Red Hat Enterprise Linux in-place upgrades

Applies to: ✔️ Linux VMs

Caution

Following the process in this article will cause a disconnection between the data plane and the control plane of the virtual machine (VM). Azure capabilities such as Auto guest patching, Auto OS image upgrades, Hotpatching, and Azure Update Manager won't be available. To utilize these features, it's recommended to create a new VM using your preferred operating system instead of performing an in-place upgrade.

Note

Offerings of SQL Server on Red Hat Enterprise Linux don't support in-place upgrades on Azure.

Important

Take a snapshot of the image before you start the upgrade as a precaution.

What is RHEL in-place upgrade?

During an in-place upgrade, the earlier RHEL OS major version will be replaced with the new RHEL OS major version without removing the earlier version first. The installed applications and utilities, along with the configurations and preferences, are incorporated into the new version.

Upgrade RHEL VMs

In general, Red Hat only supports upgrading from version to the next; you cannot skip versions. See the Red Hat's documentation on in-place upgrades:

Upgrading from RHEL 7 to RHEL 8.

Upgrading from RHEL 8 to RHEL 9.

Upgrading from RHEL 9 to RHEL 10.

Upgrading from RHEL 7 SAP to RHEL 8 SAP.

Upgrading from RHEL 8 SAP to RHEL 9 SAP.

Next steps

• Learn more about Red Hat images in Azure.
• Learn more about Red Hat update infrastructure.
• Learn more about the RHEL BYOS offer.
• To learn more about the Red Hat in-place upgrade processes, see Upgrading from RHEL 7 TO RHEL 8 in the Red Hat documentation.
• To learn more about Red Hat support policies for all versions of RHEL, see Red Hat Enterprise Linux life cycle in the Red Hat documentation.