Following the release of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.1 and 8.7, CentOS alternatives will receive updates for both the 8 and 9 series immediately. AlmaLinux was among the first to release version 9.1, whilst Rocky Linux 9.1 followed approximately a week later, on 26 November 2022, for the x86-64, aarch64, ppc64le and s390x architectures, with kernel 5.14.0-162.6.1. The release was tested for more than 9 days prior to approval.

New package: Keylime

Rocky Linux 9.1 is based on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.1, so it has a changelog similar to that of AlmaLinux 9.1. One of the most notable changes in Rocky Linux 9.1 is the addition of the Keylime package. This is a remote machine authentication tool that utilises TPM technology, enabling administrators to continuously monitor remote machines and verify their integrity.

From version 9.1 onwards, official Rocky Linux images are now available on the Oracle Cloud Platform. They are also available as container images for x86-64, aarch64, ppc64le and s390x systems, and as Vagrant images for x86-64 and aarch64 systems. The new version also introduces new module branches, which include the following:

• PHP 8.1
• Ruby 3.1
• Node.js 18
• Maven 3.8

The translation toolkits have been updated to the following versions:

• GCC Toolset 12
• LLVM Toolset 14.0.6
• Rust Toolset 1.62
• Go Toolset 1.18

Security and systems

According to the release notes, further important changes in version 9.1 include:

• OpenSSH: the minimum RSA key length can be configured; by default, the crypto-policies require an RSA key of at least 2048 bits and support key exchange sntrup761x25519-sha512@openssh.com
• NSS: RSA keys shorter than 1023 bits are no longer accepted
• SELinux: several services have been moved to a restricted domain; automatic relabelling is enabled by default
• SCAP Security Guide 0.1.63, fapolicyd 1.1.3, and clevis-luks-askpass are enabled by default
• Web server: Apache HTTP Server 2.4.53 with a new default value for LimitRequestBody and a separate httpd-core package
• Infrastructure: chrony 4.2 (including NTP servers obtained via DHCPv6), unbound 1.16.2, frr 8.2.2, firewalld 1.1.1, Pacemaker 2.1.4
• Identity management: SSSD and IdM can be integrated directly with Windows Server 2022, Samba 4.16.1
• LVM versions of the GenericCloud, EC2 and Azure images are now available, and the official Oracle Cloud images have been released

Here’s how to enable PHP 8.1 via the module system:

dnf module reset php
dnf module install php:8.1

Download Rocky Linux 9.1

The latest version of Rocky Linux is available on the official download page, whilst the 9.1 ISOs have been retained in the vault archive.

ISO verification

Once you have downloaded the 9.1 installation ISOs (Rocky-9.1-x86_64-boot.iso, -minimal.iso, -dvd1.iso/-dvd.iso), it is worth checking them. In the folder where you saved the ISOs:

curl -O https://dl.rockylinux.org/vault/rocky/9.1/isos/x86_64/CHECKSUM
sha256sum -c CHECKSUM --ignore-missing

The command compares the ISO files in the folder with the CHECKSUM file and returns an ‘OK’ result next to the downloaded image file. The packages are signed by the Rocky Linux 9 GPG key (RPM-GPG-KEY-Rocky-9, fingerprint: 21CB 256A E16F C54C 6E65 2949 702D 426D 350D 275D), which dnf automatically verifies after installation.

Update and migration

An existing Rocky Linux 9 system can be updated using the usual command:

sudo dnf -y upgrade

Rocky Linux only ever supports the latest point release of each major release, so the command now updates to the latest release in the 9 series. You can migrate from other Enterprise Linux 9 distributions (AlmaLinux, CentOS, Oracle Linux, RHEL) using the migrate2rocky script.

Rocky Linux does not officially support in-place upgrades between major versions; it recommends a fresh installation from version 8 to 9. If you do wish to perform an in-place upgrade, you can find the steps for the community-developed ELevate tool in our ELevate guide.

How long is it supported for?

Active support for Rocky Linux 9 (“Blue Onyx”) runs until 31 May 2027, and its lifecycle ends on 31 May 2032. Only the latest minor version receives updates. Further releases in the 9 series:

• Rocky Linux 9.0 (July 2022)
• Rocky Linux 9.2 (May 2023)
• Rocky Linux 9.3 (November 2023)
• Rocky Linux 9.4 (May 2024)
• Rocky Linux 9.5 (November 2024)
• Rocky Linux 9.6 (June 2025)
• Rocky Linux 9.7 (December 2025)
• Rocky Linux 9.8 (May 2026)

You can choose Rocky Linux 9 when ordering KVM VPS or dedicated servers. Our cPanel hosting servers run CloudLinux OS, which is also RHEL-compatible.

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