upgrade SLES 12 SP5 to SLES 15 failed

The os is SLES 12 SP5,
uname -a :
Linux server30 4.12.14-122.66-default #1 SMP Mon Apr 12 10:54:37 UTC 2021 (8fc5925) x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux.
I tried many online upgrades and messed up something. Then I finally try to use offline upgrade.
But, When boot from SLES 15 installation DVD to upgrading, it find the system is SLES 15 SP2.
How to clear the hidden SLES 15 SP2 settings ? So I can upgrade to SLES 15. Thanks.
Best regards,
James


@“whcao@eta.com” Hi and welcome to the Forum :slight_smile: Short answer boot from the SLE 12 SP5 media and rollback the system by upgrading… then try the offline upgrade again.

Or register the rollbacked system and then use the zypper migration command, I think the zypper plugin is in SLE 12 SP5 for this.

Thank you malcolmlewis. After running SLES12 SP5 upgrade, the partition show as SLES12 SP5 now.
But When run SLES15 upgrade, it give Error: No Migration Production Found. Could you please help?


Thanks,
Best regards,
James

@“whcao@eta.com” Hi James, do you have the zypper migration plugin (zypper-migration-plugin) installed?

Dear malcolmlewis,
Yes. It’s already installed:

server30:~ # zypper in zypper-migration-plugin
Refreshing service ‘SUSE_Linux_Enterprise_Server_12_SP5_x86_64’.
Retrieving repository ‘SLES12-SP5-12.5-0’ metadata …[done]
Building repository ‘SLES12-SP5-12.5-0’ cache …[done]
Building repository ‘SLES12-SP5-Pool’ cache …[done]
Retrieving repository ‘SLES12-SP5-Updates’ metadata …[done]
Building repository ‘SLES12-SP5-Updates’ cache …[done]
Loading repository data…
Reading installed packages…
‘zypper-migration-plugin’ is already installed.
No update candidate for ‘zypper-migration-plugin-0.10-12.4.noarch’. The highest available version is already installed.
Resolving package dependencies…

Nothing to do.

I try to run zypper migration, but it says: No migration available. :
server30:~ # zypper migration

Executing ‘zypper refresh’

Repository ‘SLES12-SP5-12.5-0’ is up to date.
Repository ‘SLES12-SP5-Pool’ is up to date.
Repository ‘SLES12-SP5-Updates’ is up to date.
All repositories have been refreshed.

Executing ‘zypper --no-refresh patch-check --updatestack-only’

Loading repository data…
Reading installed packages…

Considering 7 out of 464 applicable patches:
Category | Updatestack
------------±-----------
security | 3
recommended | 4

7 patches needed (3 security patches)

Executing ‘zypper --no-refresh patch --updatestack-only’

Loading repository data…
Reading installed packages…
Resolving package dependencies…

The following 7 NEW patches are going to be installed:
SUSE-SLE-SERVER-12-SP5-2019-2818 SUSE-SLE-SERVER-12-SP5-2020-1316 SUSE-SLE-SERVER-12-SP5-2020-2660
SUSE-SLE-SERVER-12-SP5-2020-3346 SUSE-SLE-SERVER-12-SP5-2020-3794 SUSE-SLE-SERVER-12-SP5-2020-3909
SUSE-SLE-SERVER-12-SP5-2020-79

The following 10 packages are going to be upgraded:
PackageKit PackageKit-backend-zypp PackageKit-lang libpackagekit-glib2-18 libsolv-tools libzypp python-solv
typelib-1_0-PackageKitGlib-1_0 zypper zypper-log

10 packages to upgrade.
Overall download size: 5.5 MiB. Already cached: 0 B. After the operation, 20.7 KiB will be freed.
Continue? [y/n/…? shows all options] (y):
server30:~ # zypper migration

Executing ‘zypper refresh’

Repository ‘SLES12-SP5-12.5-0’ is up to date.
Repository ‘SLES12-SP5-Pool’ is up to date.
Repository ‘SLES12-SP5-Updates’ is up to date.
All repositories have been refreshed.

Executing ‘zypper --no-refresh patch-check --updatestack-only’

Loading repository data…
Reading installed packages…

Considering 0 out of 456 applicable patches:
0 patches needed (0 security patches)

No migration available.

@“whcao@eta.com” Hi, looks like you have to do an offline upgrade from the media to get from 12 SP5 to 15 SP2…
https://documentation.suse.com/sles/15-SP2/html/SLES-all/cha-upgrade-paths.html#sec-upgrade-paths-supported

Dear malcolmlewis,
It’s boot from the DVD in tftpboot through PXE. I tried boot from DVD rom, it’s the same. Please help.

I was tring to upgrade SLES12 SP5 to SLES15 GA not SP2.
There were two warnings:




Anything I can do with SUSEConnect ?

server30:~ # SUSEConnect --list-extensions
AVAILABLE EXTENSIONS AND MODULES

Advanced Systems Management Module 12 x86_64
Activate with: SUSEConnect -p sle-module-adv-systems-management/12/x86_64

Containers Module 12 x86_64
Activate with: SUSEConnect -p sle-module-containers/12/x86_64

HPC Module 12 x86_64
Activate with: SUSEConnect -p sle-module-hpc/12/x86_64

Legacy Module 12 x86_64
Activate with: SUSEConnect -p sle-module-legacy/12/x86_64

Public Cloud Module 12 x86_64
Activate with: SUSEConnect -p sle-module-public-cloud/12/x86_64

SUSE Cloud Application Platform Tools Module 12 x86_64
Activate with: SUSEConnect -p sle-module-cap-tools/12/x86_64

SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension 12 SP5 x86_64
Activate with: SUSEConnect -p sle-ha/12.5/x86_64 -r ADDITIONAL REGCODE

    SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability GEO Extension 12 SP5 x86_64
    Activate with: SUSEConnect -p sle-ha-geo/12.5/x86_64 -r ADDITIONAL REGCODE

SUSE Linux Enterprise Live Patching 12 SP5 x86_64
Activate with: SUSEConnect -p sle-live-patching/12.5/x86_64 -r ADDITIONAL REGCODE

SUSE Linux Enterprise Point of Service Image Server 12 SP2 x86_64
Activate with: SUSEConnect -p sle-pos/12.2/x86_64 -r ADDITIONAL REGCODE

SUSE Linux Enterprise Real Time 12 SP5 x86_64
Activate with: SUSEConnect -p SUSE-Linux-Enterprise-RT/12.5/x86_64 -r ADDITIONAL REGCODE

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server BCL 12 SP5 x86_64
Activate with: SUSEConnect -p SLES-BCL/12.5/x86_64 -r ADDITIONAL REGCODE

SUSE Linux Enterprise Software Development Kit 12 SP5 x86_64
Activate with: SUSEConnect -p sle-sdk/12.5/x86_64

SUSE Linux Enterprise Workstation Extension 12 SP5 x86_64
Activate with: SUSEConnect -p sle-we/12.5/x86_64 -r ADDITIONAL REGCODE

SUSE Package Hub 12 SP5 x86_64
Activate with: SUSEConnect -p PackageHub/12.5/x86_64

Toolchain Module 12 x86_64
Activate with: SUSEConnect -p sle-module-toolchain/12/x86_64

Web and Scripting Module 12 x86_64
Activate with: SUSEConnect -p sle-module-web-scripting/12/x86_64

REMARKS

(Not available) The module/extension is not enabled on your RMT/SMT
(Activated) The module/extension is activated on your system

MORE INFORMATION

You can find more information about available modules here:
https://www.suse.com/documentation/sles-15/singlehtml/art_modules/art_modules.html

@“whcao@eta.com” Hi, there is no upgrade path to SLE 15, only from SLE 12 SP3 as per the diagram :frowning:

Thanks. I’ll try upgrade to SLES12 SP3 then SLES15.

There is no way upgrade back from SLES12.5 to SLES12.3.

@“whcao@eta.com” Hi, any reason you can’t move to SLE 15 SP2?

Because there is no upgrade path to SLE 15, only from SLE 12 SP3 as per the diagram.
So, I used backup of SLES11.1 to upgrade to SLES12.3. After upgrade, it can not boot to SLES12.3. To upgrade to SLES15.2, SLES15.2 installer need SLES12.3 to first run something after upgraded. Or SLES15.2 recorgnized the partition as SLES11.1. Then SLES15.2 said it cannot upgrade from SLES11.1.
Looks like upgraded SLES12.3 did not change grub. But the machine always use the grub from SLES11.1 to boot.
How to disable grub and let SLES12.3 use only grub2 when boot? I renamed the folder name /boot/grub to /boot/grub.bak. The machine gave the error 15 when boot. Looks like SLES12.3 did not update MBR bootloader.
There must be something new from SLES11 to SLES12. Please help. Thanks.

@“whcao@eta.com” Hi, can you boot the system in rescue mode?

The upgrade path from SLES11.1 to SLES15.2 is: SLES11.1–>SLES11.4–>SLES12.3–>SLES15–SLES15.2. I upgraded a subnode which works without raid.
My server is hp proliant DL380 G7 which use Smart Array P410i and subnodes is DL160 which use Smart array B110i both need driver for SLES15.2.

@“whcao@eta.com” Hi, the P410i is supported via the hpsa kernel module, for the B110i seems folks set AHCI mode in the BIOS and use software RAID.

@malcolmlewis. Thank you for the information.