RHEL-7 to RHEL8 Upgrade and Kafka 7.3 to 7.9 Upgrade

Confluent Cloud User Interface
1

We are planning to upgrade OS from Version- RHEL-7 to RHEL8 Upgrade in AWS and Application Kafka from Version- 7.3 to 7.9 Upgrade.

Could you please check and suggest:

  1. Shall we install Kafka 7.3(Current version) → 7.5 OR Shall we go for direct install from 7.3(Current) -->7.9 is okay??
  2. Regarding RHEL7 to RHEL8 upgrade, we are planning to upgrade OS first and then Kafka application and components.
  3. Java and other client tools compatibility.
  4. Please share hassle free step-by step upgrade