The first version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux to bear the name originally came onto the market as "Red Hat Linux Advanced Server". In 2003, Red Hat rebranded Red Hat Linux Advanced Server to "Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS"[11] and added two more variants, Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES and Red Hat Enterprise Linux WS.[12]
Red Hat previously used strict trademark rules to restrict free re-distribution of their officially supported versions of Red Hat Enterprise Linux[13] but still freely provided its source code. Third-party derivatives were able to be built and redistributed by stripping away non-free components like Red Hat's trademarks. Examples include community-supported distributions like Rocky Linux and AlmaLinux, and commercial ones like Oracle Linux. In 2023, Red Hat decided to stop making the source code of Red Hat Enterprise Linux available to the public. The code is still available to Red Hat customers, as well as developers using free accounts, though under conditions that forbid redistribution of the source code.[10]
Variants
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server subscription is available at no cost for development purposes.[14] Developers need to register for the Red Hat Developer Program and agree to license terms forbidding production use and redistribution of the source code.[10] This free developer subscription was announced on March 31, 2016.
There are also "Academic" editions of the Desktop and Server variants.[15] They are offered to schools and students, are less expensive, and are provided with Red Hat technical support as an optional extra. Web support based on the number of customer contacts can be purchased separately.
It is often assumed the branding ES, AS, and WS stand for "Entry-level Server",[16][17] "Advanced Server" and "Work Station", respectively. The reason for this is that the ES product is indeed the company's base enterprise server product, while AS is the more advanced product. However, nowhere on its site or in its literature does Red Hat say what AS, ES, and WS stand for.
In Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 there are new editions that substitute former Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS/ES/WS/Desktop:[18][19]
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Advanced Platform (former AS)
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (former ES) (limited to two CPUs)
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop with Workstation and Multi-OS option
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop with Workstation option (former WS)
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop with Multi-OS option
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop (former Desktop)
Red Hat had also announced its Red Hat Global Desktop Linux edition "for emerging markets".[20]
RHEL 4, 3, and prior releases had four variants:
Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS for mission-critical/enterprise computer systems.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES for supported network servers
Red Hat Enterprise Linux WS for technical power user enterprise desktops for high-performance computing
Red Hat Desktop for multiple deployments of single-user desktops for enterprises.
Fedora is a free distribution and community project and upstream for Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Fedora is a general purpose system that gives Red Hat and the rest of its contributor community the chance to innovate rapidly with new technologies. Red Hat Enterprise Linux is a commercial enterprise operating system and has its own set of test phases including alpha and beta releases which are separate and distinct from Fedora development.
Originally, Red Hat sold boxed versions of Red Hat Linux directly to consumers and business through phone support. The Fedora Project began in 2002 as a set of community supported packages for Red Hat Linux. However, the six month release cycle of Red Hat Linux was too disruptive for business users and Red Hat wanted a more reliable revenue stream. In 2002 Red Hat began releasing Red Hat Enterprise Linux based on Red Hat Linux, but with a much more conservative release cycle and a subscription based support program. A year later, Red Hat discontinued the Red Hat Linux product line, merging it with the Fedora community packages and releasing the resulting Fedora distribution for free.[22]
Fedora now serves as upstream for future versions of RHEL: RHEL trees are forked off the Fedora repository, and released after a substantial stabilization and quality assurance effort.[23][needs update?] RHEL source code is also not freely available, as those that obtain it are forbidden from redistribution.[10] For example, RHEL 5 was forked from Fedora at the end of 2006 (approximately at the time of the Fedora Core 6 release) and released more or less together with Fedora 14. By the time RHEL 6 was released, many features from Fedora 13 and 14 had already been backported into it. The Fedora Project lists the following lineages for older Red Hat Enterprise releases:[23]
Red Hat Linux 6.2/7 to Red Hat Linux Enterprise Edition 6.2E
Red Hat Linux 7.2, 7.2A to Red Hat Enterprise Linux 2.1
Fedora 34 to CentOS Stream 9 to Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9[25]
Fedora 40 to CentOS Stream 10 to Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10[26]
In addition, the Fedora project publishes a set of packages for RHEL called the Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux (EPEL). EPEL packages can be expected to work in RHEL, but it is up to willing community members to maintain the packages and back port any upstream changes. As such, packages "may come and go" during the ten-year lifespan of the RHEL release and Red Hat support plans do not include resolving issues caused by EPEL packages.[27]
Originally, Red Hat's enterprise product, then known as Red Hat Linux, was made freely available to anybody who wished to download it, while Red Hat made money from support. Red Hat then moved towards splitting its product line into Red Hat Enterprise Linux which was designed to be stable and with long-term support for enterprise users and Fedora as the community distribution and project sponsored by Red Hat. The use of trademarks prevents verbatim copying of Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux is derived completely from free and open source software. Until 2023, Red Hat made the source code to its enterprise distribution publicly available through its FTP website. Accordingly, several groups used the source code to compile their own derivatives, typically with changes including the removal of any references to Red Hat's trademarks and pointing the update systems to non-Red Hat servers. Groups which have undertaken this include AlmaLinux, CentOS, MIRACLE LINUX, Oracle Linux, CloudLinux OS, Rocky Linux, Scientific Linux, StartCom Enterprise Linux, Pie Box Enterprise Linux, X/OS, Lineox, and Bull's XBAS for high-performance computing.[28] However, as of June 2023, Red Hat no longer makes the source code freely available; while they still provide the source code to customers and developers.[10] The GNU GPL forbids terms and conditions that prevent users from redistributing the source code of GPL-licensed software, including but not limited to the GNU core utilities (such as cat, ls, and rm), which is licensed under the GNU GPLv3 or later as of version 6.10, and the Linux kernel itself (licensed under the GPLv2 only).[29][30][31] This led to AlmaLinux, one of the RHEL derivative Linux distributions, moving away from "1:1 bug for bug" compatibility to "application binary interface (ABI) compatible", while Oracle, SUSE, and CIQ (the company behind Rocky Linux) collaborated to form the Open Enterprise Linux Association (OpenELA) in order to provide "open and free Enterprise Linux (EL) source code".[32][33]
Derivatives of Red Hat Enterprise Linux are free but do not get any commercial support or consulting services from Red Hat and lack software, hardware or security certifications from Red Hat. They also do not get access to Red Hat services like Red Hat Network.
Unusually, Red Hat took steps to obfuscate their changes to the Linux kernel for RHEL 6.0 by not publicly providing the patch files for their changes in the source tarball, and only releasing the finished product in source form. Speculation suggested that the move was made to affect Oracle's competing rebuild and support services, which further modifies the distribution. This practice however, still complies with the GNU GPL since source code is defined as "[the] preferred form of the work for making modifications to it", and the distribution still complies with this definition.[34] Red Hat's CTO Brian Stevens later confirmed the change, stating that certain information (such as patch information) would now only be provided to paying customers to make the Red Hat product more competitive against the growing number of companies offering support for products based on RHEL. CentOS developers had no objections to the change since they do not make any changes to the kernel beyond what is provided by Red Hat.[35] Their competitor Oracle announced in November 2012 that they were releasing a RedPatch service, which allows public view of the RHEL kernel changes, broken down by patch.[36][37]
A number of commercial vendors use Red Hat Enterprise Linux as a base for the operating system in their products. Two of the best known are the Console Operating System in VMware ESX Server and Oracle Linux.
Each release is given a codename which is selected by a vote of the developers. The codenames don't have a specific pattern (unlike Ubuntu or Debian).
RHEL 10
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 beta is available. RHEL 10 is due to reach general availability in mid-2025. [39]
RHEL 9
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 was announced at Red Hat Summit on May 10, 2022, and was officially released on May17,2022(2022-05-17).[40] In this version of the system introduced a Linux Kernel 5.14.0 and Gnome 40.
RHEL 9 was the first to be based on CentOS Stream, itself based on Fedora Linux, while historically RHEL was based directly on Fedora Linux.[41]
The first beta for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 (Plow), based on Fedora Linux 34, was released on November 3, 2021.[42]
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 (Plow) was released on May 18, 2022.[43] The name Plow was the Appalachian Trail nickname for Tim Burke, one of the founders of RHEL and retired leader of RHEL engineering.[44]
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.0, May17, 2022;2 years ago(2022-05-17), uses Linux kernel 5.14.0-70.13.1.el9_0
9.1, November15, 2022;2 years ago(2022-11-15)
kernel 5.14.0-162.6.1.el9_1
9.2, May10, 2023;19 months ago(2023-05-10)
kernel 5.14.0-284.11.1.el9_2
9.3, November7, 2023;13 months ago(2023-11-07)
kernel 5.14.0-362.8.1.el9_3
9.4, April30, 2024;7 months ago(2024-04-30)
kernel 5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4
9.5, November13, 2024;37 days ago(2024-11-13)
kernel 5.14.0-503.11.1.el9_5
RHEL 8
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 (Ootpa) is based on Fedora28, upstream Linux kernel4.18, GCC 8.2, glibc 2.28, systemd239, GNOME 3.28, and the switch to Wayland. The first beta was announced on November 14, 2018.[45] Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 was officially released on May7,2019(2019-05-07).[46]
With Release 8 of Red Hat Enterprise Linux, IBM has completed transition of POWER8 and POWER9 servers to little-endian mode.[47][48][49]
The name Ootpa was a tribute to Larry Troan. His son, Eric Troan was Red Hat's first head engineer and his username was ewt, so his father was given the name ewt's pa, pronounced Ootpa.[44]
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.0, May7, 2019;5 years ago(2019-05-07), uses Linux kernel 4.18.0-80[46]
8.1, November5, 2019;5 years ago(2019-11-05), uses Linux kernel 4.18.0-147[50]
Red Hat Enterprise Linux7 (Maipo) is based on Fedora18 and Fedora19, upstream Linux kernel3.10, systemd208 (updated to 219 in RHEL7.2), and GNOME3.8 (rebased to GNOME3.28 in RHEL7.6) The first beta was announced on 11 December 2013,[52][53] and a release candidate was made available on 15 April 2014.[54] On June10,2014(2014-06-10) Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 was officially released.[55]
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.0 (Maipo), June9, 2014;10 years ago(2014-06-09), uses Linux kernel 3.10.0-123
7.9, September29, 2020;4 years ago(2020-09-29)[65]
kernel 3.10.0-1160
7, Extended Life-cycle Support (ELS) Start Date July1, 2024;5 months ago(2024-07-01)
aka added ELS entitlement until ELS end Date June30, 2028;3 years' time(2028-06-30)[66]
RHEL 6
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 was forked from Fedora 10 and contains many backported features from Fedora 11 and Fedora 12.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 (Santiago), November9, 2010;14 years ago(2010-11-09), uses Linux kernel 2.6.32-71[67]
6.1, May19, 2011;13 years ago(2011-05-19) (kernel 2.6.32-131.0.15)
6.2, December6, 2011;13 years ago(2011-12-06) (kernel 2.6.32-220)
6.3, June20, 2012;12 years ago(2012-06-20) (kernel 2.6.32-279)
6.4, February21, 2013;11 years ago(2013-02-21) (kernel 2.6.32-358)
6.5, November21, 2013;11 years ago(2013-11-21) (kernel 2.6.32-431)
6.6, October14, 2014;10 years ago(2014-10-14) (kernel 2.6.32-504)
6.7, July22, 2015;9 years ago(2015-07-22) (kernel 2.6.32-573)
6.8, May10, 2016;8 years ago(2016-05-10) (kernel 2.6.32-642)
6.9, March21, 2017;7 years ago(2017-03-21) (kernel 2.6.32-696)
6.10, June19, 2018;6 years ago(2018-06-19) (kernel 2.6.32-754)
6 ELS +, Extended Life-cycle Support (ELS) Start Date November30, 2020;4 years ago(2020-11-30)
aka added ELS entitlement until ELS end Date June30, 2024;5 months ago(2024-06-30)
RHEL 5
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 has forked with Fedora Core 6.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 (Tikanga), March15, 2007;17 years ago(2007-03-15), uses Linux kernel 2.6.18-8
5.1, November7, 2007;17 years ago(2007-11-07) (kernel 2.6.18-53)
5.2, May21, 2008;16 years ago(2008-05-21) (kernel 2.6.18-92)
5.3, January20, 2009;15 years ago(2009-01-20) (kernel 2.6.18-128)
5.4, September2, 2009;15 years ago(2009-09-02) (kernel 2.6.18-164)
5.5, March30, 2010;14 years ago(2010-03-30) (kernel 2.6.18-194)
5.6, January13, 2011;13 years ago(2011-01-13) (kernel 2.6.18-238)
5.7, July21, 2011;13 years ago(2011-07-21) (kernel 2.6.18-274)
5.8, February20, 2012;12 years ago(2012-02-20) (kernel 2.6.18-308)
5.9, January7, 2013;11 years ago(2013-01-07) (kernel 2.6.18-348)
5.10, October1, 2013;11 years ago(2013-10-01) (kernel 2.6.18-371)
5.11, September16, 2014;10 years ago(2014-09-16) (kernel 2.6.18-398)
5.11+, Extended Life-cycle Support (ELS) Start Date March31, 2017;7 years ago(2017-03-31)
aka added ELS entitlement until ELS end Date November30, 2020;4 years ago(2020-11-30)
RHEL 4
RHEL 4 introduced Linux kernel 2.6 versions and extended attributes on ext2 and ext3 file systems.[68]
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 (Nahant), February15, 2005;19 years ago(2005-02-15), uses Linux kernel 2.6.9-5
Update 1, June8, 2005;19 years ago(2005-06-08) (kernel 2.6.9-11)
Update 2, October5, 2005;19 years ago(2005-10-05) (kernel 2.6.9-22)
Update 3, March12, 2006;18 years ago(2006-03-12) (kernel 2.6.9-34)
Update 4, August10, 2006;18 years ago(2006-08-10) (kernel 2.6.9-42)
Update 5, May1, 2007;17 years ago(2007-05-01) (kernel 2.6.9-55)
Update 6, November15, 2007;17 years ago(2007-11-15) (kernel 2.6.9-67)
Update 7, July29, 2008;16 years ago(2008-07-29) (kernel 2.6.9-78)
Update 8, May19, 2009;15 years ago(2009-05-19) (kernel 2.6.9-89)
Update 9, February16, 2011;13 years ago(2011-02-16) (kernel 2.6.9-100)
RHEL 3
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 (Taroon), October22, 2003;21 years ago(2003-10-22), uses Linux kernel 2.4.21-4
Update 1, January16, 2004;20 years ago(2004-01-16) (kernel 2.4.21-9)
Update 2, May12, 2004;20 years ago(2004-05-12) (kernel 2.4.21-15)
Update 3, September3, 2004;20 years ago(2004-09-03) (kernel 2.4.21-20)
Update 4, December12, 2004;20 years ago(2004-12-12) (kernel 2.4.21-27)
Update 5, May18, 2005;19 years ago(2005-05-18) (kernel 2.4.21-32)
Update 6, September28, 2005;19 years ago(2005-09-28) (kernel 2.4.21-37)
Update 7, March17, 2006;18 years ago(2006-03-17) (kernel 2.4.21-40)
Update 8, July20, 2006;18 years ago(2006-07-20) (kernel 2.4.21-47)
Update 9, June20, 2007;17 years ago(2007-06-20) (kernel 2.4.21-50)
RHEL 2.1
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 2.1 AS (Pensacola), March23, 2002;22 years ago(2002-03-23), uses Linux kernel 2.4.9-e.3
Update 1, February14, 2003;21 years ago(2003-02-14) (kernel 2.4.9-e.12)
Update 2, March29, 2003;21 years ago(2003-03-29) (kernel 2.4.9-e.24)
Update 3, December19, 2003;21 years ago(2003-12-19) (kernel 2.4.9-e.34)
Update 4, April21, 2004;20 years ago(2004-04-21) (kernel 2.4.9-e.40)
Update 5, August18, 2004;20 years ago(2004-08-18) (kernel 2.4.9-e.49)
Update 6, December13, 2004;20 years ago(2004-12-13) (kernel 2.4.9-e.57)
Update 7, April28, 2005;19 years ago(2005-04-28)[69]
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 2.1 ES (Panama), May 2003[citation needed]
Product life cycle
The life cycle of Red Hat Enterprise Linux is at least seven years for versions 3 and 4, and spans at least 10 years for versions 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9. The life cycle comprises several phases of varying length with different degrees of support. During the first phase ("Production 1"), Red Hat provides full support and updates software and hardware drivers. In later phases ("Production 2" and "Production 3"), only security and other important fixes are provided and support for new hardware is gradually reduced.[70]
In the last years of the support lifecycle (after seven years for version 4 and earlier, and after 10 years for version 5 and later), critical and security-related fixes are only provided to customers who pay an additional subscription ("Extended Lifecycle Support Add-On") that is available for versions 3, 4, 5 and 6. This covers a limited number of packages.[71] Red Hat only supports major version upgrades from version 6 to version 7 and from version 7 to version 8.[72]
RHEL version
Last minor release
Release date
End of Full Support
End of Maintenance Support 1 (RHEL 5, 6, 7)
End of Maintenance Support (RHEL 8, 9, 10), Maintenance Support 2 (RHEL 5, 6, 7) (product retirement)
To maintain a stable application binary interface (ABI), Red Hat does not update the kernel version, but instead backports new features to the same kernel version with which a particular version of RHEL has been released. New features are backported throughout the Production 1 phase of the RHEL lifecycle.[78] Consequently, RHEL may use a Linux kernel with a dated version number, yet the kernel is up-to-date regarding not only security fixes, but also certain features.[79] One specific example is the SO_REUSEPORTsocket option which was added to Linux kernel 3.9, and was subsequently backported and became available since RHEL 6.5, which uses version 2.6.32 of the Linux kernel.[80][81][82]
The Extended Update Support (EUS) allows an organization / company to choose when they change to a new minor version. For the first 6 months of the EUS channel / yum repo, features may be added, but then the channel is locked down so that only bug and security fixes are patched. The organization / company then has 24 months to move to a new EUS branch. EUS allows the organization / company to stay on a minor version if required by a third-party application which is only tested with a particular minor version of RHEL, such as Oracle Database, IBM Db2, IBM Cloud Orchestrator, Hortonworks. There may also be extra costs associated with using the EUS repos/channels depending on the agreement the organization / company has with Red Hat.[83] For more information on what is Included/Excluded from the EUS see.[83]
Note
The EUS update mechanism for using older minor version branches is not available to CentOS, Oracle Linux and Scientific Linux, as Red Hat do not publish source packages for rebuilding.[84] As such, projects clearly state to ensure users run on the latest available minor version within a supported major release.
Updates
In general one can move from z streams to the next version of the z stream.
The 7.4.z EUS channel after the release of 7.4.
The 7.5.z EUS channel after the release of 7.5.
Any 7.y.z EUS channel where y is greater than 1. The standard base channel for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7, which is the most recent minor release aka rhel 7Y where y is the latest greatest.
One can not go back in time, aka 7.5.z to 7.4.z and will NOT be supported.[83]
RHEL 6
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 was forked from Fedora 12 and contains many backported features from Fedora 13 and 14.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 (Santiago), 10 November 2010, uses Linux kernel 2.6.32-71[38]
6.7, also termed Update 7, July22, 2015;9 years ago(2015-07-22) (kernel 2.6.32-573)
1st Day of EUS Window July22, 2015;9 years ago(2015-07-22)
Last Day of EUS Window July31, 2017;7 years ago(2017-07-31)
Note: There were no more EUS for Rhel6 after 6.7
RHEL 7
Red Hat Enterprise Linux7 (Maipo) is based on Fedora19, upstream Linux kernel3.10, 10 June 2014, uses Linux kernel 3.10.0-123[38]
7.1, also termed Update 1, March5, 2015;9 years ago(2015-03-05) (kernel 3.10.0-229)[56]
1st Day of EUS Window March5, 2015;9 years ago(2015-03-05)
Last Day of EUS Window March31, 2017;7 years ago(2017-03-31)
7.2, also termed Update 2, November19, 2015;9 years ago(2015-11-19) (kernel 3.10.0-327)[57]
1st Day of EUS Window November19, 2015;9 years ago(2015-11-19)
Last Day of EUS Window November30, 2017;7 years ago(2017-11-30)
7.3, also termed Update 3, November3, 2016;8 years ago(2016-11-03) (kernel 3.10.0-514)[58]
1st Day of EUS Window November3, 2016;8 years ago(2016-11-03)
Last Day of EUS Window November30, 2018;6 years ago(2018-11-30)
7.9, also termed Update 9 is the final RHEL 7 release[86][88]
Released on September30, 2020;4 years ago(2020-09-30)
RHEL 8
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 (Ootpa) is based on Fedora28, upstream Linux kernel4.18, systemd239, and GNOME 3.28. The first beta was announced on 14 November 2018.[45] Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 was officially released on 2019-05-07(2019-05-07).[46]
For RHEL 8, the update schedule is approximately:[89]
8.0 - 6 Month Minor Release (kernel 4.18.0-80)[90]
1st Day of Support Window May7, 2019;5 years ago(2019-05-07)[90]
8.1 - 6 Month Minor Release with Extended Support and Update Services for SAP Solutions (kernel 4.18.0-147)[90]
1st Day of Support Window November5, 2019;5 years ago(2019-11-05)[90]
8.2 - 6 Month Minor Release with Extended Support and Update Services for SAP Solutions (kernel 4.18.0-193)[90]
1st Day of Support Window April28, 2020;4 years ago(2020-04-28)[90]
8.3 - 6 Month Minor Release (kernel 4.18.0-240)[90]
1st Day of Support Window November3, 2020;4 years ago(2020-11-03)[90]
8.4 - 6 Month Minor Release with Extended Support and Update Services for SAP Solutions (kernel 4.18.0-305)[90]
1st Day of Support Window May18, 2021;3 years ago(2021-05-18)[90]
8.5 - 6 Month Minor Release (kernel 4.18.0-348)[90]
1st Day of Support Window November9, 2021;3 years ago(2021-11-09)[90]
8.6 - 6 Month Minor Release with Extended Support and Update Services for SAP Solutions (kernel 4.18.0-372.9.1)[90]
1st Day of Support Window May10, 2022;2 years ago(2022-05-10)[90]
8.7 - 6 Month Minor Release (kernel 4.18.0-425.3.1)[90]
1st Day of Support Window November9, 2022;2 years ago(2022-11-09)[90]
8.8 - 6 Month Minor Release with Extended Support and Update Services for SAP Solutions (kernel 4.18.0-477.10.1.el8_8)[90]
1st Day of Support Window May16, 2023;19 months ago(2023-05-16)[90]
RHEL 8 application streams
In addition to normal OS updates, RHEL 8 also maintains application streams to allow for certain applications to be supported and updated independent of the base OS and to match the maintenance stream of the application vendor.[91] Each application stream will be supported from two to five years with new versions only available during the Red Hat Enterprise Linux Full Support Phase.[92] These apps should be expected to be updated frequently with shorter lifecycles than the base OS packages.
This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (September 2022)
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 (RHEL 9) is a commercial open-source operating system developed by Red Hat for enterprise environments. It is built from the open-source Fedora distribution and aims to provide a stable, secure, and enterprise-grade platform. RHEL 9, released in May 2022, introduces several new features and improvements, especially tailored for cloud-native development, security, automation, and performance enhancements .
Key Features
Kernel and Performance RHEL 9 is based on the Linux kernel 5.14, offering improved performance and hardware support. It also features enhanced performance tuning tools for administrators to optimize workloads on modern architectures .
Security Enhancements RHEL 9 includes advanced security measures such as the Integrity Measurement Architecture (IMA), which ensures system integrity . It also incorporates OpenSSL 3.0 for updated cryptography and enhanced security policies . By default, SSH root password login is disabled to encourage the use of key-based authentication. SELinux continues to play a crucial role in enforcing strict security policies .
Automation and Management The integration with Ansible allows for more streamlined automation and configuration management across systems . The Cockpit web console has also been improved, offering new features for managing containers, networking, and storage .
Cloud and Container Support RHEL 9 is designed for cloud-native environments, with strong support for containers and hybrid cloud infrastructures . It is optimized to work seamlessly with Red Hat OpenShift, a Kubernetes-based platform, and supports containerization through tools like Podman. It also includes AppStreams, which provide curated packages for developers, ensuring access to the latest runtimes and frameworks .
Networking and Storage Enhanced NetworkManager features and support for NVMe over Fabrics improve performance and scalability for modern networking and storage configurations .
Use Cases
RHEL 9 is suitable for a wide range of enterprise applications across industries such as financial services, healthcare, and government. It is used in both on-premises and cloud environments, with strong support for multi-cloud and hybrid cloud deployments
Support Lifecycle
RHEL 9 follows Red Hat's 10-year support lifecycle, which includes full support for the first five years, followed by maintenance support for the remaining five years .
Red Hat Linux was a widely used commercial open-source Linux distribution created by Red Hat until its discontinuation in 2004.
Red Hat, Inc. is an American software company that provides open source software products to enterprises and is a subsidiary of IBM. Founded in 1993, Red Hat has its corporate headquarters in Raleigh, North Carolina, with other offices worldwide.
XFS is a high-performance 64-bit journaling file system created by Silicon Graphics, Inc (SGI) in 1993. It was the default file system in SGI's IRIX operating system starting with its version 5.3. XFS was ported to the Linux kernel in 2001; as of June 2014, XFS is supported by most Linux distributions; Red Hat Enterprise Linux uses it as its default file system.
Red Hat Network is a family of systems-management services operated by Red Hat. RHN makes updates, patches, and bug fixes of packages included within Red Hat Linux and Red Hat Enterprise Linux available to subscribers. Other available features include the deployment of custom content to, and the provisioning, configuration, reporting, monitoring of client systems.
The Fedora Project is an independent project to coordinate the development of Fedora Linux, a Linux-based operating system, operating with the mission of creating "an innovative platform for hardware, clouds, and containers that enables software developers and community members to build tailored solutions for their users".
CentOS is a discontinued Linux distribution that provided a free and open-source community-supported computing platform, functionally compatible with its upstream source, Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). In January 2014, CentOS announced the official joining with Red Hat while staying independent from RHEL, under a new CentOS governing board.
Technical variations of Linux distributions include support for different hardware devices and systems or software package configurations. Organizational differences may be motivated by historical reasons. Other criteria include security, including how quickly security upgrades are available; ease of package management; and number of packages available.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux derivatives are Linux distributions that are based on the Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) Linux distribution.
Red Hat, an IBM subsidiary specializing in computer software, offers different level of certification programs, most of which specialize in system administration. Certifications can be validated through Red Hat webpage, and expire after 3 years.
Upstart is a discontinued event-based replacement for the traditional init daemon—the method by which several Unix-like computer operating systems perform tasks when the computer is started. It was written by Scott James Remnant, a former employee of Canonical Ltd. In 2014, Upstart was placed in maintenance mode, and other init daemons, such as systemd, were recommended in place of Upstart. Ubuntu moved away from Upstart with the release of version 15.04 in favor of migrating to systemd. As of June 2024, there have been no updates released for Upstart since September 2014.
Oracle Linux is a Linux distribution packaged and freely distributed by Oracle, available partially under the GNU General Public License since late 2006. It is compiled from Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) source code, replacing Red Hat branding with Oracle's. It is also used by Oracle Cloud and Oracle Engineered Systems such as Oracle Exadata and others.
Btrfs is a computer storage format that combines a file system based on the copy-on-write (COW) principle with a logical volume manager, developed together. It was created by Chris Mason in 2007 for use in Linux, and since November 2013, the file system's on-disk format has been declared stable in the Linux kernel.
In computing, SystemTap is a scripting language and tool for dynamically instrumenting running production Linux-based operating systems. System administrators can use SystemTap to extract, filter and summarize data in order to enable diagnosis of complex performance or functional problems.
Spacewalk is open-source systems management software for system provisioning, patching and configuration licensed under the GNU GPLv2.
Ksplice is an open-source extension of the Linux kernel that allows security patches to be applied to a running kernel without the need for reboots, avoiding downtimes and improving availability. Ksplice supports only the patches that do not make significant semantic changes to kernel's data structures.
cgroups is a Linux kernel feature that limits, accounts for, and isolates the resource usage of a collection of processes.
Fedora Linux is a popular Linux distribution developed by the Fedora Project. Fedora attempts to maintain a six-month release schedule, offering new versions in Spring and Fall, although some releases have experienced minor delays.
Rocky Linux is a Linux distribution developed by Rocky Enterprise Software Foundation, which is a privately owned benefit corporation that describes itself as a "self-imposed not-for-profit". It is intended to be a downstream, complete binary-compatible release using the Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) operating system source code. The project's aim is to provide a community-supported, production-grade enterprise operating system. Rocky Linux, along with RHEL and SUSE Linux Enterprise (SLE), has become popular for enterprise operating system use.
AlmaLinux is a free and open source Linux distribution, developed by the AlmaLinux OS Foundation, a 501(c) organization, to provide a community-supported, production-grade enterprise operating system that is binary-compatible with Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). The name of the distribution comes from the word "alma", meaning "soul" in Spanish and other Latin languages. It was chosen to be a homage to the Linux community.
↑ "GNU General Public License v3.0". Free Software Foundation, Inc. June 29, 2007. Retrieved August 31, 2023. You may convey verbatim copies of the Program's source code as you receive it, in any medium, provided that you conspicuously and appropriately publish on each copy an appropriate copyright notice; keep intact all notices stating that this License and any non-permissive terms added in accord with section 7 apply to the code; keep intact all notices of the absence of any warranty; and give all recipients a copy of this License along with the Program.
↑ "GNU General Public License v3.0". Free Software Foundation, Inc. June 29, 2007. Retrieved August 31, 2023. You may not impose any further restrictions on the exercise of the rights granted or affirmed under this License. For example, you may not impose a license fee, royalty, or other charge for exercise of rights granted under this License...
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