planning to upgrade between major versions. </quote> please advise if any further revisions are required. thanks!
Hi Denise, In the RHEL5.2 release notes, the "upgrade statement" appears as follows: <quote> Note that upgrading from beta releases to GA releases is not supported. Further, Red Hat does not support in-place upgrades between major versions of Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Although Anaconda provides an option that allows an upgrade from earlier major versions of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (such as Enterprise Linux 4 to Enterprise Linux 5), there is no guarantee that the upgrade will result in a fully functional configuration. In-place upgrades across major releases do not preserve all system settings, services, and custom configurations. For this reason, Red Hat strongly recommends that you perform a fresh installation rather than a system upgrade between major versions. </quote> here, upgrading from RHEL4.x to RHEL5.x is "not recommended". however, in the RHEL4.7 release notes (as per this bug), upgrading from RHEL3.x to RHEL4.x is "not supported". my question is: should upgrading across major releases be unsupported for both RHEL3.x-4.x and RHEL4.x-5.x? Or is it simply "unsupported" in RHEL3.x-4.x because RHEL3 is now in maintenance mode? please advise. thanks!
Hi, the RHEL4.7 release notes deadline is on June 17, 2008 (Tuesday). they will undergo a final proofread before being dropped to translation, at which point no further additions or revisions will be entertained. a mockup of the RHEL4.7 release notes can be viewed here: http://intranet.corp.redhat.com/ic/intranet/RHEL4u7relnotesmockup.html please use the aforementioned link to verify if your bugzilla is already in the release notes (if it needs to be). each item in the release notes contains a link to its original bug; as such, you can search through the release notes by bug number. Cheers, Don