red hat 7.3 kernel e glibc compatibility

[supportadl]

Hi at all. I need an information. I have a server running Reh Hat Linux 7.3 with kernel 2.4.18. Can i upgrade kernel to version 2.6 and glibc to version 2.5? Thanks.

[Rubberman]

Not without updating just about everything else on the system... This is a MAJOR upgrade of the OS, and all the system applications and libraries, drivers, etc. will have to be updated as well. In addition, all custom applications will need to be recompiled and relinked, though strictly statically linked applications (ones that don't use any shared libraries) might not need to be, but there are no guarantees of that as some system calls may have changed in their interfaces to the kernel.

[oz]

RH 7.3 came out in May, 2002, and being so old has been long unsupported, so I'd recommend a fresh install using a later version of Red Hat or some other distribution.

[supportadl]

thanks to all. So you mean not upgrade red hat, but format the server and install a new version of it?

[Irithori]

Hi.

redhat 7.3 is not old, it is ancient.
There is almost no way of updating it to kernel 2.6.
And before you ask: that "almost" implies masochistic time consumption and effort.

My advise would be
- review the hardware, if it can take a modern distribution
- save your config
- save your data
- reinstall with a modern distribution of your choice

[Rubberman]

Also, you probably want to do this (upgrade/reinstall) on a test-bed system first so you can determine what you need to do to get your applications running properly, otherwise your server is likely to be down for a very long time (weeks or months). This process requires careful study and planning, and rigorous implementation processes to be successful. So, get a new server that will meet your needs, install the OS of choice on it, install the add-ons and applications you need, migrate your current data set, test your applications thoroughly, all while your current server continues to fulfill its purpose. At that point, you are ready to migrate the current data from your server to the new system and run final systems checks, etc. Do this when you have made the system unavailable to users, otherwise there will be additional data updates to do.

One final consideration is that if you have Windows clients, you need to be sure that you don't need to update those as well... Make sure that client-side application interfaces are part of your testing scenarios.

[supportadl]

Thanks a lot to all. Now i know that i need a new server with a new linux distribution. What kind of distribution do you suggest me? The last RHEL distribution? Have a nice weekend.