Upgrading Redhat Linux version 5 to 6 (with Aleph 21 or 22)

Description

Is there a procedure to migrate Aleph 21 or 22 from Redhat version 5 server to version 6? 

If possible, we would like to clone the current Redhat 5 server running production Aleph & ARC, and migrate the version 5 server to 6,  keeping both Aleph & ARC intact.  We do realize there will be many things broken and that this will take some time to fix. We are hoping that there is some support in regards to this. 

Resolution

Choice# 1: Stay on RHEL 5 ....
"Extended Support” for RHEL 5, described at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Ha...terprise_Linux , will continue until Nov. 2020.  They write: “In the last years of the support lifecycle (after seven years for the version 4 and earlier, or after 10 years for the version 5 and later), critical and security-related fixes are only provided to customers who pay an additional subscription ("Extended Lifecycle Support Add-On") that is available for versions 3, 4 and 5, and covers a limited number of packages” 

Choice# 2: Migrate to RHEL 6 ....
Usually a particular Aleph version is certified to work with only one particular version of Linux, but we see that v21 and v22 are certified for both RHEL5 and RHEL6. 

You could contract with the Ex Libris Installation Team to do an RHEL5 --> RHEL6 upgrade. One of the installation engineers notes: "Such moves aren't incredibly hard, but Aleph has the COBOL licenses to attend to, among other details." There are various knowledge articles which talk about problems with COBOL licenses. 

You could create an RHEL6 server and copy the files from your existing server to it and see how it looks (-- at a minimum, you would need a new Aleph license for this new server) and there may be Oracle/Linux issues.   (Or you could upgrade your RHEL5 server "in place" to RHEL6 -- doing the Sandbox server first.)  

You may want to ask (via the Global Aleph Users list) whether there are other customers who have done this. 

If you were to encounter problems not covered in existing knowledge articles, we may have to say that the solution would be to upgrade to a higher version of Aleph/Oracle ... besides upgrading Linux. 

Choice# 3: Upgrade to Aleph 23, with RHEL 6 or 7....
I'd say that if you are planning to be using Aleph for more than a couple years, this is what you should be doing. 
 

NOTE:  This is a generic Aleph "Operating System Upgrade" document :   ,@api,deki,files,61963,Operating_System_Upgrade.pdf .