1. Release Notes for Oracle Linux 7.4
  2. Installation and Availability

6 Installation and Availability

WARNING:

Oracle Linux 7 is now in Extended Support. See Oracle Linux Extended Support and Oracle Open Source Support Policies for more information.

Migrate applications and data to Oracle Linux 8 or Oracle Linux 9 as soon as possible.

You can download a full Oracle Linux 7 Update 4 installation media image from the Oracle Software Delivery Cloud at https://edelivery.oracle.com/linux. You can also obtain the latest Oracle Linux 7 packages from the Unbreakable Linux Network (ULN) and the Oracle Linux yum server.

You can install additional software for Oracle Linux 7 by subscribing to the different channels on ULN or by enabling the required repositories within the Oracle Yum configuration. To explore the channels that are available to you on ULN, login to https://uln.oracle.com/ and view the Channels option. To view the Oracle Yum repositories available for Oracle Linux 7, visit https://yum.oracle.com/oracle-linux-7.html.

Note:

The Oracle Linux yum server does not provide equivalent repositories for some channels that are available on ULN. These channels provide non-open source packages.

If you are installing the update on a system on which you have previously installed the Oracle-supported OFED packages, see Upgrading to Oracle Linux 7 Update 4 with the Oracle-Supported OFED Packages for UEK R4 installed for instructions on how to update these packages during the upgrade.

UEK R4 Update 4 is the default boot kernel for fresh installations of Oracle Linux 7 Update 4. For more information, see Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel: Release Notes for Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel Release 4 Update 4 (4.1.12-94).

For systems that are running UEK R3 or UEK R4 and are subscribed to the ol7_x86_64_UEKR3 or ol7_x86_64_UEKR4 channel on ULN, or the ol7_x86_64_UEKR3 or ol7_x86_64_UEKR4 repository on the Oracle Linux yum server, upgrade to the latest UEK release as follows:

  1. Upgrade all packages on the system, including kernel packages. 

    sudo yum update

    By default, the boot manager automatically enables the most recent kernel version so you do not need to change your GRUB configuration.

  2. Reboot the system. 

    sudo systemctl reboot

Important:

Oracle Linux 7 Update 4 updates many major subsystems. To ensure that your updated systems function correctly, reboot them after updating.

Upgrading from Oracle Linux 6

It is possible to upgrade an Oracle Linux 6 system to Oracle Linux 7 Update 4 under the following conditions:

  • The system meets the minimum installation requirements for Oracle Linux 7 as described in System Requirements and Limits.

  • The Oracle Linux 6 system has been completely updated from the ol6_x86_64_latest channel or ol6_latest repository.

  • UEK R3 or UEK R4 has been installed on the system to be upgraded and is the default boot kernel. Upgrading from UEK R2 is not supported.

  • No Oracle product stack is present on the system.

Upgrading is supported only for systems that are installed with the Minimal Install base environment. If additional packages are installed from an alternative repository or channel, upgrade may fail or the resulting upgrade may not function as expected.

General instructions on how to perform an upgrade are covered in Oracle Linux 7: Installation Guide. A summary of steps specific to the update for this release is provided below:

  1. Make sure that your system is completely up to date by using the yum update command to update to the latest Oracle Linux 6 release. The system must be subscribed to the ol6_x86_64_latest channel or ol6_latest repository to be updated.

  2. Install the required upgrade packages (specified version or later) : 

    redhat-upgrade-tool-0.7.47-1.0.1.el6.noarch.rpm 
preupgrade-assistant-el6toel7-0.6.59-5.0.1.el6.noarch.rpm 
preupgrade-assistant-el6toel7-data-0.20161013-1.el6.noarch.rpm 
preupgrade-assistant-2.1.10-6.0.1.el6.noarch.rpm 
preupgrade-assistant-tools-2.1.10-6.0.1.el6.noarch.rpm 
preupgrade-assistant-ui-2.1.10-6.0.1.el6.noarch.rpm

    Obtain the latest versions of these packages from ULN (in the ol6_x86_64_addons channel), or from the Oracle Linux yum server (in the ol6_addons repository).

  3. Run the preupg command to perform and upgrade assessment: 

    sudo preupg

    Examine the results in /root/preupgrade/result.html to make sure that there are not any items that have failed or need attention.

  4. Run the redhat-upgrade-tool-cli command to perform the upgrade: 

    sudo redhat-upgrade-tool-cli --network=7.4 --instrepo=OL7_repo_url --debuglog=/tmp/upgrade.log --cleanup-post

    Replace OL7_repo_url with the URL of the repository where the Oracle Linux 7 Update 4 packages are hosted.

  5. Reboot the system to start the upgrade process.

Oracle-Supported OFED Packages

The following information describes additional steps specific to Oracle Linux 7 update 4 that may be required to install or upgrade the Oracle-supported OFED packages for UEK R4. This section also describes steps to upgrade an Oracle Linux system where the Oracle-supported OFED packages for UEK R4 are already installed.

(Bug ID 19177152)

Installing or Upgrading Oracle-Supported OFED Packages for UEK R4

For instructions for installing or upgrading OFED packages with UEK R4 u4, see Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel: Release Notes for Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel Release 4 Update 4 (4.1.12-94).

Important:

Before installing or upgrading the Oracle-supported OFED packages on Oracle Linux 7 update 4, you must perform some preparation steps to ensure that the system is up to date and that any potential package conflicts can be avoided.

If you are installing or upgrading from ULN follow the steps described in Upgrade using ULN before continuing with the standard installations instructions described in Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel: Release Notes for Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel Release 4 Update 4 (4.1.12-94).

If you are installing or upgrading from Oracle Linux yum server, follow the steps described in Upgrade using the Oracle Linux Yum Server before continuing with the standard installation instructions described in Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel: Release Notes for Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel Release 4 Update 4 (4.1.12-94).

Note that when you install the oracle-ofed-release or oracle-ofed-release-guest package, you must use the --exclude=rdma-core* option to avoid a potential package conflict. For example: 

sudo yum install oracle-ofed-release --exclude=rdma-core*

Upgrading to Oracle Linux 7 Update 4 with the Oracle-Supported OFED Packages for UEK R4 installed

The following procedures describe how to upgrade an Oracle Linux 7 system to Oracle Linux 7 Update 4 on a system where the Oracle-supported OFED packages for UEK R4 are already present.

Upgrade using ULN

The following procedure describes how to use ULN to perform an upgrade.

Note:

This procedure assumes that you have registered the system with ULN. See Oracle Linux: Unbreakable Linux Network User's Guide for Oracle Linux 6 and Oracle Linux 7.

  1. Subscribe the system to the ol7_x86_64_optional_latest, ol7_x86_64_UEKR4_OFED, ol7_x86_64_UEKR4, and ol7_x86_64_latest channels on ULN. By default, the ol7_x86_64_UEKR4 and ol7_x86_64_latest channels are enabled when you register an Oracle Linux 7 system with ULN.

  2. Edit the /etc/yum/pluginconf.d/rhnplugin.conf file and add the following lines to the end of the file: 

    [ol7_x86_64_UEKR4_OFED]
priority=20

  3. Install the yum-plugin-priorities package from the ol7_x86_64_optional_latest channel: 

    sudo yum install yum-plugin-priorities

  4. Apply Oracle Linux 7 Update 4 to the system and use the --exclude=rdma-core* option to avoid a potential package conflict: 

    sudo yum update --exclude=rdma-core*

    Any Oracle-supported OFED packages for UEK R4 that were already present are updated from the ol7_x86_64_UEKR4_OFED channel. If you do not have any of the OFED packages installed, you can proceed to install the packages as described in the installation instructions provided in Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel: Release Notes for Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel Release 4 Update 4 (4.1.12-94).

Upgrade using the Oracle Linux Yum Server

The following procedure describes how to use the Oracle Linux yum server to perform an upgrade.

  1. If you updated the server from Oracle Linux 6 or the initial release of Oracle Linux 7, ensure that your system is up to date and that you have transitioned to use the modular yum repository configuration by installing the oraclelinux-release-el7 package and running the /usr/bin/ol_yum_configure.sh script. 

    sudo yum install oraclelinux-release-el7
sudo /usr/bin/ol_yum_configure.sh

  2. Enable the ol7_optional_latest and ol7_UEKR4_OFED repositories. By default, ol7_latest and ol7_UEKR4 are already enabled, but you should enable these repositories as well if they are not already enabled. 

    sudo yum-config-manager --enable ol7_latest ol7_UEKR4 ol7_optional_latest ol7_UEKR4_OFED

  3. Install the yum-plugin-priorities package from the ol7_optional_latest repository: 

    sudo yum install yum-plugin-priorities

  4. To apply Oracle Linux 7 Update 4 to the system and use the --exclude=rdma-core* option to avoid a potential package conflict: 

    sudo yum update --exclude=rdma-core*

    Any Oracle-supported OFED packages for UEK R4 that were already present are updated from the ol7_UEKR4_OFED repository on the Oracle Linux yum server. If you do not have any of the OFED packages installed, you can proceed to install the packages as described in the installation instructions provided in Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel: Release Notes for Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel Release 4 Update 4 (4.1.12-94).