How To upgrade RHEL

[C. Linus Hicks]

On Mon, 2004-12-13 at 10:31 -0800, Dave Martini 1 wrote:
> I have a Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS 2.1 installation.
> I want to upgrade this to AS 3.0.
> Is it possible to do this without destroying non OS partitions
> that I have like /oracle?
> Can someone point me to a document that describes the upgrade procedure
> for RHEL 2.1 or 3.0?

Appendix A of the RHEL3 Installation Guide is titled "Upgrading Your
Current System."

https://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/enterprise/RHEL-3-Manual/pdf/rhel-ig-x8664-multi-en.pdf

Non OS partitions can be left completely untouched during an
installation or upgrade, assuming you don't want to change the sizes of
your existing partitions. If you have been through the installation
process, you may remember you have at least a couple of options
available for doing the partitioning, and if no changes are necessary,
all you have to do is assign mount points to the various partitions.
Just remember this mapping is something you need to know before you
start the installer.

You also have the option to either format an existing partition, or
leave it as is. Just be sure you select the right option for each
partition and you will be set.

An upgrade may be an easier way of keeping your existing Oracle software
on the system, but there may be other problems associated with that
process, and you may want to consider doing a fresh install of the OS
instead. You will notice that RedHat recommends doing a fresh install in
the aforementioned appendix. Also note that even this does not preclude
keeping existing Oracle software. I know Oracle puts stuff in /etc
during its install, so you may have to do a thorough inventory of what
it put where to be able to replicate that after a fresh install.

Linus