Overview
CentOS Linux 7 reached end of life (EOL) on June 30, 2024. This article will cover what that means, how you can prepare, and how Red Hat can help ease your migration.
What is CentOS Linux?
CentOS Linux is a freely available, community-supported Linux distribution that was developed, distributed, and maintained by the CentOS Project community contributors. It was derived from Red Hat® Enterprise Linux® sources and released in alignment with the Red Hat Enterprise Linux release cycle. CentOS Linux is not a product of Red Hat and does not have Red Hat support.
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Why is CentOS Linux going away?
In 2020, The CentOS Project, in coordination with Red Hat, announced that it would shift full investment to CentOS Stream, the upstream development platform for upcoming Red Hat Enterprise Linux releases. As a result, CentOS Linux updates and releases were discontinued between 2021 and 2024, finishing when CentOS Linux 7 reached EOL on June 30, 2024.
What does EOL mean?
End of life (EOL) occurs when a product or service is discontinued. Organizations that use the product will have to migrate to a new solution to continue receiving updates and security patches.
What does this mean for you?
If you are running CentOS Linux 7, you should migrate to a new operating system to continue receiving security updates, patches, and new features. If you remain on CentOS Linux, you’re at risk of exposing your organization to unpatched vulnerabilities and potential security breaches. While it may still be possible to find support for CentOS Linux from third parties, it would be a fork, and wholly separate from the CentOS Project, CentOS Stream, or Red Hat.
What are your migration options for moving to Red Hat Enterprise Linux?
Because CentOS Linux was derived from Red Hat Enterprise Linux sources, users migrating to Red Hat Enterprise Linux can continue to use many of the same techniques and elements with minimal training, while also gaining more features, tools, support, and value. To further assist in your migration planning and execution, the CentOS Linux migration assessment is available to evaluate your current CentOS Linux setup and provide for a smooth shift to Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Here are some options to ease your transition.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Third Party Linux Migration
Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Third Party Linux Migration is a new offering designed to assist users of CentOS Linux 7 to maintain business continuity after the EOL date. This competitively-priced offering includes a Red Hat Enterprise Linux subscription and tooling to convert in-place instances of CentOS Linux 7 to Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7. It makes Red Hat Enterprise Linux more accessible with a simplified conversion process that maintains existing customizations, configurations, and preferences on-premise or in the cloud.
For organizations that need more time past the CentOS Linux EOL date, this offering is also available with up to 4 years of extended lifecycle support for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 so you can maintain consistency in your environment until you’re ready to upgrade to a newer version.
Once you've migrated from CentOS Linux 7, make a plan to update your Red Hat Enterprise Linux systems, since Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 is reaching end of maintenance (EOM) on June 30, 2024.
Convert2RHEL for migrating to Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Convert2RHEL is a no-cost, fully supported migration tool that simplifies the migration process while maintaining existing customizations, configurations, and preferences.This command line utility converts RPM-based Linux operating systems to a fully supported Red Hat Enterprise Linux OS. It minimizes the need for costly redeployment projects and reduces the burden on system administrators by automatically identifying and replacing OS packages in CentOS Linux with RHEL equivalents. It’s an automated way to convert to Red Hat Enterprise Linux — instead of manually redeploying all your workloads.
Once you've migrated from CentOS Linux 7, you will then need to upgrade your Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 subscription. Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 reached its end of maintenance (EOM) on June 30, 2024. Upgrading to the latest versions of the operating system allows you to continue to take full advantage of everything the operating system has to offer.
If you’re not ready to upgrade, Extended Life Cycle Support (ELS) for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 provides up to 4 additional years of maintenance support for certain critical-impact security fixes, selected urgent priority bug fixes, and troubleshooting for the last minor release of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 (7.9) until June 30, 2028.
Migrating from CentOS Linux with Red Hat Insights
Organizations migrating to Red Hat Enterprise Linux now have a simpler way to convert using an online service. Find out how to get pre-conversion guidance specific to your environment with these step-by-step instructions.
Red Hat Developer Subscription for Teams
Red Hat Developer Subscription for Teams offers existing Red Hat customer organizations running Red Hat technologies in their production environments the opportunity to deploy Red Hat Enterprise Linux in their development environments at no extra cost. Red Hat Enterprise Linux gives developers easy access to a more reliable and security-focused operating system, allowing your organization to build and test applications on the same innovative and reliable platform used for your production workloads.
Red Hat Consulting
For large environments or organizations with limited resources, you can engage Red Hat Consulting to help accelerate your migration. Red Hat experts bring proven knowledge and experience to your migration project. We can help you identify and convert key applications and workloads, and we mentor and enable you to continue confidently afterward.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux in the cloud
Red Hat Enterprise Linux is certified for use and compatibility with hundreds of cloud providers, including AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud, so you can choose the best IT infrastructure options for your business.
Why choose Red Hat Enterprise Linux?
Red Hat Enterprise Linux naturally provides a similar user experience to CentOS Linux versions and requires little retraining for CentOS Linux users. Red Hat Enterprise Linux provides higher value and minimizes overall costs over time by providing a:
- Lower overall cost of ownership compared to non-paid Linux.
- Defined maintenance and update schedule.
- Global support team that is available 24x7.
- Ecosystem of certified partners.
- Collection of security resources.
- Host of management tools including Red Hat Insights.
- Consistent experience across the open hybrid cloud, including physical, virtual, private clouds, public clouds, and edge deployments.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux is the reliable replacement for CentOS Linux, providing consistency across footprints whether your organization is deploying new applications, moving existing applications from the datacenter to a cloud environment, or simply migrating off another Linux distribution.
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