Is switching between Openshift 4 update channels supported?

Environment

• Red Hat Openshift Container Platform (RHOCP)
  • 4
• Update channels

Issue

• Is it supported to switch between eus (Extended User Support) and stable channels?
• Switch between stable and fast to get updates sooner is supported?
• Is the candidate channel supported for upgrades?

Resolution

It is possible to switch from stable-4.y to eus-4.y as soon as it is available, or back again until the release has gone to into EUS status.

Switching from stable-4.y to fast-4.y is also allowed if, for example, a required bugfix was released. The fast channels are fully supported as explained in the OpenShift documentation linked in the Root Cause section. Switching back to stable afterward is also allowed, but note that if the version upgraded to via fast-4.y is not yet available in the stable-4.y+1, it could require some time to get that stable-4.y+1 channel available for switching (when the version upgraded to is available in that channel).

Note: downgrading an OpenShift cluster is not tested or supported as explained in is it possible to downgrade a version in OpenShift Container Platform 4.

While switching to candidate-4.y is also available, upgrades onto the candidate channel are not supported, so it is not recommended for production and in some cases it could be required to reinstall the cluster as it is explained in the documentation for candidate-4.y channel .

Root Cause

Switching channels is always possible, and at no point will the upgrade path normally allow to upgrade to an unsupported version or via and untested path (with the exception of the candidate-4.y channel, which is not supported). Tested upgrade paths are shown in the This content is not included.Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform Update Graph tool.

If the latest version on the new channel is earlier than the current version of the cluster, updates will simply not be shown as available and it will be needed to wait till new versions are available for upgrading to.

Note: once a minor version has gone from fully supported to EUS (only for EUS versions), then there will be updates on the eus channel that are not available on the stable channel.

For more information refer to:

• Understanding update channels and releases.
  • eus-4.y channel.
• Choosing the correct channel for your cluster.
• Switching between channels.

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