Autonomous Linux, based on Oracle Linux, is the first and only autonomous operating environment. It automatically keeps the operating system patched, helps eliminate complexity and human error, and increases security and availability. Current Autonomous Linux instances are managed by default by Oracle OS Management Service in Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI). For existing legacy Autonomous Linux instances deployed using the July 2021 or earlier images, you can easily migrate them so that they can take advantage of the features offered by the integration with OS Management Service.

Automatic discovery and OS management

To set up Autonomous Linux for OS Management, you first need to meet the prerequisites and set up the OCI policies to enable management before deploying an instance in OCI. The Autonomous Linux image is readily available as an OS platform image in OCI and is deployed with a few clicks. Autonomous Linux instances deployed from the current platform images in OCI are then automatically discovered and managed by OS Management Service. This Autonomous Linux integration with OS Management Service allows you to configure the daily autoupdate schedule, and monitor critical systems events and resources, all through the Oracle Cloud Console. Using OS Management Service, you can manage Autonomous Linux instances with your Oracle Linux and Windows Server instances with a single user interface. OS Management and Autonomous Linux services are free for OCI customers.

A screenshot of the Autonomous Linux dashboard in OS Management service.

Migrating legacy Autonomous Linux instances

Oracle Autonomous Linux instances launched using the August 2021 Oracle-Autonomous-Linux-7.9-2021.08-0 platform image or later are integrated with OS Management Service by default. Instances deployed using an Oracle Autonomous Linux July 2021 Oracle-Autonomous-Linux-7.9-2021.07-0 image or earlier can be migrated using the alx-migrate script to integrate with OS Management Service. The alx-script can also be used to migrate Oracle Cloud Marketplace images, such as the legacy Autonomous Linux version of Oracle Linux KVM. When these Autonomous Linux instances are migrated, you can take advantage of the latest features in OS Management through the Console.

Autonomous Linux instances deployed on Oracle Cloud Free Tier Compute resources can’t be updated using the alx-migrate tool to integrate with the OS Management service. Instances deployed on Free Tier compute aren’t supported on OS Management Service.

The following steps show how to migrate existing legacy Autonomous Linux instances with OS Management in OCI. You can find detailed instructions in the documentation.

  1. Set the required OCI Identity and Access Management (IAM) policies for Autonomous Linux. Create a dynamic group that that defines the group members for the OS Management service and add a rule for the dynamic group defining the set of instances permitted in the policy. Ensure that you’ve defined the required Identity and Access Management (IAM) policies for Autonomous Linux in either your tenancy or compartment.

  2. Ensure that the OS Management Service Agent and Oracle Autonomous Linux plugins are enabled on the instance. If these plugins are disabled, enable these plugins.

  3. Install alx-migrate:

    $ sudo yum install alx-migrate

     

  4. Run alx-migrate:

    $ sudo alx-migrate

     

  5. Accept the terms of use for OS Management Service. To automatically accept the terms, run the alx-migrate script with the –accept-terms or -a option.

    $ sudo alx-migrate --accept-terms

     

Check that the migration has completed successfully. A message table in the documentation is provided to help you resolve potential errors.

During a successful migration, the alx-migrate utility removes the al-config RPM RPM package, because this package is no longer needed. After migration, the Autonomous Linux service manages autonomous settings instead of the al-config utility through the Console. For more information, see Managing Autonomous Linux Settings.

Additional resources

For more information on Autonomous Linux and OS Management Service, refer to the following resources: