The end of the road for CentOS 6: how to upgrade?

Since 1 December 2020, CentOS 6 has no longer received any maintenance updates. While many CentOS 6 servers have been replaced by CentOS 7 servers, some are still in service. Why should you upgrade? How do you move to a more recent system? Read on to find out.

Update of 15 May 2024: Debian is now the system we install – see our article Goodbye AlmaLinux, hello Debian!.
Update of 9 March 2023: AlmaLinux 8 is the successor to CentOS 7 – see our article Goodbye CentOS, hello AlmaLinux!

Where things stand

After 9 years of loyal service (2011 – 2020), CentOS 6 is bowing out. The system is now officially obsolete and will no longer receive any software updates, including security updates.

Servers will not stop working overnight, but this is an excellent opportunity to upgrade your machine and once again enjoy a high level of security and the latest features. HaiSoft managed services, your long-standing partner, can guide you through this transition.

Which successor?

CentOS 7, its successor, will be supported until 30 June 2024.

This is the recommended replacement distribution because, although CentOS 8 has indeed been released, its support will end on 31 December 2021, and its continuation, called "CentOS Stream 8", is due to end on 31 May 2024. Either way, CentOS 8 will be discontinued earlier than CentOS 7.

The future of CentOS is uncertain, and we currently have 3 years to see what becomes of this OS and, if necessary, choose a replacement operating system. We are carefully examining the options, as well as the new Red Hat derivatives, in order to make the best choice.

AlmaLinux 8, for its part, is supported until 1 March 2029.
This is the distribution we currently install and recommend. (AlmaLinux 9 is "in the pipeline" 😉)

What's new in CentOS 7

CentOS 7 comes with many very interesting software improvements, in terms of performance and features as well as security. Among the most notable:

• Support for Plesk Obsidian 18.0.32 and later (CentOS 6 will be stuck at 18.0.31)
• Move to Apache 2.4
• Support for PHP up to PHP 8.2 to date (CentOS 6 is stuck at PHP 7.3)
• Support for PHP-FPM for better management of PHP script execution processes
• Support for TLS 1.2
• Support for SNI certificates on the mail server (each domain can have its own certificate, which simplifies client configuration and server-to-server migrations)
• Support for MariaDB 10.5 (and later versions over the next 3 years) for a significant performance gain over MySQL

What's new in AlmaLinux 8

• Support for Plesk Obsidian 18.0.35 and later
• Move to Apache 2.4
• Support for PHP up to PHP 8.3 to date
• Obsolete PHP versions dropped (PHP versions older than PHP 5.6 are not available)
• Support for dedicated PHP-FPM processes
• Support for TLS 1.3
• Support for SNI certificates on the mail server (each domain can have its own certificate, which simplifies client configuration and server-to-server migrations)
• Support for MariaDB 10.11 to date, for a significant performance gain over MySQL

Tempting, isn't it?

How do you move to a more recent system?

There is no upgrade path from CentOS 6 to a more recent operating system.
So how is it done?

We install a new server running Debian and migrate your data to it!
Each situation is assessed on a case-by-case basis to keep any downtime to an absolute minimum and make sure your projects remain fully compatible.

As well as moving to a more recent system, you could take the opportunity to look at your hardware, which is also evolving rapidly! You could then switch to the new HaiSoft managed server plans, with full SSD storage and more RAM – enough to deliver impressive speed gains in some cases.

So, ready to take the plunge? If you have not yet discussed it with your HaiSoft technical team, feel free to contact us by phone or by support ticket from your customer area.