Migrate Between Rocky Linux LTS Versions (8.x and 9.x)

Arian Cabrera
Customer Support Engineer

May 29, 2026

Introduction

If you are subscribed to CIQ's Long Term Support (LTS) for Rocky Linux and want to move from one LTS minor version to another (for example, 9.2 LTS to 9.6 LTS, or 8.6 LTS to 8.10 LTS), you need to disable the current LTS subscription, swap the LTS release package back to the standard Rocky release, enable the new LTS subscription, and then sync packages to the target version.

⚠️ WARNING This procedure only applies to minor-version moves within the same major release (8.x to 8.x, or 9.x to 9.x). In-place upgrades between major versions (for example, 8.x to 9.x) are not supported. See the multi-node migration article here for that scenario.

Resolution

The example below migrates a system from Rocky Linux 9.2 LTS to 9.6 LTS. Substitute the version numbers (and release package names) for any other supported LTS pair.

Disable the currently enabled LTS subscription with depot:
```
sudo depot disable lts-9.2
```
Swap the LTS release package back to the upstream rocky-release package. This removes the LTS-pinned repository definitions and restores the standard Rocky repositories:
```
sudo dnf swap ciq-lts92-rocky-release rocky-release --allowerasing --skip-broken
```
Enable the new LTS subscription. This configures dnf to point to the LTS repositories for your target version:
```
sudo depot enable lts-9.6
```
Sync the system to the target LTS packages. distrosync upgrades (or downgrades) packages so that everything aligns to what is available in the LTS 9.6 repositories, including the new LTS release package (ciq-lts96-rocky-release):
```
sudo dnf distrosync
```
Reboot to load the new kernel and finish the transition:
```
sudo reboot
```

After the reboot, verify the version and active repositories:

cat /etc/rocky-release
sudo dnf repolist

Example: Migrating between `8.x` LTS versions

The same pattern applies for 8.x LTS. To move from 8.6 LTS to 8.10 LTS:

sudo depot disable lts-8.6
sudo dnf swap ciq-lts86-rocky-release rocky-release --allowerasing --skip-broken
sudo depot enable lts-8.10
sudo dnf distrosync
sudo reboot

The LTS release package naming follows the pattern ciq-lts<MAJOR><MINOR>-rocky-release (no dot between major and minor), so 9.6 LTS uses ciq-lts96-rocky-release and 8.10 LTS uses ciq-lts810-rocky-release.

Notes

The dnf swap step replaces the LTS-pinned repository files under /etc/yum.repos.d/ with the standard Rocky repositories. If you maintain any custom repository files, back them up first.
Always take a backup or snapshot of the system before running the migration. Package transactions across LTS boundaries cannot be cleanly rolled back.
If dnf distrosync finishes with one or two packages still unresolved, follow it with sudo dnf upgrade to pull in anything that was missed.
The CIQ LTS kernel is replaced as part of the sync. If you use Secure Boot, validate the procedure on a non-production system first to confirm the new LTS kernel is signed for your environment.
Run sudo depot list at any time to see which LTS subscriptions are available to your account and which one is currently enabled.

References & related articles

Migrate From Rocky Linux LTS to the Latest Rocky Linux Community Version

Migrating Between Major Rocky Linux Versions Using Multiple Nodes

Accessing Mirrors for Rocky Linux and CIQ LTS Customers

CIQ Long Term Support