CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research and operator of the Large Hadron Collider, plans to migrate more than 2,200 industrial computers and embedded devices used for accelerator control to Debian 13 by the end of 2026. These systems are distributed across CERN’s facilities and provide front-end control for accelerator equipment, connecting with more than 17,000 devices. The migration is primarily intended to extend the operational life of existing hardware while maintaining reliable control of critical accelerator infrastructure. The decision follows changes to processor requirements in the Red Hat ecosystem. CERN previously relied on Red Hat-compatible platforms and moved to AlmaLinux after CentOS was discontinued. However, newer Red Hat Enterprise Linux releases require increasingly advanced x86-64 instruction sets. Around 47 percent of CERN’s accelerator-control machines still use older v1-class processors, making them incompatible with future upgrades. Replacing the affected hardware could cost approximately CHF 5.4 million and would require extensive compatibility testing, engineering work, and maintenance downtime because many systems depend on specialized control cards and field equipment. Debian 13 provides a way to continue operating the existing hardware without widespread replacement. However, CERN engineers will need to adapt internal development and package-management workflows because Debian lacks some automation capabilities used in their current environment and has limitations around maintaining multiple package versions concurrently. The migration mainly covers accelerator front-end control systems, while CERN’s data centers and other computing environments will continue using RHEL and AlmaLinux. The initiative demonstrates how operating-system lifecycle changes can create significant hardware, cost, compatibility, and operational challenges for large-scale scientific infrastructure.
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