Documentation - Documentation for BMC Discovery OS upgrades

The software on a BMC Discovery appliance, whether a downloaded virtual appliance or a kickstarted hardware appliance, consists of the operating system (OS) and the BMC Discovery application software. You can upgrade the OS using an OS upgrade (OSU) package. When the BMC Discovery application software is upgraded, that upgrade includes the latest OS upgrade at the time of its release.

The OSU documentation contains the following topics:

CentOS 7 in new installations of BMC Discovery 11.3

New installations of BMC Discovery 11.3 run on CentOS 7. The upgrade to BMC Discovery 11.3 from 11.1 and earlier versions replace Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 6 with CentOS 6.

The replacement of earlier OS versions with CentOS 7 ensures continued support for the appliance OS during its lifetime and provides support for newer hardware where you choose to install on hardware. It also provides SMB 2 support, and the ability to run Apache 2.4.

CentOS is an enterprise-class Linux platform that is derived from and aims to be functionally compatible with its upstream source, RHEL. This compatibility enables BMC to perform the same CentOS testing against the Red Hat 6 and 7 STIGs.

When applying OS upgrades to BMC Discovery 11.3, ensure that you download and apply the correct CentOS operating system upgrade.

RHEL 7 in new installations of BMC Discovery 11.3 and 20.02 (12.0)

New installations of BMC Discovery 11.3 patch 6 and later, and BMC Discovery 20.02 (12.0) patch 2 and later are also available on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 (RHEL 7). The RHEL 7 release is a separately licensed product intended for customers whose organizations require particular certifications available with RHEL 7, such as Common Criteria Security Certification. The release on RHEL 7 is functionally identical to those running on CentOS 7.

No upgrade path from BMC Discovery on CentOS 7 to RHEL 7

You cannot upgrade an appliance running on CentOS 7 to an appliance running on RHEL 7; rather, you must perform a new installation and then migrate your data. See the Upgrading in the 11.3 and 20.02 (12.0) documentation for more information on upgrade/migration paths

The replacement of earlier OS versions with RHEL 7 ensures continued support for the appliance OS during its lifetime and provides support for newer hardware where you choose to install on hardware. It also provides SMB 2 support, and the ability to run Apache 2.4.

When applying OS upgrades to BMC Discovery 11.3, ensure that you download and apply the correct RHEL operating system upgrade.

CentOS 6 replaces Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 in BMC Discovery 11.2

The upgrade to BMC Discovery 11.2 replaces Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 with CentOS 6. CentOS is an enterprise-class Linux platform, which is derived from and aims to be functionally compatible with its upstream source, Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL).

As CentOS is derived from and aims to be functionally compatible with its upstream source, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, BMC performs the same testing against the Red Hat 6 STIGs.

When applying OS upgrades to BMC Discovery 11.2, ensure that you download and apply the Latest CentOS 6 operating system upgrade.

When to upgrade?

Red Hat releases bug fixes and security updates to Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) frequently, and CentOS subsequently incorporates these updates. Each month BMC creates OS upgrades containing the subset of RHEL and CentOS packages applicable to BMC Discovery.

It is anticipated that most customers will not consider it necessary to upgrade the OS on their appliance every time BMC releases an OS upgrade package, however, each customer needs to determine their own patching and upgrade policy. In order to assist with this assessment, BMC will highlight any patches to serious defects or security vulnerabilities that affect BMC Discovery when announcing its availability to customers with a support contract.

OS upgrades are cumulative, that is, when you install the latest upgrade package, all packages are upgraded to the current version. You do not need to apply any previous upgrade before applying the latest.

The preferred method of upgrading the operating system, in standalone or clustered systems, is to use the upgrade UI. If you do choose to use the script described in upgrading the operating system, only the local machine is updated (not the cluster) and it is not rebooted automatically.

Latest operating system upgrade

Based on the RHEL versions that support BMC Discovery, the following OS upgrades are available:

CentOS 7 OS upgrade: Supports appliances with new installations of BMC Discovery 11.3 and contains the latest applicable CentOS 7 packages.
CentOS 6 OS upgrade: Supports version 11.2, and appliances running BMC Discovery 11.3 that have been upgraded from earlier versions. The upgrade contains the latest applicable CentOS 6 packages.
RHEL 7 OS upgrade: Supports BMC Discovery new installations of version 11.3 patch 6 and later, and BMC Discovery 20.02 (12.0) patch 2.
11.3 patch 6 and later on RHEL 7. Contains the latest applicable RHEL 7 packages. (Support for BMC Discovery running on RHEL 7 was introduced with BMC Discovery 11.3 patch 6, and BMC Discovery 20.02 (12.0) patch 2.)
RHEL 6 OS upgrade: Supports the newly installed version 9.0 and later appliances and contains the latest applicable RHEL 6 packages.

To learn about the content of the latest RHEL 6 and 7 OS upgrades, packages that have been updated since the previous OS upgrade, and the latest OS upgrade file names, see the following documentation:

If you want to learn about the content of the previous OS upgrades, from the Previous operating system upgrades page, select the link for the corresponding period.

CentOS packages included in RHEL 6 OS upgrades

From the September 2017 OS upgrade, equivalent CentOS packages are included in the RHEL OS upgrade. This ensures that when BMC Discovery systems that have had OS upgrades applied are upgraded to a release running on CentOS, parked packages are available to ensure that the upgrade does not revert the OSU level current at the time of the product release.