Dell PowerFlex 4.6.x Technical Overview

Converting CentOS to SUSE Linux Enterprise Server operating system

PowerFlex Manager automates the process of converting nodes from an embedded operating system based on CentOS to an embedded operating system based on SLES. This feature is available on PowerFlex appliance and PowerFlex rack systems.

Use the Replace Node OS wizard to convert nodes from CentOS to SLES. For customers migrating from PowerFlex 3.8.x to 4.6.x, the CentOS to SLES migration feature can help convert multiple CentOS nodes to SLES.

PowerFlex RCM and Intelligent Catalogs prior to the 4.x release used CentOS 7.x as the basis for storage-only nodes, SVMs, and any other role where Linux was needed. In the 4.x release, this was changed to SLES. The 4.x release supported both operating systems. In 4.x, new resource groups took the newer SLES operating system, but older resource groups were not converted.

In release 4.6, you can convert hyperconverged and storage-only nodes from CentOS to SLES. This feature only applies to PowerFlex rack and PowerFlex appliance deployments on storage-only deployments or SVM nodes that are managed by PowerFlex Manager.

For PowerFlex nodes in lifecycle mode, contact Dell Technologies Support for details about whether a manual procedure is available for your environment.