Topics: Red Hat / Linux

Convert Red Hat Enterprise Linux to Oracle Linux

Why would you convert an existing Red Hat or CentOS system to Oracle Linux?

Well, there aren't huge advantages, but a few:

  • If you would like to use Oracle Linux technical support. Oracle Linux licensing is supposedly cheaper than that of Red Hat, but please do verify first, it that's the case for your organization as well.
  • Oracle Linux updates are more frequent than CentOS, but actually slower than Red Hat.
If you want the Oracle sales pitch, check here.

Oracle Linux is binary compatible with RHEL and with CentOS, so using your organization's existing applications should not be a problem on Oracle Linux.

When you've decided it's time to convert, then here's how to do it:

First, create a backup of your system and make sure the backup is successful. Don't skip this step.

Configure the Oracle Linux Yum repository (see: http://public-yum.oracle.com/getting-started.html), for example for Red Hat version 7: 
# cd /etc/yum.repos.d
# wget https://yum.oracle.com/public-yum-ol7.repo
Configure the Oracle Linux GPG Key (see: http://public-yum.oracle.com/faq.html#a10), for example for Red Hat version 7: 
# wget https://yum.oracle.com/RPM-GPG-KEY-oracle-ol7 \
-O /etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-oracle
# gpg --quiet --with-fingerprint /etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-oracle
Configure the Oracle pre-install package: 
# yum install oracle-rdbms-server-12cR1-preinstall -y
Run a full update: 
# yum update -y
Reboot: 
# reboot
If you wish to convert a CentOS system to Oracle Linux, that can be done too, as follows: 
# curl -O https://linux.oracle.com/switch/centos2ol.sh
# sh centos2ol.sh
Make sure all of the packages are synced up with the Oracle Linux repository: 
# yum distro-sync
No need to reboot afterwards, however, it is recommended to do so, to make sure the system comes back up normally after a reboot.



If you found this useful, here's more on the same topic(s) in our blog:


UNIX Health Check delivers software to scan Linux and AIX systems for potential issues. Run our software on your system, and receive a report in just a few minutes. UNIX Health Check is an automated check list. It will report on perfomance, capacity, stability and security issues. It will alert on configurations that can be improved per best practices, or items that should be improved per audit guidelines. A report will be generated in the format you wish, and the report includes the issues discovered and information on how to solve the issues as well.

Interested in learning more?