How to Update to a Previous Version of RHEL

March 10, 2020
|In Install and Upgrade
|By Breanna Fitzgerald

Applies to: Ephesoft Transact 2020.1 on Linux

This article provides information on the two-part process of how to update your version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux to a supported previous release. Refer to Platform Configuration and Third-Party Integrations 2020.1 for more information on supported environments.

Note: Ephesoft Transact 2020.1 only supports RHEL 7.5 and 7.6.

Prerequisites

  1. You must have a fresh server of RHEL.
  2. You must be a root user.

Note: If you are not the root user, execute the following command:

sudo su root

Upgrade to Current Release

Perform these steps to upgrade to the latest version of RHEL. These instructions refer to RHEL 7.7 as the latest version.

  1. Verify your Linux kernel version:
uname -r

Sample output for RHEL 7.3:

3.10.0-514.21.2.el7.x86_64
  1. Update all packages with available updates:
yum update
  1. Reboot the server to complete the upgrade:
reboot

Note: You will be logged out upon reboot. Log back in to continue.

  1. Verify your updated Linux kernel version:
uname -r

Sample output for RHEL 7.7:

3.10.0-1062.9.1.el7x86_64

Downgrade to Supported Release

  1. Downgrade to an earlier version of RHEL:
yum downgrade redhat-release

Note: This will downgrade by one release version of RHEL. For example, if your current distribution is RHEL 7.7, it will take you to RHEL 7.6.

  1. Reboot the server to complete the downgrade:
reboot

Note: You will be logged out upon reboot. Log back in to continue.

  1. Verify the updated Linux kernel version:
uname -r

Sample output for RHEL 7.6:

3.10.0-957.el7.86_64

Note: If your kernel downgrade fails when downgrading to RHEL 7.6, repeat steps 5-7 to downgrade again to RHEL 7.5.

  1. Install the kernel version required to run RHEL 7.5 or 7.6:
yum install <kernel version>

Note: Check for the latest stable kernel version from Red Hat before upgrading. The following is an example command for RHEL 7.6:

yum install kernel-3.10.0-957.el7
  1. Reboot the server to complete the download:
reboot
  1. Verify your Linux version:
cat /etc/redhat-release
  1. Verify your Linux kernel version:
uname -r

You have successfully updated your Linux distribution to a supported previous version.