12. 06. 2023
NetEye
15. 12. 2022
Juergen Vigna
NetEye
Migrate a NetEye 4 Server from CentOS 7 to RHEL 8 (v4.22->v4.23) with EFI Boot
When upgrading NetEye 4 from version 4.22 to version 4.23, the main focus is the upgrade/change of the operating system from CentOS 7 to the new RHEL 8 operating system. Normally you can proceed as explained in the Upgrade section of the user guide since NetEye 4 uses the “normal” BIOS boot sector with grub.
But if the boot method is changed to EFI (e.g., to be able to have a boot device > 1TB), then the “normal” upgrade migration will no longer work as this is not a situation that the upgrade procedure expects.
So please check if you have a /boot/efi device mounted. If you do, then it’s quite certain that the boot procedure on this host is EFI, and you’ll need to add some extra steps to the “normal” migration/upgrade process. First of all you’ll have to download the recovery image for RHEL 8 (rhel-8.4-x86_64-boot.iso), which is needed to be able to boot with the right RHEL 8 kernel after the OS migration that occurs during the host reboot.
- At the end of the first step, the conversion to RHEL 7, execute these commands BEFORE rebooting:
- cd /boot/efi/EFI
- cp -a redhat redhat.bak
- cd centos
- cp grub.cfg grubenv grubx64.efi ../redhat
- reboot
- At the end of the second step, the conversion to RHEL 8, execute these commands BEFORE rebooting:
- cd /boot/efi/EFI
- cp -a redhat redhat.bak2
- cd centos
- cp grub.cfg grubenv ../redhat
- reboot
- Now go to the DRAC Hardware Console and look at the boot process. It will start with a specific kernel that will perform the RHEL 8 Migration. While it’s performing the procedure (which will take some time), mount the downloaded Recovery Image as a Boot Image (VirtualDevice of the DRAC Console) and change the next boot so that it boots from this image. This can all be done from the Web Console. When the host then boots from the recovery image, please select the section for recovery — DO NOT LET THE DEFAULT INSTALLATION PROCESS START! — and proceed until you get a prompt where the host devices are mounted in /mnt/sysimg. Once you are there, execute these commands:
- cd /mnt/sysimg/boot/efi/EFI
- cp -a redhat redhat.bak3
- cd centos
- cp grub.cfg grubenv ../redhat
- systemctl reboot
- Now while the BIOS is initializing, remove the Virtual Device (Recovery CD) so that it boots normally from the disks.
From here on you can then proceed with the next step as described in the online user guide.
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Juergen Vigna
NetEye Solution Architect at Würth Phoenix
I have over 20 years of experience in the IT branch. After first experiences in the field of software development for public transport companies, I finally decided to join the young and growing team of Würth Phoenix. Initially, I was responsible for the internal Linux/Unix infrastructure and the management of CVS software. Afterwards, my main challenge was to establish the meanwhile well-known IT System Management Solution WÜRTHPHOENIX NetEye. As a Product Manager I started building NetEye from scratch, analyzing existing open source models, extending and finally joining them into one single powerful solution. After that, my job turned into a passion: Constant developments, customer installations and support became a matter of personal. Today I use my knowledge as a NetEye Senior Consultant as well as NetEye Solution Architect at Würth Phoenix.
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