How to Upgrade CentOS to CentOS 8 Stream

18.05.2022

21.06.2022

Fozzy

In order to upgrade to CentOS 8 Stream, you need to access your VPS via SSH. All the commands should be executed in CLI. The upgrade process will take less than 15 minutes. Please execute commands from this guide one by one (don’t copy the $ symbol). Please make sure that the previous command has succeeded before executing the next one. The full video guide can be found at the end of this instruction.

Preparation

Make a backup of all important files before upgrading. If you need help, contact our support team – we’ll make a backup for you.
Start by checking the current OS version:
```
$ cat /etc/centos-release
```
You’ll see an output that should look like this: CentOS Linux release 8.0.1905 (Core)

Installation

Install the CentOS Stream repository:
```
$ dnf install centos-release-stream
```

Wait until the system loads the package list and asks for confirmation. Confirm the updating by typing “y”:

Transaction Summary
==========================
Install 4 Packages

Total download size: 64k
Is this ok [y/N]:y

Wait until all the packages are downloaded.

Set the new repository as default:

$ dnf swap centos-{linux,stream}-repos

Wait until the system loads the package list and asks for confirmation. Confirm the updating by typing “y”:

Transaction Summary
==========================
Install 2 Packages
Remove 1 Packages

Total download size: 42k
Is this ok [y/N]:y

Wait until all the packages are installed.

Synchronization

Run the synchronization with the new repository:
```
$ dnf distro-sync
```

Wait until the system loads the packages list and confirm the installation by typing “y”:

Transaction Summary
==========================
Install 21 Packages
Upgrade 294 Packages

Total download size: 429M
Is this ok [y/N]:y

To make sure that the update was successful, run the check OS version command again:
```
$ cat /etc/release
```
The output should look like this: CentOS Stream release 8