Changing package repositories from RHEL to CentOS

[stukov]

Hello,

Is it possible to change the repository in place for updates on a running RHEL 3/4/5 from Red Hat to CentOS? I suppose this should work as it is, basically, almost the same OS. Right?

Thanks!

[scottro]

That strikes me as risky. Wouldn't you lose your support?

I would think, however, that you could add various repos, especially the Dag Wiers one, to your /etc/yum.repos.d. On the other hand, I have no idea how this would affect support status.

[stukov]

Thanks for the reply scottro.

Support is not an issue here, as our site-wide support will expire in a month or two.

I commonly use Dag's repository. However, I am looking for something that went through a little more testing. This is why I liked RHEL's packages. I suppose CentOS packages are as tested as those offered by Red Hat. Aren't they?

[anomie]

Is it possible to change the repository in place for updates on a running RHEL 3/4/5 from Red Hat to CentOS?

I have heard (i.e. on various forums) that this is possible. The theory is that RHEL4 should get along with CentOS 4 repos, etc... I can't say I vouch for it, and I can't say anyone I trust has explicitly said this.

On my RHEL servers I only use RHN repositories. For any software that I can't get through the RHN, I carefully build/install from source (to /usr/local). I don't like doing even that.

As for the support complications scottro spoke to: since this will almost certainly void your support contract, maybe consider just changing the box to CentOS instead if needed.

[scottro]

Can you set up a sacrificial test machine? I had thought that something about this was in the CentOS faq, but it isn't--nor did a quick search of the forums find an answer.

A bit more googling around indicated it's possible, and in theory, it seems as if it should work. There have to be some guides around, I just haven't found any.

Ah, on the CentOS wiki, I should have gone there first.

http://wiki.centos.org/HowTos/MigrationGuide

Look for
Migration from RHEL5 to CentOS5

[stukov]

Thanks for the warnings and the link.

I have just what it takes here to do the test: a good machine running RHEL5 ready for sacrifice. I'm going to follow the procedure described on the wiki and document how it went.

Thanks!

[stukov]

Worked with no issues from RHEL5 to CentOS5 with the WIKI you provided scottro. Nothing broken yet.

[scottro]

Knock wood and don't tempt the computer gods. :)

Glad it's working, and it's good to know that all of us who expressed an opinion were right.

[lvlamb]

All Linux distros come with specific kernel patches.
Mixing rpm's should be OK until the system breaks. You are warned :p

Note that, there are rpms and rpms. Some are just shell or Perl scripts, some install in a dedicated per version subdir without intercourse.
As long as you know what you are doing.

[scottro]

Your sig is apropos for me today. I did an upgrade of Fedora 8 to Fedora 9 today (on my workstation, not a server of course) and killed X. Fixed it though. :)

The CentOS people do a lot of testing and their wiki articles are also reviewed--so, in general (I'm sure there are exceptions), if the wiki says it is safe, it probably is.

Of course, stukov does have that test box, in case it isn't.

[stukov]

Thanks for the warn lvlamb. I can take the risk, the machine I've tried this on is only taking pictures on webcams with "motion". If something breaks, I'll let you know. I'll leave it this way a few weeks, and I then will switch real production server to CentOS.