Red Hat Enterprise Linux

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Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Red Hat logo
RHEL 8 Desktop.png
Screenshot of RHEL 8
developer Red hat
License (s) GPL and other licenses
First publ. March 23, 2002
Current  version 8.2 of April 21, 2020
(126 days ago)
ancestry GNU / Linux
↳ Red Hat Linux
↳ Fedora (since 2003)
↳ RHEL
Architecture (s) I386 , IA-64 , PowerPC , AMD64
www.redhat.de/rhel

Red Hat Enterprise Linux ( RHEL ) [ ɹɛd hæt ˈentə (r) ˌpraɪz ˈlinʊks ] is a popular Linux distribution made by Red Hat and tailored for the enterprise market. It is considered to be the market leader among Linux distributions in this area and enjoys great support from independent software manufacturers.

Distribution history

RHEL evolved from the former Linux distribution Red Hat Linux (RHL) and was first published on May 17, 2002. The aim was to set up a distribution specially geared for business customers with a corresponding support and training offer. When Red Hat abandoned the retail product Red Hat Linux in favor of the Fedora Project in September 2003 , RHEL was the only Linux distribution marketed by Red Hat left. Red Hat uses the community work of the Fedora project (which it sponsors significantly) to develop this further into RHEL. RHEL 7 is based on a mix of Fedora 19 and Fedora 20.

variants

RHEL exists in different variants. This includes the server variants with the versions Entry Server (ES) and Advanced Server (AS) . The desktop family includes the Red Hat Desktop (RHD) and Red Hat Enterprise Linux WS (Workstation). Update support is available for these products through the Red Hat Network .

Special features of the Red Hat Enterprise Linux distribution

Red Hat Enterprise Linux differs from other distributions in a number of different ways:

Enterprise operating system

RHEL is an enterprise operating system , an operating system that is geared towards the needs of large companies. As an enterprise operating system, it is therefore designed for stability and long maintenance cycles. You can use RHEL versions for up to 13 years without having to migrate packages or software versions, which is why it is suitable for commercial use. Large software houses such as Oracle or SAP offer certificates for RHEL , which guarantee that their software works without any problems on RHEL, which also applies to large server manufacturers. Enterprise operating systems are therefore mostly found on workstations and servers , where extremely stable operation is required. (E.g. in science , research , stock exchange , military or space travel .)

Life cycle

The life cycle of a RHEL version is ten years. During this time, the availability of updates and patches is guaranteed by Red Hat. The first three RHEL versions initially had a seven-year lifespan. By purchasing an Extended Life Cycle Support license (ELS), you also receive hotfixes for RHEL 3 and 4 for a further three years. For RHEL versions 5 to 7, Red Hat also subsequently extended the lifetime by three years to a total of 13 years, as part of the so-called Extended Life Phase (ELP).

RedHat distinguishes between three "Production" phases: During the first phase, new functions are added and the hardware support is optimized, if these have proven themselves in the Fedora project. In the second phase, new device drivers are only added if no major changes are necessary. In the third phase, RedHat recommends virtualization if current hardware is to be used. During the three-year ELP that follows, only a very limited amount of support is offered.

RHEL
version		 publication End of the "Production 1" phase End of the "Production 2" phase End of the "Production 3" phase End of the "Extended Lifecycle Support" phase (ELP)
Older version; no longer supported: 2.1 March 26, 2002 (AS)
May 1, 2003 (ES) 		November 30, 2004 May 31, 2005 May 31, 2009
Older version; no longer supported: 3.x October 23, 2003 July 20, 2006 June 30, 2007 October 31, 2010 January 30, 2014
Older version; no longer supported: 4.x February 14, 2005 March 31, 2009 February 16, 2011 February 29, 2012 March 31, 2017
Older version; still supported: 5.x March 15, 2007 January 8, 2013 January 31, 2014 March 31, 2017 November 30, 2020
Older version; still supported: 6.x November 10, 2010 May 10, 2016 May 10, 2017 November 30, 2020 June 30, 2024
Older version; still supported: 7.x June 10, 2014 August 6, 2019 August 6, 2020 June 30, 2024 expected ~ 2027
Current version: 8.x May 7, 2019 May 2024 - May 2029 expected ~ 2032
Legend:
Older version; no longer supported
Older version; still supported
Current version
Current preliminary version
Future version

Software management

Red Hat Enterprise Linux is installed with a graphical installer called Anaconda , which is easy to use even for beginners. For software management, Red Hat Enterprise Linux relies on the package manager RPM and the software management yum . Applications and system parts are searched online on a repository server, downloaded from there as an RPM package and installed. For general configuration of the system that are system-config * - programs available that also each graphical user interfaces have. The system-config- * tools are programmed according to the usual Red Hat and Fedora principles - these stipulate that "management tools" (auxiliary programs for system administration) only perform a single task and do not have exclusive control over configuration files need. Administrators of a system must be able to make any changes manually in the configuration files despite the administration tools.

Software repository provider

Repositories from other providers usually pursue different goals or a different license policy than RHEL. Worth mentioning here are Dag Wieers , RPM Fusion , RPMForge and atrpms . These sources are not always compatible with each other. In addition, more and more software projects and companies, such as the Mono project , the GStreamer project, Skype or Adobe , are making their own repositories available.

EPEL

EPEL (Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux) is a repository maintained by the Fedora project that provides ported packages of software that is contained in Fedora itself, but not in RHEL, CentOS or Scientific Linux . Because these enterprise distributions are developed on the basis of Fedora, only very small adjustments to the packages are usually necessary. EPEL thus expands the enterprise distributions with many applications and drivers that are not included there. Since EPEL depends solely on the commitment of the community, Red Hat and the Fedora Project do not give any guarantees, support or certifications for EPEL packages , as is usual for packages in the official RHEL repository.

safety

RHEL fully integrates the kernel extension SELinux to enable mandatory access control . In addition to the actual SELinux core, a graphic program is also supplied with which the activities of SELinux can be analyzed and further processed.

The aim of the SELinux integration is that RHEL 5 in particular should meet the EAL4 + and Labeled Security Protection Profile certifications according to the Common Criteria Standard .

Open source assurance

Red Hat offers insurance for RHEL distribution that protects against intellectual property lawsuits in the software. These are possible due to software patents. For example, the insurance protected against possible lawsuits by the company SCO, which claimed parts of the intellectual property of Linux (see also SCO against Linux ).

LSB certification

All RHEL versions have been certified by the Linux Foundation according to the Linux Standard Base (LSB). This certification ensures that RHEL has binary compatibility with other Linux distributions, which greatly simplifies software development and migration . While older RHEL versions are based on older LSB standards, RHEL 5.6 and 6.0 are certified according to LSB 4.0.

Versions and supported architectures

Red Hat Enterprise Linux is offered in two versions (server or workstation) from version 5.x onwards.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.x

Workstation and Server:

Other supported architectures (server version):

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.x

Workstation and Server:

Other supported architectures (server version):

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.x

Workstation and Server:

Other supported architectures (server version):

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.x, 3.x

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3.x and 4.x were developed in three variants: Advanced Server (AS, max. 16 CPUs, up to 64 GB Ram), Enterprise Server (ES, 2 CPUs, 8 GB Ram) or Workstation (WS , 2 CPUs, 64 GB Ram). The following architectures are supported:

AS, ES, WS:

  • x86 (32 bit, i386 compatible)

AS, WS:

AS:

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 2.x

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 2.x was available in the following versions:

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS (Red Hat Linux Advanced Server) - i386, IA-64
  • Red Hat Linux Advanced Workstation - IA-64
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES - i386
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux WS - i386

Linux distributions based on RHEL

Although Red Hat makes the source packages of the RHEL distributions freely available on the Internet, there are no freely available RHEL boot media or images directly from Red Hat. B. also the (not RHEL-based) competing product SUSE Linux Enterprise Server , can only be purchased in connection with support contracts. In order to be able to offer a freely available, RHEL-compatible Linux, projects such as CentOS or Scientific Linux were created. Since all source packages for the RHEL distributions are available on the Internet, these projects can compile all freely available packages and offer them on their own boot images and installation media. The aim is to create a distribution, usually with only minor changes, that is fully compatible with RHEL and consists exclusively of freely available software. As a rule, individual packages (e.g. Adobe Reader, Flash Player) have to be removed from the distribution for licensing reasons. Conversely, additional packages can be added which are also free and do not entail any obligation to purchase licenses or support contracts.

Examples of distributions based on RHEL are:

Areas of application

RHEL is used alongside Scientific Linux and Debian on the International Space Station ISS, as NASA announced.

RHEL has been selected by the US Department of Defense as the standard platform for server-based applications, web services, databases, network security and the like. RHEL is used in numerous places in the US Army . The Department of Defense became Red Hat's largest customer in 2005 .

The US National Aviation Administration ( FAA ) migrated completely to RHEL in spring 2006. This has saved US $ 15 million in public funds. The FAA previously used a very expensive proprietary UNIX platform rather than Windows. With RHEL, problems with scalability could be solved, efficiency increased and the high required availability of the systems ensured. The safety of the up to 8000 aircraft that can be in the airspace monitored by the FAA at the same time depends to a large extent on the availability of the FAA's IT infrastructure; the authority cannot afford any errors or failures.

Versions

version Code name (a) Publication (b) Support until (Extended (c) ) LSB certification Others
Older version; no longer supported: 2.1 Pensacola / Panama May 17, 2002 May 31, 2009 (...) Kernel 2.4.9, first RHEL version
Older version; no longer supported: 3.0 Taroon October 22, 2003 October 31, 2010 (ELS: January 30, 2014) 1.3 Kernel 2.4.21, support for AMD64 , IBM System z , pSeries , S / 390
Older version; no longer supported: 3.9 June 12, 2007
Older version; no longer supported: 4.0 Nahant February 15, 2005 February 29, 2012 (ELS: February 28, 2015) 3.0 Kernel 2.6.9, first SELinux support
Older version; no longer supported: 4.9 February 16, 2011
Older version; no longer supported: 5.0 Tikanga March 14, 2007 March 31, 2017 (ELP: March 31, 2020) 3.1 Kernel 2.6.18, + Xen, + GFS2
Older version; no longer supported: 5.1 November 7, 2007
Older version; no longer supported: 5.2 May 21, 2008
Older version; no longer supported: 5.3 January 19, 2009 + Block Device Encryption
Older version; no longer supported: 5.4 September 2, 2009 + KVM
Older version; no longer supported: 5.5 March 30, 2010 Cifs Win7 integration, + KVM, + WiFi, support for new AMD, IBM, and Intel CPUs
Older version; no longer supported: 5.6 January 13, 2011 4.0 ext4 , GCC 4.4, PHP 5.3
Older version; no longer supported: 5.7 July 22, 2011
Older version; no longer supported: 5.8 February 21, 2012
Older version; no longer supported: 5.9 January 8, 2013 Samba 3.6, Microsoft Hyper-V support, OpenJDK 7, FIPS
Older version; still supported: 5.10 October 1, 2013 MySQL 5.5
Older version; still supported: 5.11 16th September 2014 Last 5 version
Older version; still supported: 6.0 Santiago November 10, 2010 November 30, 2020 (ELP: November 30, 2023) 4.0 Kernel 2.6.32, Gnome 2.28, KDE SC 4.3 , KVM (no Xen ), ext4, XFS, no Itanium
Older version; still supported: 6.1 May 19, 2011
Older version; still supported: 6.2 December 6, 2011
Older version; no longer supported: 6.3 June 20, 2012
Older version; still supported: 6.4 February 21, 2013
Older version; still supported: 6.5 November 21st 2013
Older version; still supported: 6.6 October 14, 2014
Older version; still supported: 6.7 July 22, 2015
Older version; still supported: 6.8 May 11, 2016
Older version; still supported: 6.9 March 21, 2017
Older version; still supported: 6.10 19th June 2018
Older version; still supported: 7.0 Maipo June 10, 2014 June 30, 2024 (ELP: June 30, 2027) 4.1 Kernel 3.10, standard file system XFS , 32-bit systems (x86-32) are no longer supported. RHEL7 is based on Fedora 19.
Older version; still supported: 7.1 5th March 2015
Older version; still supported: 7.2 19th November 2015
Older version; still supported: 7.3 3rd November 2016
Older version; still supported: 7.4 August 1, 2017
Older version; still supported: 7.5 April 10, 2018
Older version; still supported: 7.6 October 30, 2018
Older version; still supported: 7.7 August 6, 2019
Older version; still supported: 7.8 March 31, 2020
Current version: 8.0 Ootpa May 7, 2019 May 2029 (ELP: ~ May 2032) 4.1 Kernel 4.18.0. RHEL8 is based on Fedora 28.
Current version: 8.1 5th November 2019
Current version: 8.2 April 21, 2020
Legend:
Older version; no longer supported
Older version; still supported
Current version
Current preliminary version
Future version

Remarks

(a)For more information on version names, see Fedora and Red Hat version names
(b) The release dates refer to public announcements and not to actual availability in stores
(c) ELS : Extended support by purchasing an ELS license. ELP : Extended Life Phase with limited support.

The Red Hat company develops the product Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) from a Fedora version at regular intervals, with mostly only minor changes, the versions of which are maintained for a very long time in contrast to Fedora:


Web links

Commons : Red Hat Enterprise Linux  - collection of images, videos, and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.2 is now generally available. . April 21, 2020 (accessed May 8, 2020).
  2. ↑ Red Hat Enterprise Linux Release Dates. Red Hat, accessed May 8, 2020 .
  3. ↑ a b c d e f g h i Red Hat Enterprise Linux Life Cycle. Red Hat Inc., accessed June 18, 2014 .
  4. ↑ Red Hat Enterprise Linux Errata Support Policy. (No longer available online.) Red Hat, archived from the original on April 5, 2010 ; accessed on August 11, 2012 .
  5. ↑ Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 - End Of Life. Red Hat, accessed January 12, 2010 .
  6. ↑ Red Hat Enterprise Linux Release FormatDates. Red Hat, accessed September 30, 2015 .
  7. ↑ Red Hat Enterprise Linux Release FormatDates. Red Hat, accessed May 7, 2019 .
  8. ↑ EPEL / FAQ. Red Hat Inc., accessed September 3, 2013 .
  9. ↑ a b Product Directory. Certified Products. (No longer available online.) Linux Foundation , archived from the original on November 7, 2015 ; accessed on March 6, 2015 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.linuxbase.org
  10. ^ Chapter 1. Architectures. Red Hat Inc., accessed June 17, 2014 .
  11. ↑ Red Hat introduces ARM server support. Red Hat Inc., accessed June 17, 2014 .
  12. ↑ Thomas Hoffmann: Space station ISS is increasingly relying on Linux. In: Heise online . May 11, 2013 . Retrieved May 27, 2013.
  13. ↑ jmw: Open Technology within DoD, Intel system. (No longer available online.) In: Linux.com. SourceForge, Inc, April 4, 2007, archived from the original on October 13, 2007 ; accessed on June 18, 2014 (English).
  14. ↑ Jürgen Kuri: Red Hat wants to force business with the public sector. In: Heise online . February 3, 2005 . Retrieved June 18, 2014.
  15. ↑ Red Hat supports aviation authorities on the ground. Press release BoxID 60529, Federal Aviation Administration achieves enormous savings and increased operational efficiency through switch. In: PresseBox. United News Network GmbH, April 27, 2006, accessed on June 18, 2014 .
  16. ↑ Wolfgang Herrmann: US aviation authority FAA changes to Linux. Migrating from Unix to a Red Hat Linux distribution will save the agency around $ 15 million. In: computerwoche.de. IDG Business Media GmbH, Munich, April 28, 2006, accessed on June 18, 2014 .
  17. ↑ Steven Chan: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 2.1 Reaches End-of-Life. Oracle, June 3, 2009, accessed June 26, 2016 .
  18. ↑ Oliver Diedrich: End of Life for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 2.1. In: Heise online. March 3, 2009, accessed June 26, 2016 .
  19. ↑ Red Hat Launches the Next Release of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5. Red Hat Inc., October 1, 2013, accessed June 18, 2014 .
  20. ↑ Red Hat Announces General Availability of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.11. Red Hat Inc., September 16, 2014, accessed December 10, 2014 .
  21. ↑ Red Hat Enables Expanded Deployment Flexibility and Application Portability with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6. Red Hat Inc., November 10, 2010, accessed June 18, 2014 .
  22. ↑ Red Hat Deliver's Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.1. Red Hat Inc., May 19, 2011, accessed June 18, 2014 .
  23. ^ First Anniversary of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 Ushered in with Second Wave of Enhancements and Top Marks in Benchmark Performance Results. Red Hat Inc., December 6, 2011, accessed June 18, 2014 .
  24. ↑ Red Hat Announces General Availability of Next Minor Release of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6. Red Hat Inc., February 21, 2013, accessed June 18, 2014 .
  25. ↑ Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.6 Now Generally Available. Red Hat Inc., October 14, 2014, accessed October 29, 2014 .
  26. ↑ Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.7 Release Notes. Red Hat Inc., July 22, 2015, accessed November 20, 2015 .
  27. ↑ Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.8 available. Linux Magazin, May 11, 2016, accessed May 11, 2016 .
  28. ↑ Red Hat Launches Latest Version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6, Pairing Production Stability with IT Modernization. Red Hat Inc., March 21, 2017, accessed April 4, 2017 .
  29. ↑ Red Hat Drives Mission-Critical Stability with Latest Update to Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6. Red Hat Inc., June 19, 2018, accessed October 26, 2018 .
  30. ↑ Red Hat Unveils Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7, Redefining the Enterprise Operating System. Red Hat Inc., June 10, 2014, accessed June 18, 2014 .
  31. ↑ Thorsten Leemhuis: Beta of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7: Bye bye 32-bit x86. In: Heise online . December 12, 2013 . Retrieved December 12, 2013.
  32. ↑ Redhat-release enhancement update for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.1. RedHat Inc., March 5, 2015, accessed March 18, 2015 .
  33. ↑ Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.2 Release Notes. RedHat Inc., September 15, 2015, accessed November 20, 2015 .
  34. ↑ Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.3 Press Release. RedHat Inc., November 3, 2015, accessed December 1, 2015 .
  35. ↑ Red Hat Bridges Hybrid, Multi-Cloud Deployments with Latest Version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7. Red Hat Inc., August 1, 2017, accessed August 2, 2017 .
  36. ↑ Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.5 released - Red Hat Customer Portal. Red Hat Inc., May 3, 2018, accessed May 3, 2018 .
  37. ↑ Red Hat Refines Hybrid Cloud Innovation with Latest Version of the World's Leading Enterprise Linux Platform, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.6. Red Hat Inc., October 30, 2018, accessed March 8, 2019 .
  38. ↑ Red Hat Enterprise Linux Release Dates. Red Hat Inc., June 20, 2020, accessed August 11, 2020 .
  39. ↑ Red Hat Enterprise Linux Release Dates. Red Hat Inc., June 20, 2020, accessed August 11, 2020 .
  40. ↑ a b Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 released: More flexibility with software versions. Heise, May 7, 2019, accessed May 8, 2019 .
  41. ↑ Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.1 released. Pro-Linux.de, November 6, 2019, accessed on November 12, 2019 .
  42. ↑ Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.2 is now generally available. redhat.com, April 21, 2020, accessed May 8, 2020 .