RedHat support gives me an unclear answer....

Hi all,

I have tried three times to get a clear answer from Redhat support but to no avail.
I'm hoping someone here can help me out. The question I have is straightforward:

Currently we are testing to see if Redhat is a viable solution for us to use it as a platform running several applications.
For this we have downloaded the free Redhat Developer edition of RHEL 7, and used this to install an application on it.
Application seems to run happily, but the installation of the application is quite tedious and complex. Should we decide to use RHEL, it would be very nice if we could continue using the already configured server, and add a license/subscription to this server.

Is it possible to 'convert' a server built from the free Redhat Developer image to a fully supported RHEL server by adding a subscription, or by registering this server with Redhat ?
I know costs are involved, but that is not an issue.
Or do we have to buy a supported and paid for RHEL 7 distro, and start over completely with the installation of our application(s) ?

Thanks!
Hans

I don't know what was the official answer (and I don't know the answer), but anyway I would try to construct an installer for your app.

Thanks for the quick reaction !

The answer was constructed in bad English (maybe some callcenter in a low wages country somewhere), and the only thing I could get from it was that I have to buy a subscription, but no answer to the question if converting a free development installation to a fully supported one is possible.
I know I have to buy a subscription.....

Installer for the application is already there...
But still further configuration and installation of support packages is a pain in the ass....

Thanks !

The answer should be irrelevant. You need a build plan or document that takes this into account. Up to recently there has been no supported way to upgrade in place a Red Hat server to a higher major version, and when upgrading hardware platform there is no supported installation migration, you end up having to install clean and add your third party applications anyway.

I recommend using the provided application and repository systems wherever possibly, and building RPM packages that properly pull the dependencies during install for your compiled applications where possible. Where that is not reasonably, documenting the exact steps and scripting portions of the process should make it a bit more automatic, faster, and more accurate.

I used to do this for an application hosting site with a LOT of servers, and can tell you that the effort is worth your time, and that RHEL makes a KILLER fine application hosting OS. For test/development servers you can use the matching version of CentOS (unlicensed but binary compatible with RHEL) to reduce your licensing investment.

As stated by others, you should have some kind of plan and automation to install your system. It's dangerous to assume you won't have to reinstall or move. Things will go wrong, and you need to be prepared. So, you really should have a defined plan, and if configuration is such a pain, then you should consider ways to automate it.

However, to your actual question. There is no developer edition of RHEL, there is a developer subscription, but the OS itself is the same.

If you've installed the OS, but haven't registered the system with the developer subscription, then all you would need to do is purchase a subscription, register the system, and attach the subscription (register and attach can be done in one command).

If you have registered with a developer subscription, then you should just need to unregister the system, then register it with the real subscription.

Originally Posted by phloks Thanks for the quick reaction ! The answer was constructed in bad English (maybe some callcenter in a low wages country somewhere), and the only thing I could get from it was that I have to buy a subscription, but no answer to the question if converting a free development installation to a fully supported one is possible. I know I have to buy a subscription.....

There is nothing to 'convert'...you register your system with Red Hat, and that's it.

Installer for the application is already there... But still further configuration and installation of support packages is a pain in the ass....

Yes..it always is. But since this is your application, I'd go with wpeckham's advice, and create an RPM of your software. A registered system can then download any necessary packages, shove configuration files around, run scripts before/after installation, etc. The pain will be in getting it all set up and working the first time...after that, you can shove it into a repository.