Elevate CentOS 7 to AlmaLinux 9: A CyberPanel Guide

Walkthrough

This walkthrough is based on the following tutorial: https://wiki.almalinux.org/elevate/ELevating-CentOS7-to-AlmaLinux-9.html#migrating-almalinux-8-to-almalinux-9

• This is not a one size fits all tutorial.
• This walkthrough is based on a Full working installation of CentOS 7 with GUI running CyberPanel and also from elevating a working CentOS 7 minimal Testing Server.
• You will have to manage your conflicts individually as each system varies but we will guide you to most possible conflicts
• Although This walkthrough does not remove any website data, it is YOUR priority to make sure that you do have onsite and offsite backups in case.

Centos 7

Notes (Please Read)

• CRITICAL – AlmaLinux 9 supports php7.4 and up only so make sure you do not have any websites on lower versions or set them up on a docker image.
• CRITICAL – pure-ftpd no longer works out of the box since it’s updated to 1.0.51. Pureftpd removed MD5 password support in 1.0.50 (This would have been fixed since my walkthrough)
• Follow my tutorial to get php56, 70, 71, 72, 73: https://sajetekengineering.com/blog-article/run-php-5-6-on-cyberpanel/
• Set up all sites running any of the php above on docker before elevating because once you elevate, those sites will go down.
• CRITICAL – It is important to follow the steps in order
• This tutorial assumes you are the root user (sudo added for sudoers)

Begin Preperation and Backups

CRITICAL – backup lsws configs
You will need to restore this after the upgrade since through the elevation process, openlitespeed is removed and reinstalling will overwrite your main configuration and your sites won’t load.

sudo zip -r /root/lsws_config.zip /usr/local/lsws/conf

Also backup these files, you can restore these after but make sure to review first (before restore) because packages will be updated and some may carry different configurations.

Clean up residual files which are downloaded when compiling php.

sudo rm -rf /usr/local/lsws/phpbuild/*.tgz
sudo rm -rf /usr/local/lsws/phpbuild/*.tar.gz
sudo find /usr/local/lsws/phpbuild/ -mindepth 1 -type d -exec rm -rf {} +

Now Backup

sudo zip -r /el7-system_files.zip /etc/ /usr/local/lsws/

Backup all websites just in case
Backup all databases just in case
Every upgrade removes mariadb but the db files do remain, backups are always a precaution

BEGIN STEPS TO ELEVATE

We will remove the CentOS 7 repo as this is moved to archive and will replace it with the archived version so the repo works.

sudo mv /etc/yum.repos.d/CentOS-Base.repo /etc/yum.repos.d/CentOS-Base.repo.bak
sudo wget -q -O /etc/yum.repos.d/CentOS-Base.repo https://sajetekengineering.com/wp-content/uploads/cyberpanel/CentOS-7-Base.repo

sudo yum update -y
sudo reboot

Download packages and prepare for elevation

sudo yum install -y http://repo.almalinux.org/elevate/elevate-release-latest-el$(rpm --eval %rhel).noarch.rpm
sudo yum install -y leapp-upgrade leapp-data-almalinux
sudo leapp preupgrade

Read /var/log/leapp/leapp-report.txt for fixes
Focus on inhibitors only as these are required to proceed
Common fixes are as follows but make sure to review yours for inhibitors

sudo rmmod pata_acpi
sudo echo PermitRootLogin yes | sudo tee -a /etc/ssh/sshd_config
sudo leapp answer --section remove_pam_pkcs11_module_check.confirm=True

For any NFS mounted, simply comment out any NFS mounts in /etc/fstab and temporarily disable nfs-server, stop the nfs-server and reboot then rerun the preupgrade.

A reboot is necessary.

sudo service nfs-server stop
sudo systemctl disable nfs-server
sudo reboot

If your leapp upgrade fails due to “Failed to create directory /var/lib/leapp/el8userspace//sys/fs/selinux: Read-only file system” See the fix HERE.

If leap upgrade fails, check /var/log/leapp/leap-upgrade.log for “Error: Transaction test error:” near the bottom of the file for conflicting packages and remove them
make sure to keep track of packages you remove

CRITICAL – Based off of This Solution

We will list the configuration file.

ls /etc/ld.so.conf.d/

For each .conf file in the list, e.g. /etc/ld.so.conf.d/custom-libs.conf show the contents by command “cat /etc/ld.so.conf.d/custom-libs.conf “
Any file that has a path not in “/usr/{lib64,lib}/” e.g. /usr/local/lib64 etc move the .conf file to a backup location
e.g.
mkdir /root/ld-backup
mv /etc/ld.so.conf.d/custom-libs.conf /root/ld-backup

Change custom-libs.conf to the name of each file that contains library location outside of “/usr/{lib64,lib}/“

ldconfig

Now check to make sure the library does not contain any custom library paths like “/usr/local/lib64“

ldconfig -p -N -X | grep "/usr/local/lib64"

Once You confirm there are no custom library locations, you are free to proceed or your system may hang at reboot.

Once your preupgrade has no more inhibitors, then proceed

sudo leapp upgrade 
sudo reboot

(This will take some time as your server will be upgrading packages in the background but it will not be accessible)
You can monitor if you have access to a KVM
Time is dependent on Server’s power.

AlmaLinux 8

Check OS version

sudo cat /etc/os-release

Run the following to fix Python

alternatives --set python /usr/bin/python3 
sudo yum -y install python3-devel

Remove the following packages

sudo yum remove -y "lsphp*" python2-leapp make-devel

Run the below command to modify /etc/yum.conf and /etc/dnf/dnf.conf to remove everything from the exclude line especially that refers to elevate or leapp.

sudo sed -i -E "s/exclude=.*/exclude=/g" /etc/yum.conf /etc/dnf/dnf.conf

List all the packages from Centos repos. You will need to remove for now and reinstall the updated packages later on

sudo rpm -qa | grep el7 > /root/Almalinux8_el7_packages.txt

The command below will remove all packages listed from the above command. The list is backed up to /root/Almalinux8_e17_packages.txt

sudo rpm -qa | grep el7 | xargs
sudo dnf remove -y

Run the following 2 commands which will list some packages. You will need to remove those packages.

rpm -qa | grep elevate rpm -qa | grep leapp

Remove previous leapp clutter and cleanup

sudo rm -fr /root/tmp_leapp_py3 
sudo dnf clean all

List CentOS 7 Keys to be removed

sudo rpm -q gpg-pubkey --qf '%{NAME}-%{VERSION}-%{RELEASE}\t%{SUMMARY}\n'

The command below will remove all the keys listed above.

sudo rpm -q gpg-pubkey --qf '%{NAME}-%{VERSION}-%{RELEASE}\n' | xargs -I {}
sudo rpm -e {}

sudo yum update -y 
sudo reboot

BEGIN STEPS TO ELEVATE

sudo yum install -y http://repo.almalinux.org/elevate/elevate-release-latest-el$(rpm --eval %rhel).noarch.rpm 
sudo yum install -y leapp-upgrade leapp-data-almalinux
sudo reboot

sudo leapp preupgrade

There should be errors so check /var/log/leapp/leapp-report.txt

If you encounter packages that cannot be removed but is required to be removed to upgrade:

Set crypto policies to legacy temporarily. Read More

update-crypto-policies --set LEGACY

To switch back after upgrade to AlmaLinux 9: update-crypto-policies --set DEFAULT

Remove the problematic packages in inhibitors – make sure to backup the list for future reference
Command added below from my run but make sure to check your leapp report for accuracy: /var/log/leapp/leapp-report.txt

sudo yum -y remove libipt lux-release plocate giflib ppp network-scripts-ppp libpipeline socat
sudo sed -i "s/^AllowZoneDrifting=.*/AllowZoneDrifting=no/" /etc/firewalld/firewalld.conf 
sudo leapp answer --section check_vdo.no_vdo_devices=True

You might also find the following issue in the leapp-report file that can interfere with the upgrade. Consider removing the file:

Network configuration for unsupported device types detected
Summary: RHEL 9 does not support the legacy network-scripts package that was deprecated in RHEL 8 in favor of NetworkManager. Files for device types that are not supported by NetworkManager are present in the system. Files with the problematic configuration:
– /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0

If needs be, backup and remove the above file.

sudo reboot
sudo leapp preupgrade

Read /var/log/leapp/leapp-report.txt for fixes
Focus on inhibitors as done before then rerun preupgrade

sudo dnf clean all

If leap upgrade fails, check /var/log/leapp/leap-upgrade.log for “Error: Transaction test error:” near the bottom of the file for conflicting packages and remove them
Make sure to keep track of packages you remove

sudo leapp upgrade
sudo reboot

AlmaLinux 9

Backup some repos, remove incompatible packages, update and reboot.

sudo mv /etc/yum.repos.d/powerdns-auth-43.repo /etc/yum.repos.d/powerdns-auth-43.repo.bak
sudo mv /etc/yum.repos.d/MariaDB.repo /etc/yum.repos.d/MariaDB.repo.bak
sudo dnf remove -y libzip-devel nss_db qemu-kvm-common libtirpc-devel
sudo dnf -y update
sudo reboot

Install mariadb – Source

sudo curl -sS https://downloads.mariadb.com/MariaDB/mariadb_repo_setup | sudo bash
sudo yum -y install MariaDB-server MariaDB-client 
systemctl enable mariadb service mariadb start
sudo mariadb-upgrade

To fix libpython3.6m.so.1.0 error in Cyberpanel, we port the CyberPanel directory from an AlmaLinux system so we don’t have to recreate symlinks. AlmaLinux 9 uses python 3.9 but AlmaLinux 8 uses python 3.6

pip install --upgrade pip
sudo wget -q -O /root/CyberPanel-Al9-symlinks.zip "https://sajetekengineering.com/wp-content/uploads/cyberpanel/CyberPanel-Al9-symlinks.zip"
sudo mv /usr/local/CyberPanel /usr/local/CyberPanel.bak; mv /usr/local/CyberCP/bin /usr/local/CyberCP/bin.bak; mv /usr/local/CyberCP/lib /usr/local/CyberCP/lib.bak; mv /usr/local/CyberCP/include /usr/local/CyberCP/include.bak; unzip /root/CyberPanel-Al9-symlinks.zip -d /; rm -f /root/CyberPanel-Al9-symlinks.zip
sudo find /usr/local/CyberCP/ -type d -name __pycache__ -exec rm -r {} \+;

Upgrade cyberpanel as root user

sh <(curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/usmannasir/cyberpanel/stable/preUpgrade.sh || wget -O - https://raw.githubusercontent.com/usmannasir/cyberpanel/stable/preUpgrade.sh)

Upgrade cyberpanel as sudo user

sudo su – -c “sh <(curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/usmannasir/cyberpanel/stable/preUpgrade.sh || wget -O – https://raw.githubusercontent.com/usmannasir/cyberpanel/stable/preUpgrade.sh)”

If you run into an error “ModuleNotFoundError: No module named ‘sleep'”
sudo sed -i ‘s/import sleep/from time import sleep/g’ /root/cyberpanel_upgrade_tmp/upgrade.py
sudo chattr +i /root/cyberpanel_upgrade_tmp/upgrade.py
#rerun upgrade script

sudo chattr -i /root/cyberpanel_upgrade_tmp/upgrade.py
sudo rm -rf /root/cyberpanel_upgrade_tmp

Upgrade openlitespeed

sudo /usr/local/lsws/admin/misc/lsup.sh -v 1.8.2

Restore the backup we made before elevating

sudo unzip -o /root/lsws_config.zip -d /
sudo chown -R lsadm:lsadm /usr/local/lsws/conf
sudo service lsws restart

Install litespeed repo

sudo rpm -Uvh http://rpms.litespeedtech.com/centos/litespeed-repo-1.1-1.el8.noarch.rpm
sudo rpm -i https://rpmfind.net/linux/remi/enterprise/9/remi/x86_64/oniguruma5php-6.9.9-1.el9.remi.x86_64.rpm
sudo dnf install https://rpms.remirepo.net/enterprise/remi-release-9.rpm
sudo dnf clean packages

Reinstall lsphp and it’s extensions – AlmaLinux 9 Supports php74 upwards
You can review /root/Almalinux8_e17_packages.txt to see what packages were installed or use my install commands below

sudo dnf -y install lsphp74 lsphp74-bcmath lsphp74-common lsphp74-dba lsphp74-devel lsphp74-enchant lsphp74-gd lsphp74-gmp lsphp74-imap lsphp74-intl lsphp74-json lsphp74-ldap lsphp74-mbstring lsphp74-mysqlnd lsphp74-odbc lsphp74-opcache lsphp74-pdo lsphp74-pear lsphp74-pecl-igbinary lsphp74-pecl-mcrypt lsphp74-pecl-memcached lsphp74-pecl-msgpack lsphp74-pecl-redis lsphp74-pgsql lsphp74-process lsphp74-pspell lsphp74-snmp lsphp74-soap lsphp74-sodium lsphp74-tidy lsphp74-xml lsphp74-xmlrpc --skip-broken

sudo dnf -y install lsphp80 lsphp80-bcmath lsphp80-common lsphp80-dba lsphp80-devel lsphp80-enchant lsphp80-gd lsphp80-gmp lsphp80-imap lsphp80-intl lsphp80-json lsphp80-ldap lsphp80-mbstring lsphp80-mysqlnd lsphp80-odbc lsphp80-opcache lsphp80-pdo lsphp80-pear lsphp80-pecl-igbinary lsphp80-pecl-mcrypt lsphp80-pecl-memcached lsphp80-pecl-msgpack lsphp80-pecl-redis lsphp80-pgsql lsphp80-process lsphp80-pspell lsphp80-snmp lsphp80-soap lsphp80-sodium lsphp80-tidy lsphp80-xml lsphp80-xmlrpc --skip-broken

sudo dnf -y install lsphp81 lsphp81-bcmath lsphp81-common lsphp81-dba lsphp81-devel lsphp81-enchant lsphp81-gd lsphp81-gmp lsphp81-imap lsphp81-intl lsphp81-json lsphp81-ldap lsphp81-mbstring lsphp81-mysqlnd lsphp81-odbc lsphp81-opcache lsphp81-pdo lsphp81-pear lsphp81-pecl-igbinary lsphp81-pecl-mcrypt lsphp81-pecl-memcached lsphp81-pecl-msgpack lsphp81-pecl-redis lsphp81-pgsql lsphp81-process lsphp81-pspell lsphp81-snmp lsphp81-soap lsphp81-sodium lsphp81-tidy lsphp81-xml lsphp81-xmlrpc --skip-broken

sudo dnf -y install lsphp82 lsphp82-bcmath lsphp82-common lsphp82-dba lsphp82-devel lsphp82-enchant lsphp82-gd lsphp82-gmp lsphp82-imap lsphp82-intl lsphp82-json lsphp82-ldap lsphp82-mbstring lsphp82-mysqlnd lsphp82-odbc lsphp82-opcache lsphp82-pdo lsphp82-pear lsphp82-pecl-igbinary lsphp82-pecl-mcrypt lsphp82-pecl-memcached lsphp82-pecl-msgpack lsphp82-pecl-redis lsphp82-pgsql lsphp82-process lsphp82-pspell lsphp82-snmp lsphp82-soap lsphp82-sodium lsphp82-tidy lsphp82-xml lsphp82-xmlrpc --skip-broken

sudo dnf -y install lsphp83 lsphp83-bcmath lsphp83-common lsphp83-dba lsphp83-devel lsphp83-enchant lsphp83-gd lsphp83-gmp lsphp83-imap lsphp83-intl lsphp83-json lsphp83-ldap lsphp83-mbstring lsphp83-mysqlnd lsphp83-odbc lsphp83-opcache lsphp83-pdo lsphp83-pear lsphp83-pecl-igbinary lsphp83-pecl-mcrypt lsphp83-pecl-memcached lsphp83-pecl-msgpack lsphp83-pecl-redis lsphp83-pgsql lsphp83-process lsphp83-pspell lsphp83-snmp lsphp83-soap lsphp83-sodium lsphp83-tidy lsphp83-xml lsphp83-xmlrpc --skip-broken

Backup the same configuration files we backed up before elevation. This is to have a backup of the AlmaLinux 9 configs for comparison

sudo zip -r /root/el9-system_files.zip /etc/exports /etc/my.cnf /etc/hosts /etc/fstab /etc/dovecot /etc/postfix /etc/pure-ftpd /var/spool/cron /etc/ssmtp /etc/yum.conf /etc/csf /root/ /etc/nagios /etc/snmp /etc/ssh /etc/sudoers /etc/msmtprc

Review and restore configuration files backup up in /el7-system_files.zip manually or as needed.

You may need to restore php configuration files. These are also backed up in /el7-system_files.zip where they are stored in /usr/local/lsws/lsphpx where “x” represents one of the versions.

Finally re-enable crypto policies if it was disabled

sudo update-crypto-policies --set DEFAULT
sudo reboot

Enjoy CyberPanel on your Elevated AlmaLinux 9