Linux distributions tend to be divided into two camps. First are those like Ubuntu and Fedora, aiming mainly to enthusiasts and other happy to walk on the bleeding edge of technology. The second Group consists of more stable, commercially supported software, designed for them after the less excitement and include products such as SUSE Linux Enterprise and Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). New releases is a rarity in this category, so when a new major product as RHEL 6 comes along that is a big event, and one worthy of close attention.
It has been three and a half years since the last major release of Red Hat (RHEL 5), and the first thing to say is that customers not expected that all rush and upgrade. In fact, will continue to be supported in RHEL 5 for several years yet, with plenty of good reasons for seated-at least in the short term.
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The most urgent has be abandonment of Xen Virtualization for the benefit of KVM (Kernel-based virtual machine) technology in the new release-long expected move the following Red Hat's acquisition of KVM developer Qumranet back in 2008. A key component of RHEL 5.5, and is now fully integrated in version 6 KVM delivers what most users need, when it comes to a virtualization platform. However, probably existing Xen users will be reluctant to switch from what is seen as a much more mature solution, even if a tool to convert the Xen VM's for KVM format is included.
On the plus side is KVM now functionally on an equal footing with Xen platform with an additional advantage of performance enhancements in RHEL 6 release, plus a SELinux sandbox option to enable virtual machines to run in their own, isolated environments. Red Hat is also added a new feature called TRADE UNIONISTS IN COLOMBIA (total Samepage merging), effectively a de-duplication of memory to enable identical memory pages to be shared across virtual machines, minimize overheads and improve performance.
In addition to the KVM is available in several other major improvements to tempt both buyers and upgrading both, in particular in the case of a multi-core processor support and memory scalability. Theoretical bar is now put on an impressive 64000 kernels, even though the supported limit is a more conservative 4,096 cores with up to 64TB addressable memory-still a great leap, compared with only 64 cores and 1 TB OF RAM in RHEL 5.
VM borders are also rumlede upwards, with KVM guests could handle 64 cores and 256 GB of memory.
Of course, there is a new Linux kernel in this release, Red Hat now employs v2.6.32, albeit with a few subsequent adjustments of its own, while the EXT4 is now the default file system rather than ext3, used before. That said, you are still limited to just 16 terabytes even use EXT4. Customers who are looking for in order to support more than there would have to buy the so-called Scalable file system add-on that uses XFS journaling file system to support up to 100TB.
Support for fibre channel over Ethernet (FCoE) has also been added, and iSCSI SAN technology improved enable iSCSI partitions to be used as the root or boot devices. Robust storage and more general high availability additions are also available to further enhance the storage, and other core functions in RHEL 6 platform.
Available for both workstation and server use, we found both versions of Red Hat is just as easy to install by using the graphical installer is provided. A choice of a preconfigured setups makes the process very straightforward, both older hardware, and with the latest technology, desktops and notebooks. We had to seek out proprietary drivers for some desktop graphics chipsets, and download other add-ons to handle MULTIMEDIA playback on the downside, but dual-monitor support in this release is much better than in previous versions. Useful power management improvements are also included as standard. Printer support is much better with unattended Setup in many cases.
With regard to the appearance of the displayed little has changed at first. Gnome is still the default desktop environment, even if the underlying version is now 2.28. Desktop users also get OpenOffice 3.2 and Firefox 3.6 browser, while the flooding of add-on programs typically bundled with other Linux distros is reduced to a trickle in RHEL 6-probably reflects the needs of enterprise customers more conservative. That said, many of the missing packages can be added from the aptly named EPEL (extra packages for Enterprise Linux) inventory using Yum tools and PackageKit provided.
The server buyers, get in the meantime, the usual lamp stack, consisting of Apache 2, MySQL 5 and Perl 5.10. An abundance of performance and management improvements have also been implemented, including a new System Security Services Daemon (SSSD) to the central identity management.
RHEL not free in the same way as with some Linux distros. Red Hat duties effectively in order to use its product through a series of subscription-based support contracts. Stationary contracts start at $ 49/year (£ 32 + VAT) while the server contracts can be had from just $ 349/year (£ 224 + VAT), both on the basis of self-supported. It is worth noting that the server licenses with RHEL 6 are per CPU socket pair, rather than covering the whole of the server as with the previous release. Virtualization support in addition to a single virtual guest costs extra, which makes the different optional performance and availability of additions-and these can also seriously rack up the total cost for larger companies.
Some three years in the manufacture, displayed the latest release of Red Hat Enterprise Linux, at first sight, conservatives. Digging a little deeper, though, and you can find improvements to performance and scalability to meet the latest multi-core processors, plus the ability to handle up to 64TB RAM. There are major changes also when it comes to storage, plus high-availability, and other optional additions. Xen Virtualization is dropped in favour of KVM, which could deter some from the upgrade. Overall, however, it is a well implemented and supported enterprise Linux release, and should hold Red Hat customers happy for many years to come.
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