How to upgrade AlmaLinux 9 to 10

Introduction

AlmaLinux 10 (“Purple Lion”) is the next major release in the RHEL-compatible family, bringing enhanced performance, improved security, and broader hardware compatibility. If you are currently running AlmaLinux 9, you can upgrade directly using the ELevate Project, which combines the Leapp framework and leapp-data libraries to automate the upgrade process.

Important:
Upgrading a production server always carries risk. You should back up all important data and, ideally, test the process in a non-production environment before upgrading your live systems.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, ensure you have:

• Full system backup (including /boot and /etc)

• Root or sudo access

• Stable network connection

• Enough free disk space (at least 2 GB recommended)

• Fully updated AlmaLinux 9 system

Step 1: Update Your AlmaLinux 9 Packages

Make sure your AlmaLinux 9 system is fully up-to-date.

sudo dnf update -y
sudo dnf clean all
sudo reboot

Verify that you are running AlmaLinux 9:

cat /etc/os-release

Expected output:

Step 2: Install the ELevate and Leapp Upgrade Tools

ELevate uses the Leapp Project and its leapp-data library to perform in-place OS upgrades.

First, enable the ELevate NG testing repository for AlmaLinux 9:

sudo curl -o /etc/yum.repos.d/elevate-ng.repo https://repo.almalinux.org/elevate/testing/elevate-ng-el$(rpm -E %rhel).repo

Import the official ELevate GPG key:

sudo rpm --import https://repo.almalinux.org/elevate/RPM-GPG-KEY-ELevate

Then install the Leapp upgrade packages:

sudo yum install -y leapp-upgrade leapp-data-almalinux

Step 3: Run Pre-Upgrade Checks

Perform a system analysis to detect potential upgrade blockers:

sudo leapp preupgrade

This step does not upgrade anything yet — it only analyzes your system and writes reports to:

• /var/log/leapp/leapp-report.txt

• /var/log/leapp/answerfile (may appear with questions requiring True/False answers)

Review and resolve all issues flagged as Inhibitors in leapp-report.txt:

If the leapp preupgrade command reports a Legacy network configuration found error (detecting files in /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/, such as /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0), you should migrate the connection to the NetworkManager keyfile format by running:

nmcli connection migrate /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth

check the logs with.

sudo cat /var/log/leapp/leapp-report.txt

After migrating, re-run leapp preupgrade until the error no longer appears.

Step 4: Perform the Upgrade

Once all pre-checks are clean, start the upgrade process:

sudo leapp upgrade

This will:

• Download all necessary AlmaLinux 10 packages

• Prepare your system for upgrade

• Create a special initramfs environment (elevate-upgrade-initramfs)

When the process finishes, you’ll be prompted to reboot:

sudo reboot

Step 5: Automatic Upgrade in Initramfs (ELevate Upgrade Phase)

After reboot, your system will boot into a temporary GRUB entry called:

This is the offline upgrade environment, where the actual upgrade takes place.
You’ll see messages such as: “GRUB2 core will be automatically updated during the upgrade”

That’s normal — it indicates that Leapp is updating GRUB2’s core image to ensure compatibility with the new AlmaLinux 10 kernel and boot configuration.

Wait for the process to complete.
Once done, the system will automatically reboot into AlmaLinux 10.

Step 6: Verify the Upgrade

After the final reboot, log in and confirm that the upgrade succeeded:

cat /etc/almalinux-release

Expected output:

Post-Upgrade Recommendations

• Re-enable any custom or third-party repositories.

• Reboot once more to ensure all services start properly.

• Check application logs for compatibility issues.

• Create a fresh backup of your AlmaLinux 10 system.

Conclusion

Upgrading from AlmaLinux 9 to 10 with ELevate (Leapp) provides a clean, in-place transition between major versions, preserving system configuration and installed applications.

While the process is mostly automated, careful pre-upgrade checks, backups, and monitoring of the elevate-upgrade-initramfs phase are key to a successful upgrade.

You now have a fully upgraded, RHEL 10-compatible AlmaLinux 10 system ready for production use.