In this guide, the terms upgrade, update, and migrate have the following meanings:

Upgrading

The process of advancing your Foreman server and Smart Proxy server installations from a y-stream release to the next, for example Foreman 3.0 to Foreman 3.1. For more information, see Upgrading Overview.

Updating

The process of advancing your Foreman server and Smart Proxy server installations from a z-stream release to the next, for example Foreman 3.1.0 to Foreman 3.1.1.

Migrating

The process of moving an existing Foreman installation to a new instance.

1. Upgrading Overview

Review prerequisites and available upgrade paths below before upgrading your current Foreman installation to Foreman 3.1.

Note that you can upgrade Smart Proxies separately from Foreman.

1.1. Prerequisites

Upgrading to Foreman 3.1 affects your entire Foreman infrastructure. Before proceeding, complete the following:

  • Read the Foreman 3.1 Release Notes.

  • Plan your upgrade path. For more information, see Upgrade Paths.

  • Plan for the required downtime. Foreman services are shut down during the upgrade. The upgrade process duration might vary depending on your hardware configuration, network speed, and the amount of data that is stored on the server.

    Upgrading Foreman takes approximately 1 – 2 hours.

    Upgrading Smart Proxy takes approximately 10 – 30 minutes.

  • Ensure that you have sufficient storage space on your server. For more information, see Preparing your Environment for Installation in Installing Foreman server from a Connected Network and Preparing your Environment for Installation in Installing Smart Proxy server.

  • Back up your Foreman server and all Smart Proxy servers. For more information, see Backing Up Foreman server and Smart Proxy server in the Administering Foreman guide.

  • Plan for updating any scripts you use that contain Foreman API commands because some API commands differ between versions of Foreman.

Warning
 If you customize configuration files, manually or use a tool such as Hiera, these customizations are overwritten when the installation script runs during upgrading or updating. You can use the --noop option with the foreman-installer script to test for changes. For more information, see the Red Hat Knowledgebase solution How to use the noop option to check for changes in Foreman config files during an upgrade.

1.2. Upgrade Paths

You can upgrade to Foreman 3.1 from Foreman 3.0.

Foreman servers and Smart Proxy servers on earlier versions must first be upgraded to Foreman 3.0. For more information, see the Foreman 3.0 Upgrade documentation.

High-Level Upgrade Steps

The high-level steps in upgrading Foreman to 3.1 are as follows:

  1. Upgrade Foreman server and all Smart Proxy servers to Foreman 3.1. For more information, see Upgrading Foreman server.

  2. Upgrade all Smart Proxy servers to 3.1. For more information, see Upgrading Smart Proxy servers.

  3. Continue with Performing Post-Upgrade Tasks.

1.3. Following the Progress of the Upgrade

Because of the lengthy upgrade time, use a utility such as tmux to suspend and reattach a communication session. You can then check the upgrade progress without staying connected to the command shell continuously. For more information, see the tmux manual page.

If you lose connection to the command shell where the upgrade command is running you can see the logs in /var/log/foreman-installer/foreman.log to check if the process completed successfully.

1.4. Upgrading Smart Proxies Separately from Foreman

You can upgrade Foreman to version 3.1 and keep Smart Proxies at version 3.0 until you have the capacity to upgrade them too.

All the functionality that worked previously works on 3.0 Smart Proxies. However, the functionality added in the 3.1 release will not work until you upgrade Smart Proxies to 3.1.

Upgrading Smart Proxies after upgrading Foreman can be useful in the following example scenarios:

  1. If you want to have several smaller outage windows instead of one larger window.

  2. If Smart Proxies in your organization are managed by several teams and are located in different locations.

  3. If you use a load-balanced configuration, you can upgrade one load-balanced Smart Proxy and keep other load-balanced Smart Proxies at one version lower. This allows you to upgrade all Smart Proxies one after another without any outage.

2. Upgrading Foreman

Use the following procedures to upgrade your existing Foreman to Foreman 3.1:

  1. Review Prerequisites.

  2. Upgrading Foreman server

  3. Upgrading Smart Proxy servers

  4. Performing Post-Upgrade Tasks

2.1. Upgrading Foreman server

This section describes how to upgrade Foreman server from 3.0 to 3.1. You can upgrade from any minor version of Foreman server 3.0.

Before You Begin

  • Note that you can upgrade Smart Proxies separately from Foreman. For more information, see Upgrading Smart Proxies Separately from Foreman.

  • Review and update your firewall configuration prior to upgrading your Foreman server. For more information, see Preparing your environment for installation in Installing Foreman server.

  • Ensure that you do not delete the manifest from the Customer Portal or in the Foreman web UI because this removes all the entitlements of your content hosts.

  • If you have edited any of the default job or provisioning templates, back up the files either by cloning or exporting them. Cloning is the recommended method because that prevents them being overwritten in future updates or upgrades. To confirm if a template has been edited, you can view its History before you upgrade or view the changes in the audit log after an upgrade. In the Foreman web UI, navigate to Monitor > Audits and search for the template to see a record of changes made. If you use the export method, restore your changes by comparing the exported template and the default template, manually applying your changes.

Smart Proxy Considerations

  • If you use Content Views to control updates to a Smart Proxy server’s base operating system, or for Smart Proxy server repository, you must publish updated versions of those Content Views.

  • Note that Foreman server upgraded from 3.0 to 3.1 can use Smart Proxy servers still at 3.0.

Warning

If you implemented custom certificates, you must retain the content of both the /root/ssl-build directory and the directory in which you created any source files associated with your custom certificates.

Failure to retain these files during an upgrade causes the upgrade to fail. If these files have been deleted, they must be restored from a backup in order for the upgrade to proceed.
FIPS mode

You cannot upgrade Foreman server from a RHEL base system that is not operating in FIPS mode to a RHEL base system that is operating in FIPS mode.

To run Foreman server on a Red Hat Enterprise Linux base system operating in FIPS mode, you must install Foreman on a freshly provisioned RHEL base system operating in FIPS mode. For more information, see Preparing your environment for installation in Installing Foreman server.

2.1.1. Upgrading a Connected Foreman server

Use this procedure for a Foreman server with access to the public internet

Warning
 If you customize configuration files, manually or using a tool such as Hiera, these changes are overwritten when the installation script runs during upgrading or updating. You can use the --noop option with the foreman-installer script to test for changes. For more information, see the Red Hat Knowledgebase solution How to use the noop option to check for changes in Foreman config files during an upgrade.
Upgrade Foreman server

  1. Stop all Foreman services:

    # foreman-maintain service stop

  2. Take a snapshot or create a backup:

    • On a virtual machine, take a snapshot.

    • On a physical machine, create a backup.

  3. Start all Foreman services:

    # foreman-maintain service start

  4. Optional: If you made manual edits to DNS or DHCP configuration in the /etc/zones.conf or /etc/dhcp/dhcpd.conf files, back up the configuration files because the installer only supports one domain or subnet, and therefore restoring changes from these backups might be required.

  5. Optional: If you made manual edits to DNS or DHCP configuration files and do not want to overwrite the changes, enter the following command:

    # foreman-installer --foreman-proxy-dns-managed=false \
--foreman-proxy-dhcp-managed=false

  6. In the Foreman web UI, navigate to Hosts > Discovered hosts. On the Discovered Hosts page, power off and then delete the discovered hosts. From the Select an Organization menu, select each organization in turn and repeat the process to power off and delete the discovered hosts. Make a note to reboot these hosts when the upgrade is complete.

  7. Determine if the system needs a reboot:

    1. Check the version of newest installed kernel:

      # rpm --query --last kernel | head -n 1

    2. Compare this to the version of currently running kernel:

      # uname --kernel-release

  8. Optional: If the newest kernel differs from the currently running kernel, reboot the system:

    # reboot

  9. If using a BASH shell, after a successful or failed upgrade, enter:

    # hash -d foreman-maintain service 2> /dev/null

2.2. Upgrading Smart Proxy servers

This section describes how to upgrade Smart Proxy servers from 3.0 to 3.1.

Before You Begin

  • You must upgrade Foreman server before you can upgrade any Smart Proxy servers. Note that you can upgrade Smart Proxies separately from Foreman. For more information, see Upgrading Smart Proxies Separately from Foreman.

  • If you use Content Views to control updates to the base operating system of Smart Proxy server, update those Content Views with new repositories, publish, and promote their updated versions. For more information, see Managing Content Views in the Content Management Guide.

  • Ensure the Smart Proxy’s base system is registered to the newly upgraded Foreman server.

  • Ensure the Smart Proxy has the correct organization and location settings in the newly upgraded Foreman server.

  • Review and update your firewall configuration prior to upgrading your Smart Proxy server. For more information, see Preparing Your Environment for Smart Proxy Installation in Installing Smart Proxy server.

Warning

If you implemented custom certificates, you must retain the content of both the /root/ssl-build directory and the directory in which you created any source files associated with your custom certificates.

Failure to retain these files during an upgrade causes the upgrade to fail. If these files have been deleted, they must be restored from a backup in order for the upgrade to proceed.
Upgrading Smart Proxy servers

  1. Create a backup.

  2. Check when the kernel packages were last updated:

    # rpm -qa --last | grep kernel

  3. Optional: If a kernel update occurred since the last reboot, reboot the system:

    # reboot

  4. Optional: If you made manual edits to DNS or DHCP configuration files, check and restore any changes required to the DNS and DHCP configuration files using the backups made earlier.

  5. Optional: If you use custom repositories, ensure that you enable these custom repositories after the upgrade completes.

Upgrading Smart Proxy Servers Using Remote Execution in the Foreman web UI

  1. Create a backup.

  2. Optional: If you made manual edits to DNS or DHCP configuration in the /etc/zones.conf or /etc/dhcp/dhcpd.conf files, back up the configuration files. The installer only supports one domain or subnet, and therefore restoring changes from these backups might be required.

  3. Optional: If you made manual edits to DNS or DHCP configuration files and do not want to overwrite the changes, enter the following command:

    # {foreman-installer} --foreman-proxy-dns-managed=false \
--foreman-proxy-dhcp-managed=false

  4. In the Foreman web UI, navigate to Monitor > Jobs.

  5. Click Run Job.

  6. From the Job category list, select Maintenance Operations.

  7. From the Job template list, select Smart Proxy Upgrade Playbook.

  8. In the Search Query field, enter the host name of the Smart Proxy.

  9. Ensure that Resolves to shows 1 host.

  10. In the target_version field, enter the target version of the Smart Proxy.

  11. In the whitelist_options field, enter the whitelist options.

  12. For Type of query, click Static Query.

  13. Select the schedule for the job execution in Schedule.

2.3. Upgrading Content Hosts

The https://yum.theforeman.org/client/3.1/ repository provides katello-agent and katello-host-tools, which provide communication services for managing Errata.

Note
 The Katello agent is deprecated and will be removed in a future Foreman version. Migrate your workloads to use the remote execution feature to update clients remotely. For more information, see Migrating from Katello Agent to Remote Execution in the Managing Hosts Guide.

For deployments using katello-agent and goferd, update all clients to the new version of katello-agent. For deployments not using katello-agent and goferd, update all clients to the new version of katello-host-tools. Complete this action as soon as possible so that your clients are fully compatible with Foreman server.

Prerequisites

  • You must have upgraded Foreman server.

  • You must have enabled the new https://yum.theforeman.org/client/3.1/ repositories on the Foreman.

  • You must have synchronized the new repositories in the Foreman.

  • If you have not previously installed katello-agent on your clients and you want to install it, use the manual method. For more information, see CLI Procedure.

Warning

If you implemented custom certificates, you must retain the content of both the /root/ssl-build directory and the directory in which you created any source files associated with your custom certificates.

Failure to retain these files during an upgrade causes the upgrade to fail. If these files have been deleted, they must be restored from a backup in order for the upgrade to proceed.
CLI Procedure

  1. Log into the client system.

  2. Depending on your configuration, complete one of the following steps:

    • If your deployment uses katello-agent and goferd, enter the following command to install or upgrade katello-agent:

      # yum install katello-agent

    • If your deployment does not use katello-agent and goferd, enter the following command to install or upgrade katello-host-tools:

      # yum install katello-host-tools

2.4. Performing Post-Upgrade Tasks

Some of the procedures in this section are optional. You can choose to perform only those procedures that are relevant to your installation.

2.4.1. Upgrading Discovery

If you use the PXE-based discovery process, then you must complete the discovery upgrade procedure on Foreman and on any Smart Proxy server with hosts that you want to be listed in Foreman on the Hosts > Discovered hosts page.

This section describes updating the PXELinux template and the boot image passed to hosts that use PXE booting to register themselves with Foreman server.

From Foreman 1.22, provisioning templates now have a separate association with a subnet, and do not default to using the TFTP Smart Proxy for that subnet. If you create subnets after the upgrade, you must specifically enable the Foreman or a Smart Proxy to provide a proxy service for discovery templates and then configure all subnets with discovered hosts to use a specific template Smart Proxy.

During the upgrade, for every subnet with a TFTP proxy enabled, the template Smart Proxy is set to be the same as the TFTP Smart Proxy. After the upgrade, check all subnets to verify this was set correctly.

These procedures are not required if you do not use PXE booting of hosts to enable Foreman to discover new hosts.

Additional resources

For information about configuring the Discovery service, see Configuring the Discovery Service in Provisioning Hosts.

Upgrading Discovery on Foreman server

  1. Update the Discovery template in the Foreman web UI:

    1. In the Foreman web UI, navigate to Hosts > Provisioning templates.

    2. On the PXELinux global default line, click Clone.

    3. Enter a new name for the template in the Name field, for example ACME PXE global default.

    4. In the template editor field, change the line ONTIMEOUT local to ONTIMEOUT discovery and click Submit.

    5. In the Foreman web UI, navigate to Administer > Settings.

    6. On the Provisioning tab, set Default PXE global template entry to a custom value for your environment.

    7. Locate Global default PXELinux template and click on its Value.

    8. Select the name of the newly created template from the menu and click Submit.

    9. In the Foreman web UI, navigate to Hosts > Provisioning templates.

    10. Click Build PXE Default, then click OK.

    Note

    If the template is modified, a Foreman upgrade overrides it to its default version. Once the PXE Default configuration is built, the template configured in the Settings is deployed to the TFTP. This can result in deploying the default template if the new template is correctly set in the Settings.

  2. In the Foreman web UI, go to Configure > Discovery Rules and associate selected organizations and locations with discovery rules.

2.4.2. Upgrading Discovery on Smart Proxy servers

  1. Verify that the Foreman Discovery package is current on Foreman server.

    # apt-get install tfm-rubygem-foreman_discovery

  2. If an update occurred in the previous step, restart the foreman-maintain services.

    # foreman-maintain service restart

  3. Upgrade the Discovery image on the Foreman Smart Proxy that is either connected to the provisioning network with discovered hosts or provides TFTP services for discovered hosts.

    # apt-get install foreman-discovery-image

  4. On the same instance, install the package which provides the Proxy service, and then restart foreman-proxy service.

    # apt-get install tfm-rubygem-smart_proxy_discovery
# service foreman-proxy restart

  5. In the Foreman web UI, go to Infrastructure > Smart Proxies and verify that the relevant Smart Proxy lists Discovery in the features column. Select Refresh from the Actions drop-down menu if necessary.

  6. Go to Infrastructure > Subnets and for each subnet on which you want to use discovery:

    1. Click the subnet name.

    2. On the Smart Proxies tab, ensure the Discovery Smart Proxy is set to a Smart Proxy you configured above.

Verifying Subnets have a Template Smart Proxy

If the Templates feature is enabled in your environment, ensure all subnets with discovered hosts have a template Smart Proxy:

  1. In the Foreman web UI, navigate to Infrastructure > Subnets.

  2. Select the subnet you want to check.

  3. On the Smart Proxies tab, ensure a Template Smart Proxy has been set for this subnet.

For more information about configuring subnets with template Smart Proxies, see Configuring the Discovery Service in the Provisioning guide.

2.4.3. Reclaiming PostgreSQL Space

The PostgreSQL database can use a large amount of disk space especially in heavily loaded deployments. Use this procedure to reclaim some of this disk space on Foreman.

Procedure

  1. Stop all services, except for the postgresql service:

    # foreman-maintain service stop --exclude postgresql

  2. Switch to the postgres user and reclaim space on the database:

    # su - postgres -c 'vacuumdb --full --all'

  3. Start the other services when the vacuum completes:

    # foreman-maintain service start

2.4.4. Updating Templates, Parameters, Lookup Keys and Values

During the upgrade process, Foreman attempts to locate macros that are deprecated for Foreman 3.1 and converts old syntax to new syntax for the default Foreman templates, parameters, and lookup keys and values. However, Foreman does not convert old syntax in cloned templates and in custom job or provisioning templates that you have created.

The process uses simple text replacement, for example:

@host.params['parameter1'] -> host_param('parameter1')
@host.param_true?('parameter1') -> host_param_true?('parameter1')
@host.param_false?('parameter1') -> host_param_false?('parameter1')
@host.info['parameters'] -> host_enc['parameters']
Warning
 If you use cloned templates in Foreman, verify whether the cloned templates have diverged from the latest version of the original templates in Foreman. The syntax for the same template can differ between versions of Foreman. If your cloned templates contain outdated syntax, update the syntax to match the latest version of the template.

To ensure that this text replacement does not break or omit any variables in your files during the upgrade, check all templates, parameters, and lookup keys and values for the old syntax and replace manually.

The following error occurs because of old syntax remaining in files after the upgrade:

 undefined method '#params' for Host::Managed::Jail
Fixing the outdated subscription_manager_registration snippet

Foreman 6.4 onwards uses the redhat_register snippet instead of the subscription_manager_registration snippet.

If you upgrade from Foreman 6.3 and earlier, you must replace the subscription_manager_registration snippet in your custom job or provisioning templates as follows:

<%= snippet "subscription_manager_registration" %>
               ↓
<%= snippet 'redhat_register' %>

Use this chapter to update your existing Foreman server and Smart Proxy server to a new patch version, for example, from 3.1.0 to 3.1.1.

Updates patch security vulnerabilities and minor issues discovered after code is released, and are often fast and non-disruptive to your operating environment.

Before updating, back up your Foreman server and all Smart Proxy servers. For more information, see Backing Up Foreman server and Smart Proxy server in the Administering Foreman guide.