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How to Convert from CentOS 8 to AlmaLinux OS

Last modified: March 21, 2023

Overview

This document explains how to convert a CentOS 8 server to an AlmaLinux OS server. AlmaLinux OS is the CloudLinux™ fork of Red Hat® Enterprise Linux®.

Important:

CentOS 8 reached End-of-Life (EOL) on December 31, 2021. For more information about our EOL policies, read our Third Party Software End of Life Policy and cPanel Migration Services and Guides documentation.

Convert your server to AlmaLinux OS

To convert your CentOS 8 server to use the AlmaLinux operating system, perform the following steps as the root user:

  1. Ensure that the server has the latest packages available:
1
2

dnf clean all
dnf -y update

  1. Reboot the server to make sure it boots the latest kernel: 

    reboot

  2. Download the almalinux-deploy script to your server: 

    curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/AlmaLinux/almalinux-deploy/master/almalinux-deploy.sh

  3. Run the following command to convert your server to the AlmaLinux OS operating system: 

    bash almalinux-deploy.sh
    When the process is complete, check the output for any errors. The output may resemble the following example: 
    Complete!
Run dnf distro-sync -y OK
Restoring of alternatives is done OK
Generating grub configuration file …
done
All Secure Boot related packages which were released by not AlmaLinux are reinstalled OK
Migration to AlmaLinux is completed

  4. Run the following command to verify that the installation is complete: 

    cat /etc/redhat-release
    Your results should resemble the following example: 
    AlmaLinux release 8.4 (Electric Cheetah)

  5. Run the following command to verify that the system boots the AlmaLinux OS kernel by default: 

    sudo grubby –info DEFAULT | grep AlmaLinux
    Your results should resemble the following example: 
    title="AlmaLinux (4.18.0-305.el8.x86_64) 8.4"

For more information about the conversion script, read the information in the AlmaLinux GitHub repository.

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