EL 8 Migration via Ascender
Applies to: RHEL 8, Oracle Linux 8, CentOS 8, CentOS Stream 8, AlmaLinux 8, Rocky Linux 8
Overview
This guide covers deploying the migrate2rlc Ansible playbook through CIQ's Ascender automation platform for Enterprise Linux 8 systems. For standalone Ansible usage without Ascender, see Standalone Ansible.
Ascender Setup
1. Create a Project
- Name: migrate2rlc
- SCM Type: Git
- SCM URL: https://github.com/ctrliq/migrate2rlc-internal.git
- SCM Branch: main
- Update on Launch: enabled
2. Create Credentials
Machine credential for SSH access to target systems, plus a custom CIQ Depot credential type (see EL 9 via Ascender for the full credential type definition with input/injector YAML).
3. Create an Inventory
- Name: el8-migration-targets
- Add EL8 target hosts individually or via dynamic inventory source
4. Create a Job Template
- Name: migrate2rlc EL8
- Inventory: el8-migration-targets
- Project: migrate2rlc
- Playbook: migrate2rlc.yml
- Credentials: migrate2rlc-targets, CIQ Depot Credential
- Extra Variables:
depot_tier: rlc-pro - Forks: 10
5. Run the Job
Launch from the Ascender UI. Monitor output in real time per host.
Extra Variables Reference
| Variable | Required | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| depot_tier | Yes | none | Target tier: rlc-plus, rlc-pro, or rlc-96-lts |
| depot_username | Yes | none | CIQ Portal username |
| depot_token | Yes | none | CIQ Portal token |
| force_migration | No | false | Set to true if system already has CIQ packages |
| backup_mode | No | skip | Pre-migration backup: skip, local, nfs, smb, s3 |
| backup_target | No | none | Backup target path/URI |
EL8-Specific Notes
- EL8 branding packages (
ciq-release, etc.) are still under development. Functional migration completes successfully, but/etc/os-releasefields and/etc/ciq-releasemay not yet reflect final CIQ branding. rlc-pro-releasepackage does NOT exist for EL8. The tier is configured via depot enrollment only.- CentOS 8 and CentOS Stream 8 are EOL. Their mirrors return 404 errors. The playbook auto-redirects to vault URLs, but initial dnf operations may show warnings about unreachable repos.
rocky-reposmust be removed beforedistro-syncon Rocky 8 community-to-RLC migrations (conflicts withciq-rocky-cloud-repos).
Monitoring and Troubleshooting
- View real-time output in the Ascender Job detail page
- Failed hosts are marked red. Click to see full output.
- Re-run failed hosts by setting Limit to the failed host list
- Migration logs on each target:
/var/log/migrate2rlc.log
Standalone Ansible Alternative
ansible-playbook migrate2rlc.yml \
-i target_host, \
-e depot_tier=rlc-pro \
-e depot_username=YOUR_USER \
-e depot_token=YOUR_TOKEN
DISCLAIMER
The migrate2rlc script and playbook are provided "as is" without warranty of any kind, express or implied. Use of these tools is entirely at your own risk. CIQ, Inc. assumes no responsibility or liability for any data loss, system downtime, service disruption, or other damage resulting from the use or misuse of these tools. It is the user's responsibility to ensure adequate backups and testing in a non-production environment before performing any migration on production systems.