Important

If you have installed the Katello plugin, you must use Upgrading Foreman with Katello.

1. Upgrading overview

Review prerequisites and available upgrade paths below before upgrading your current Foreman installation to Foreman 3.11.

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

1.1. Prerequisites

Upgrading to Foreman 3.11 affects your entire Foreman infrastructure. Before proceeding, complete the following:

  • Read the Foreman 3.11 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 3.11 on Enterprise Linux and Preparing your Environment for Installation in Installing Smart Proxy server.

  • Ensure that you have at least the same amount of free space on /var/lib/pgsql as that consumed by /var/lib/pgsql/data. Upgrading to Foreman 3.11 involves a PostgreSQL 12 to PostgreSQL 13 upgrade. The contents of /var/lib/pgsql/data are backed up during the PostgreSQL upgrade.

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

  • 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 using a tool such as Hiera, these changes are overwritten when the maintenance script runs during upgrading or updating. You can use the --noop option with the foreman-installer to test for changes.

1.2. Upgrade paths

You can upgrade to Foreman 3.11 from Foreman 3.10.

High-level upgrade steps

The high-level steps in upgrading Foreman to 3.11 are as follows:

  1. Upgrade Foreman server to 3.11. For more information, see Foreman server upgrade considerations.

  2. Upgrade all Smart Proxy servers to 3.11. For more information, see Upgrading Smart Proxy servers.

1.3. Upgrading Smart Proxies separately from Foreman

You can upgrade Foreman to version 3.11 and keep Smart Proxies at version 3.10 until you have the capacity to upgrade them too.

All the functionality that worked previously works on 3.10 Smart Proxies. However, the functionality added in the 3.11 release will not work until you upgrade Smart Proxies to 3.11.

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.

1.4. 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.

2. Upgrading Foreman

Use the following procedures to upgrade your existing Foreman to Foreman 3.11:

  1. Review Prerequisites.

  2. Foreman server upgrade considerations

  3. Upgrading Smart Proxy servers

2.1. Foreman server upgrade considerations

This section describes how to upgrade Foreman server from 3.10 to 3.11. You can upgrade from any minor version of Foreman server 3.10.

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 3.11 on Enterprise Linux.

  • If you have edited any of the default 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

  • Note that Foreman server upgraded from 3.10 to 3.11 can use Smart Proxy servers still at 3.10.

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 3.11 on Enterprise Linux.

2.2. 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 maintenance script runs during upgrading or updating. You can use the --noop option with the foreman-installer to test for changes.
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-dhcp-managed=false \
--foreman-proxy-dns-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. Update operating system packages:

    # dnf upgrade

  8. Update repositories

    # dnf upgrade https://yum.theforeman.org/releases/3.11/el8/x86_64/foreman-release.rpm

  9. Switch to the PostgreSQL 13 module:

    # dnf -y module switch-to postgresql:13

  10. Ensure the module streams are enabled:

    # dnf module enable foreman:el8

  11. Stop all services:

    # foreman-maintain service stop

  12. Update the required packages:

    # dnf upgrade

  13. Run the installer:

    # foreman-installer

  14. Determine if the system needs a reboot:

    # dnf needs-restarting --reboothint

  15. If the previous command told you to reboot, then reboot the system:

    # reboot

2.3. Performing post-upgrade tasks

  • Optional: If the default provisioning templates have been changed during the upgrade, recreate any templates cloned from the default templates. If the custom code is executed before and/or after the provisioning process, use custom provisioning snippets to avoid recreating cloned templates. For more information about configuring custom provisioning snippets, see Creating Custom Provisioning Snippets in Provisioning hosts.

2.4. Upgrading Smart Proxy servers

This section describes how to upgrade Smart Proxy servers from 3.10 to 3.11.

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.

  • 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 a Smart Proxy Server 3.11 on Enterprise Linux.

Upgrading Smart Proxy servers

  1. Create a backup.

  2. Update repositories:

    # dnf upgrade https://yum.theforeman.org/releases/3.11/el8/x86_64/foreman-release.rpm

  3. Switch to the PostgreSQL 13 module:

    # dnf -y module switch-to postgresql:13

  4. Ensure the module streams are enabled:

    # dnf module enable foreman:el8

  5. Update the required packages:

    # dnf upgrade

  6. Run the installer:

    # foreman-installer

  7. Determine if the system needs a reboot:

    # dnf needs-restarting --reboothint

  8. If the previous command told you to reboot, then reboot the system:

    # reboot

  9. 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.

Upgrading Smart Proxy servers using remote execution

  1. Create a backup or take a snapshot.

    For more information on backups, see Backing Up Foreman server and Smart Proxy server in Administering Foreman.

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

  3. Click Run Job.

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

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

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

  7. Ensure that Apply to 1 host is displayed in the Resolves to field.

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

  9. In the whitelist_options field, enter the options.

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

  11. In the Type of query section, click Static Query.

2.5. Upgrading the external database

You can upgrade an external database from Enterprise Linux 7 to Enterprise Linux 8 while upgrading Foreman from 3.10 to 3.11.

Prerequisites

  • Create a new Enterprise Linux 8 based host for PostgreSQL server that follows the external database on Enterprise Linux 8 documentation.

Procedure

  1. Create a backup.

  2. Restore the backup on the new server.

  3. If Foreman reaches the new database server via the old name, no further changes are required. Otherwise reconfigure Foreman to use the new name:

    # foreman-installer \
--foreman-db-host newpostgres.example.com \
--katello-candlepin-db-host newpostgres.example.com \
--foreman-proxy-content-pulpcore-postgresql-host newpostgres.example.com

3. Upgrading Enterprise Linux on Foreman or Smart Proxy

Foreman and Smart Proxy are supported on both Enterprise Linux 8 and Enterprise Linux 9. You can upgrade your Foreman and Smart Proxy operating system from Enterprise Linux 8 to Enterprise Linux 9.

There are two methods to upgrade your Foreman or Smart Proxy from Enterprise Linux 8 to Enterprise Linux 9:

  • Leapp in-place upgrade

  • Migration by using backup and restore

With Leapp, you can upgrade your Foreman or Smart Proxy in place therefore it is faster but imposes a downtime on the services. With migration, you can move your Foreman or Smart Proxy to a fresh Enterprise Linux 9 system. The Enterprise Linux 8 system remains operational during the migration, which reduces the downtime.

3.1. Upgrading Foreman or Smart Proxy to EL 9 in-place by using Leapp

You can use the Leapp tool to upgrade as well as to help detect and resolve issues that could prevent you from upgrading successfully.

Prerequisites

  • Review upgrade warnings before you begin an upgrade. For more information, see Release notes.

  • Foreman 3.11 or Smart Proxy 3.11 running on Enterprise Linux 8.

  • Access to available repositories or a local mirror of repositories.

Procedure

  1. Enable the @theforeman/leapp COPR Repository, which contains Leapp packages with patches to support Foreman or Smart Proxy upgrades:

    # dnf copr enable @theforeman/leapp

  2. Install required packages:

    # dnf install leapp leapp-upgrade-el8toel9

  3. Install additional OS specific packages (leapp-data-almalinux for AlmaLinux, leapp-data-centos for CentOS Stream, or leapp-data-rocky for Rocky Linux). See ID in /etc/os-release for your operating system code.

    # dnf install leapp-data-$ID

    Note that this is not required for Red Hat Enterprise Linux installations.

  4. Add Foreman specific repositories to /etc/leapp/files/leapp_upgrade_repositories.repo:

    [leapp-foreman]
name=Foreman 3.11
baseurl=https://yum.theforeman.org/releases/3.11/el9/$basearch
gpgkey=file:///etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-foreman
enabled=1
gpgcheck=1

[leapp-foreman-plugins]
name=Foreman plugins 3.11
baseurl=https://yum.theforeman.org/plugins/3.11/el9/$basearch
enabled=1
gpgcheck=0

[leapp-puppet7]
name=Puppet 7 Repository el 9 - $basearch
baseurl=http://yum.puppetlabs.com/puppet7/el/9/$basearch
gpgkey=file:///etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-2025-04-06-puppet7-release
enabled=1
gpgcheck=1

  5. Let Leapp analyze your system:

    # leapp preupgrade

    The first run will most likely report issues and inhibit the upgrade. Examine the report in the /var/log/leapp/leapp-report.txt file, answer all questions by using leapp answer, and manually resolve other reported problems.

  6. Run leapp preupgrade again and make sure that it does not report any more issues.

  7. Let Leapp create the upgrade environment:

    # leapp upgrade

  8. Reboot the system to start the upgrade.

    After the system reboots, a live system conducts the upgrade, reboots to fix SELinux labels and then reboots into the final Enterprise Linux 9 system.

  9. Wait for Leapp to finish the upgrade. You can monitor the process with journalctl:

    # journalctl -u leapp_resume -f

  10. Verify the post-upgrade state. For more information, see Verifying the post-upgrade state in Upgrading from RHEL 8 to RHEL 9.

  11. Perform post-upgrade tasks on the RHEL 9 system. For more information, see Performing post-upgrade tasks on the RHEL 9 system in Upgrading from RHEL 8 to RHEL 9.

  12. Change SELinux to enforcing mode. For more information, see Changing SELinux mode to enforcing in Upgrading from RHEL 8 to RHEL 9.

  13. For Enterprise Linux installations, unset the subscription-manager release:

    # subscription-manager release --unset
Additional resources

3.2. Migrating Foreman or Smart Proxy to EL 9

You can migrate your existing Foreman server and Smart Proxy server from Enterprise Linux 8 to a freshly installed Enterprise Linux 9 system. The migration involves creating a backup of the existing Foreman server and Smart Proxy server, which you then restore on the new Enterprise Linux 9 system.

Procedure

  1. Perform a full backup of your Foreman server or Smart Proxy. This is the source Enterprise Linux 8 server that you are migrating. For more information, see Performing a full backup of Foreman server or Smart Proxy server in Administering Foreman.

  2. Deploy a system with Enterprise Linux 9. This is the target server.

  3. Restore the Foreman server or Smart Proxy server backups. For more information, see Restoring Foreman server or Smart Proxy server from a backup in Administering Foreman.

Appendix A: Troubleshooting permission issues

Foreman upgrades perform pre-upgrade checks. If the pre-upgrade check discovers permission issues, it fails with an error similar to the following one:

2024-01-29T20:50:09 [W|app|] Could not create role 'Ansible Roles Manager': ERF73-0602 [Foreman::PermissionMissingException]: some permissions were not found:

If you see an error like this on your Foreman server, identify and remedy the permission issues.

Procedure

  1. On your Foreman server, identify permission issues:

    # foreman-maintain health check --label duplicate_permissions

  2. Fix permission issues:

    # foreman-rake db:seed
Verification

  • Rerun the check to ensure no permission issues remain:

    # foreman-maintain health check --label duplicate_permissions