Migrate Centos 8.3 and Virtualmin to AlmaLinux

Operating system: CentOS
OS version: 8.3

So I’ve seen the hoo-ha regarding Centos EOL’ing V8. I’ll leave ranting aside here but the net result is I’m considering migrating to AlmaLinux. I’ve read some of the other reports here and other forums and it seems pretty reliable.

I’ve setup a test box with Centos8 and Virtualmin GPL and installed most additional software I usually run - mainly remi repos for multiple newer php versions, and newer PG versions, nothing crazy. Its pretty close to my production setup but not exact.

Anyway I’ve run the AlmaLinux migration script and it appears to have worked flawlessly!

Before I leap off the cliff I just wondered if anybody else has gone this route yet and with what results? I’ll be grateful for any opinion and input.

Thanks

l.

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@RJM_Web_Design I believe did a whole bunch of testing on AlmaLinux Virtualmin install. There’s a thread he created on it you can find here.

I would guess if anybody is going to be able to help you, he can. I would read through that thread and since he’s been tagged here wait for him to show up and reply.

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I’ve tested AlmaLinux every way I could think of, and the way that seemed to work best was to install CentOS 8.3, install Virtualmin, install whatever other stuff I wanted to install, migrate the sites, and run the migration script. Doing it that way was flawless.

Other ways I tried were impersonating CentOS 8.3, hacking the Virtualmin install.sh script, and doing the AlmaLinux migration at various other points after installing Virtualmin. They all worked, sometimes with various farts and burps that needed to be stifled. But waiting until everything else was done was easiest and produced zero errors.

It’ll all be irrelevant soon as @Ilia and @Joe are working on native support in the installer. But it’s nice to know we have one solid replacement already. The AlmaLinux test box is still humming away nicely, with its chief complaint being boredom.

As an aside, Oracle Linux also works (although I didn’t test it as thoroughly). I also suspect that Rocky Linux will work. So we who still favor RHEL derivatives will have options.

Richard

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Thanks very much @Gomez_Adams and @RJM_Web_Design for replies.

Yea I read the other threads on here, but this confirms my own partial testing…

I’ll update the thread once its done.

Thanks

l.

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Complete!
Run dnf distro-sync -y OK

[root@centos8box]# cat /etc/redhat-release
AlmaLinux release 8.3 (Purple Manul)
[root@centos8box]# grubby --info DEFAULT | grep AlmaLinux
title=“AlmaLinux (4.18.0-240.15.1.el8_3.x86_64) 8.3 (Purple Manul)”

For the migration - I think the word flawless applies again! and the initial tests look like everything is working well.
Its great there’s a workable path out of this situation. Thanks are due to the AlmaLinux team and of course, as always - the guys here at Virtualmin!

Regards

l.

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