Upgrade path/documents for migrating from RHEL8 to RHEL9 for foreman/katello?

I am at Katello 4.13 with my foreman/katello host on Rocky 8. (RHEL8 equivalent).

I see Katello 4.14 can also run on RHEL9, and 4.15 ONLY runs on RHEL9.

What is the prescribed method for migrating my operating system?

I am thinking along the lines of:

  • First, upgrade everything to Katello 4.14 on my existing RHEL8 environment. Test.
  • Create a full foreman backup. Set that aside.
  • Wipe system clean, rebuild using RHEL9
  • Install Katello 4.14.
  • Import the foreman backup created previously.

(and then from there I can eventually go to 4.15 and beyond…).

Is this what other people have done; am I missing anything?

Check the docs for a in-place update with leapp

https://docs.theforeman.org/3.12/Upgrading_Project/index-katello.html#upgrading_EL_on_foreman_or_proxy_upgrading-connected

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Interesting. I’ve never done a LEAPP upgrade. (always a first time, right?)

I’ll give it a shot, but I think my plan above will provide me witha solid “plan B” if the in-place upgrade somehow goes off the rails…

You plan B is exactly what’s documented in Upgrading Foreman to 3.12 as " Migrating Foreman or Smart Proxy to EL 9" :slight_smile:

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So… I tried the whole leapp upgrade thing. It basically was a total disaster. (not a reflection on foreman/katello, but rather the redhat tools). Left my system like a block of swiss cheese, with a bazillion package conflicts and so on. It was worth a shot but for me… NOPE.

I ended up doing a full backup (which I already had set aside), wiped my system clean, installed Rocky 9 (was Rocky 8…), and restored. As before, that just… WORKED.

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Do you still remember how the cheese looked like? I am curious because it mostly should "just work"™