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]

Originally Posted by stukov

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

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.