Minor release upgrades

For CentOS 7 users, the ease of completing a minor release upgrade is simply a matter of using Yum but, as always, you should perform a full backup before proceeding.

The precise nature of the types of files you should back up will differ from system to system, but it will include configuration files, important system files, user data, databases, web versioning, and application files. Moreover, if you are using proprietary software, you should confirm the feasibility of any upgrades with the original developers prior to completing an update.

So, having taken all these measures into account, when possible, I would recommend the process of backing up the entire system, and in this respect, you can be rest assured that you will have a copy of everything.

To begin the process of a minor upgrade, you can view the current CentOS release information by typing:

# cat /etc/redhat-release

You can then view the Linux information with:

# uname -mrs

Now, before you invoke Yum to obtain...