# How to Migrate from CentOS 8 to Rocky Linux 8

> URL: https://www.atlantic.net/vps-hosting/how-to-migrate-from-centos-8-to-rocky-linux-8/ | Published: 2021-08-10 | Updated: 2023-11-18 | Author: Hitesh Jethva

As you may be aware, CentOS has announced they will be discontinuing support for CentOS 8 on December 31, 2021 and discontinuing future development of new CentOS versions that track RedHat upstream releases.

Luckily, a new community enterprise operating system called Rocky Linux from the founder of CentOS has been introduced.

With the release of Rocky Linux 8.4, you can now easily migrate your CentOS 8 server to a fully compatible operating system that will continue to be free and fully supported for the long term.

## Step 1 – Update CentOS 8 Packages

Before starting, you will need to update all CentOS 8 packages to the latest versions. You can update them with the following command:

```
dnf update -y
```

Once all the packages are updated, restart your system to apply the update.

```
reboot
```

Next, verify your current operating system version using the following command:

```
cat /etc/redhat-release
```

Output:

```
CentOS Linux release 8.4.2105
```

You can also verify it using the following command:

```
cat /etc/os-release
```

Output:

```
NAME="CentOS Linux"
VERSION="8"
ID="centos"
ID_LIKE="rhel fedora"
VERSION_ID="8"
PLATFORM_ID="platform:el8"
PRETTY_NAME="CentOS Linux 8"
ANSI_COLOR="0;31"
CPE_NAME="cpe:/o:centos:centos:8"
HOME_URL="https://centos.org/"
BUG_REPORT_URL="https://bugs.centos.org/"
CENTOS_MANTISBT_PROJECT="CentOS-8"
CENTOS_MANTISBT_PROJECT_VERSION="8"
```

## Step 2 – Upgrade CentOS 8 to Rocky Linux 8

Rocky Linux provides a migration script that helps you to convert an existing CentOS 8 system to Rocky Linux 8. You can download the **migrate2rocky** script from Rocky Linux’s Github repository using the following command:

```
wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/rocky-linux/rocky-tools/main/migrate2rocky/migrate2rocky.sh
```

Once the script is downloaded, set the execution permission with the following command:

```
chmod +x migrate2rocky.sh
```

Next, start the migration process using the following command:

```
bash migrate2rocky.sh  -r
```

Once the migration process has been completed, you should get the following output:

```
Complete!

Done, please reboot your system.
A log of this installation can be found at /var/log/migrate2rocky.log
```

Next, restart your system to apply the migration.

```
reboot
```

## Step 3 – Verify Rocky Linux 8 Migration

After restarting the system, you can verify whether CentOS 8 was migrated successfully to Rocky Linux 8.

You can check it with the following command:

```
cat /etc/redhat-release
```

You should get the following output:

```
Rocky Linux release 8.4 (Green Obsidian)
```

You can also check it with the following command:

```
cat /etc/os-release
```

Output:

```
NAME="Rocky Linux"
VERSION="8.4 (Green Obsidian)"
ID="rocky"
ID_LIKE="rhel fedora"
VERSION_ID="8.4"
PLATFORM_ID="platform:el8"
PRETTY_NAME="Rocky Linux 8.4 (Green Obsidian)"
ANSI_COLOR="0;32"
CPE_NAME="cpe:/o:rocky:rocky:8.4:GA"
HOME_URL="https://rockylinux.org/"
BUG_REPORT_URL="https://bugs.rockylinux.org/"
ROCKY_SUPPORT_PRODUCT="Rocky Linux"
ROCKY_SUPPORT_PRODUCT_VERSION="8"
```

## Conclusion

In this post, you learned how to migrate CentOS 8 to Rocky Linux 8. You can now start using the Rocky Linux 8.4. Try it on your CentOS 8 Atlantic.Net [VPS](https://www.atlantic.net/vps-hosting/) today!