After updating the Red Hat server kernel to latest version it still shows as old version

Question

I have updated the kernel on my Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server release 6.7 (Santiago) from 2.6.32-573.22.1.el6.x86_64 to 2.6.32-642.1.1.el6.x86_64 and as per Red Hat documentation https://access.redhat.com/articles/3078 kernel version 2.6.32-642 will update the release to RHEL 6.8. However if you look below it still shows as 6.7 (Santiago). I am not sure why the difference ? I have also rebooted the server after the kernel was updated.

[root@test-dev-001-par user1]# uname -a
Linux test-dev-001-par user1.hello.world.net 2.6.32-642.1.1.el6.x86_64 #1 SMP Fri May 6 14:54:05 EDT 2016 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

[root@test-dev-001-par user1]# uptime
16:02:35 up  5:16,  1 user,  load average: 0.43, 0.34, 0.33

[root@test-dev-001-par user1]#  cat /etc/redhat-release 
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server release 6.7 (Santiago)

[root@test-dev-001-par user1]#  cat /etc/issue
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server release 6.7 (Santiago)
Kernel \r on an \m

Answer 1

Umm, you are running 2.6.32-642.1.1 based on your uname output:

Linux test-dev-001-par user1.hello.world.net 2.6.32-642.1.1.el6.x86_64 #1 SMP Fri May 6 14:54:05 EDT 2016 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

However, the /etc/redhat-release file isn't related the kernel.

You've only done a partial update; to update to the complete RedHat 6.8 version you need to run a full update

# yum update

This will, amongst other things, update the redhat-release package which is where /etc/redhat-release gets installed from.

See https://access.redhat.com/solutions/637583 for more details.