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Upgrading cPanel from CentOS 7 to AlmaLinux 8 (ELevate)

Since CentOS 7 has reached End-of-Life (EOL), you must upgrade your Operating System to stay secure. cPanel provides the ELevate tool to upgrade your existing CentOS 7 server to AlmaLinux 8 in-place, preserving your data and configurations.

⚠️ CRITICAL WARNING: HIGH RISK OPERATION
This process replaces your entire Operating System while it is running. 
 

  • Data Loss Risk: If the upgrade fails mid-process, the server may become unbootable. You MUST create a snapshot (backup) before starting.
  • Downtime: The process takes 30-90 minutes. Your websites and email will be offline during this time.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, ensure your system meets the requirements:

  • Root Access: You must be logged in as root via SSH.

  • Latest cPanel: Your cPanel version must be up to date.

    /scripts/upcp
  • Snapshot: Confirm you have a valid snapshot in the MyTilaa dashboard.

Step 1: Install the ELevate Script

Download the official cPanel ELevate script to your server.

wget -O /scripts/elevate-cpanel https://raw.githubusercontent.com/cpanel/elevate/release/elevate-cpanel
chmod 700 /scripts/elevate-cpanel

Step 2: Pre-flight Check (Dry Run)

Run a check to see if your server is ready. This command does not make changes yet, but checks for blockers.

/scripts/elevate-cpanel --check

Outcome: You will likely see a list of errors (red) or warnings (yellow). You must resolve all blocking errors before you can proceed.

Common Blocker: Outdated MySQL/MariaDB
AlmaLinux 8 requires newer database versions. If the check fails on MySQL, upgrade it using this cPanel API command (updates to MariaDB 10.6):

/usr/local/cpanel/bin/whmapi1 start_background_mysql_upgrade version=10.6

Wait for the database upgrade to finish, then run the check again.

Step 3: Start the Elevation

Once the check returns "There are no known blockers to start the elevation process", you can begin the actual upgrade.

/scripts/elevate-cpanel --start

The script will verify everything one last time and then reboot your server to start the OS migration. Your SSH session will disconnect.

Step 4: Monitoring the Process

Since the server reboots multiple times, you cannot watch the process in a single SSH session. To check the current status after a reboot:

  1. Log back in via SSH (or use the Video Display console).
  2. Run:
# Check status summary
/scripts/elevate-cpanel --status

# View detailed logs (live)
/scripts/elevate-cpanel --log

The process is finished when the status reports that the server is running AlmaLinux 8.

Step 5: Verification

After the final reboot:

  1. Check your OS version: cat /etc/redhat-release
  2. Log in to WHM and verify that services (Apache, MySQL, Mail) are running.
  3. Check your websites for functionality.