eRacks Systems Tech Blog
Open Source Experts Since 1999
CentOS, Stream, 7, Rocky Linux, Alma Linux, RedHat
As many of our readers know, CentOS (Community Enterprise Operating System) was developed in response to the trademark issues surrounding RedHat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) in the early 2000s, and provided a functionally-compatible OS to the corresponding upstream RedHat version.
Around 2014, RedHat bought CentOS, and agreed to keep it as-is, and separate from RHEL.
CentOS is Dead
As so often happens after acquisitions, in December 2020, Red Hat discontinued CentOS development, causing much upheaval in the Open Source community, and leaving the existing CentOS user base without a clear path forward.
Long Live CentOS
In response, CentOS original founder Gregory Kurtzer created the Rocky Linux project, as a successor, true to the original goals of CentOS.
In March 2021, Cloud Linux (makers of CloudLinux OS) released a new RHEL derivative called AlmaLinux.
CentOS Linux was discontinued at the end of 2021 in favor of CentOS Stream, a distribution positioned upstream of RHEL, but below Fedora.
CentOS Stream is still useful for many, despite having different goals now and a different use-case, and no longer being binary-compatible with RedHat – it’s a bit like a “Release Candidate” idea for Fedora, now.
This gets RedHat’s offerings a bit closer to the Debian release of Stable/Testing/Unstable, corresponding roughly to RHEL/CentOS/Fedora, in order.
RedHat Backtracks
In Addition, RedHat addressed all the Bruhaha by making RHEL free for up to 16 systems, as a migration path, considering that they also chopped 8 years off the previously announced and counted-on 10-year support period for Centos8.
But given their track record, many (including this writer) are skeptical that RedHat may again use this to tighten the grip of Vendor Lock-In, in some future version of doing as they did in 2020.
eRacks Systems Offerings
Be that as it may, eRacks Systems now offers all the OSes preinstalled and pre-configured to your preferences, in the dropdowns:
- Centos 7 (last supported RHEL clone, currently 7.9)
- CentOS Stream Latest (Currently 9)
- Rocky Linux Latest (Currently 9)
- Rocky Linux Previous (Currently 8)
- Alma Linux Latest (Currently 9)
- Alma Linux Previous (Currently 8)
- RedHat Enterprise Linux (Now available preinstalled at no charge, for you to set up with your account on receipt)
As always, if you want a more specific version or distro, just ask.
j
joe March 12th, 2023
Posted In: Uncategorized
Tags: CentOS, Open Source, operating system, OS, Red Hat
Red Hat® Enterprise Linux® 9 (RHEL 9) Released & Available With eRacks Systems!
Released in 17th May 2022, Red Hat® Enterprise Linux® 9 helps users innovate, optimize, protect, and trust their traditional and modern workloads across their datacenter, cloud, and edge environments. Red Hat Enterprise Linux remains an economic driver, with the overall Red Hat Enterprise Linux footprint forecast to touch more than $13 trillion of the global economy in 2022. RHEL 9 is now available with the following major features with all of the systems in eRacks.
Enhanced web console performance metrics
This feature makes it easy for the system admin and operation team to monitor and identify performance metrics. It allows quick report generation and presentation with one click.
Kernel live patching
It is one of the best features for managing kernel update, RHEL 9 provide the ability to manage kernel patching with a cockpit web console.
Streamlined image building
RHEL 9 comes with various improvements like an image builder that gives the ability to build RHEL8 and RHEL 9 images through a single build node. This feature is very useful for the developer community.
Improved container development
RHEL 9 ships launch with upgraded version podman with new features and advanced technology.
Link Time Optimization
It allows speeding up various applications and running services as well as source code inspection at the time of compilation.
Application Updates
You can find all application releases with new versions which available in RHEL8 such as newer versions available of Perl, python, ruby, git, apache, Nginx, MySQL, MariaDB, and more.
Enhanced security
- Smart card authentication via the web console.
- Additional SELinux security profiles.
- Detailed SSSD Logging and search capabilities.
- Integrated OpenSSL 3.
- Integrity Measurement Architecture allows you to dynamically verify the integrity of the OS.
- The SSH root password is now disabled by default.
Support for Newer Versions of Programming Languages
- RHEL 9.0 offers the following new versions of dynamic programming languages:
- PHP 8.0
- Node.JS 16
- Perl 5.32
- Python 3.9
- Ruby 3.0
Download Red Hat® Enterprise Linux® 9 (RHEL 9) for Free.
To download RHEL 9. Check out the Red Hat Enterprise Linux product page.
Or you can get the hassle free Pre-Installed Red Hat® Enterprise Linux® 9 (RHEL 9) or your preferred versions or any of your preferable Open-Source Distribution by purchasing any systems from eRacks Systems’ Store.
Asif Raihan May 30th, 2022
Posted In: Linux, New products, Open Source, Operating Systems, servers, Technology
Tags: linux, New products, Open Source, operating system, Red Hat, Releases, upgrade
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 (RHEL 8) is now available on all eRacks Systems.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 (RHEL 8) is now available on all eRacks Systems with lots of developer-friendly capabilities.
Red Hat Inc. announced the official release of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 8 on May 7, 2019.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 (RHEL 8) comes with new features and improvements as compared to the predecessor – RHEL 7. Some of the new features of RHEL 8 are as described below.
Kernel & OS
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.0 is based on Fedora 28 and upstream kernel 4.18. This provides users with a secure, stable and consistent foundation across hybrid cloud and Data Center deployments with tools needed to support all levels of workloads.
Storage and File systems
Stratis is the new local storage manager for RHEL 8. It provides managed file systems on top of pools of storage with additional features to the user. Stratis provides ZFS/Btrfs-style features by integrating layers Linux’s device mapper subsystem, and the XFS filesystem.
Stratis supports LUKSv2 disk encryption and Network-Bound Disk Encryption (NBDE) for more robust data security that can also be used for email security SaaS also, since there is threat of data loss in every digital medium as the technology progresses to a new level everyday. The OT cybersecurity solutions is the one companies are opting for these days to protect data.
- With Stratis, you can easily perform storage tasks such as:
- Maintain file systems
- Manage snapshots and thin provisioning
- Automatically grow file system sizes as needed
Pools are created from one or more storage devices, and volumes are created from a pool. The file system is created on top of a volume, hence resizing a volume automatically resize FS as well. The default file system used by Stratis is XFS.
Other notable Storage features are:
- The XFS file system now supports shared copy-on-write data extent functionality. This enables two or more files to share a common set of data blocks. Creating shared copies does not utilize disk I/O nor consume additional disk space. The files sharing common blocks act like regular files.
- The shared copy-on-write data extents are now enabled by default when creating an XFS file system, starting with the xfsprogs package version 4.17.0-2.el8.
- Support for Virtual Data Optimizer (VDO) on all of the architectures supported by RHEL 8.
- LUKS2 is now the default format for encrypting volumes. This replaces the legacy LUKS (LUKS1) format distributed in RHEL 7. LUKS2 provides encrypted volumes with metadata auto-recovery and redundancy if partial metadata corruption is encountered.
Virtualization
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 is distributed with qemu-kvm 2.12 with – Q35 guest machine type support, UEFI guest boot support, vCPU hot plug and hot unplug, NUMA tuning and pinning in the guest and guest I/O threading
- The QEMU emulator introduces the sandboxing feature. QEMU sandboxing provides configurable limitations to what systems calls QEMU can perform, and thus makes virtual machines more secure
- KVM virtualization now supports the User-Mode Instruction Prevention (UMIP) feature, which can help prevent user-space applications from accessing to system-wide settings
- KVM virtualization now supports the 5-level paging feature, which significantly increases the physical and virtual address space that the host and guest systems can use.
- NVIDIA vGPU is now compatible with the VNC console
- Ceph storage is supported by KVM virtualization on all CPU architectures supported by Red Hat
- Q35, a more modern PCI Express-based machine type is supported by RHEL 8 Virtualization. All virtual machines created in RHEL 8 are set to use Q35 PC machine type by default
Networking
Below are the new changes in the Networking Level:
- RHEL 8 is distributed with TCP networking stack version 4.16, which provides higher performances, better scalability, and more stability.
- The networking stack upgraded to upstream version 4.18
- Iptables has been replaced by the nftablesframework as the default network packet filtering facility.
- The nftables framework is the designated successor to the iptables, ip6tables, arptables, and ebtables tools. This provides a single framework for both the IPv4 and IPv6 protocols
- The firewalld daemon now uses nftables as its default backend.
- Support for IPVLAN virtual network drivers that enable the network connectivity for multiple containers.
- Network Manager now supports single-root I/O virtualization (SR-IOV) virtual functions (VF). Network Manager allows configuring some attributes of the VFs, such as the MAC address, VLAN, the spoof checking the setting and allowed bitrate
Content Distribution
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 has two modes of Content distribution and will only need two repositories enabled.
- BaseOS repository – The BaseOS repository provides the underlying core OS content in the form of traditional RPM packages. BaseOS components have a life cycle identical to that of content in previous Red Hat Enterprise Linux releases.
- AppStream repository – The Application Stream repository provides all the applications you might want to run in a given userspace. Other software that has special licensing are available on a Supplemental repository.
Web servers, Web Tools, Web Management – Cockpit, Compilers, Languages & Databases, Software Management
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 includes Application Streams of multiple versions of databases, languages, compilers, and other tools available for your use.
RHEL 8 comes with Cockpit automatically installed and firewall ports required by Cockpit are automatically opened. Cockpit interface can be used to apply Policy-Based Decryption (PBD) rules to disks on managed systems.
RHEL 8 YUM package manager is now based on the DNF technology and it provides support for modular content, increased performance, and a well-designed stable API for integration with tooling. The version of RPM is 4.14.2 and it validates the whole package contents before it starts the installation.
Desktop Environment
RHEL default Desktop Environment is GNOME. The GNOME Project is supported by the GNOME Foundation. Gnome version 3.28 shipped in RHEL 8 which has automatic downloading of operating systems in Boxes. Other new features include:
- New on-screen keyboard
- New GNOME Boxes features
- Extended devices support, most significantly integration for the Thunderbolt 3 interface
- Improvements for GNOME Software, dconf-editor and GNOME Terminal
- GNOME Software utility, which enables you to install and update applications and gnome-shell extensions.
- GNOME Display Manager (GDM) use Wayland as their default display server instead of the X.org server
Features of Wayland display server
-
- Stronger security model
- Improved multi-monitor handling
- Improved user interface (UI) scaling
- The desktop can control window handling directly.
Security
RHEL 8 comes with support for OpenSSL 1.1.1 and TLS 1.3. This enables you to secure customer’s data with the latest standards for cryptographic protection.
RHEL 8 comes with System-wide Cryptographic Policies which helps you with the management of cryptographic compliance. No need to modify and tune specific applications.
OpenSSH has been rebased to version 7.8p1– with no support for SSH version 1 protocol, Blowfish/CAST/RC4 ciphers, hmac-ripemd160 message authentication code.
Red Hat Developer Subscriptions
Red Hat Developer members have been enjoying no-cost developer subscriptions for 3+ years now, and RHEL 8 is now automatically part of that. If your company wants developer support, there are several Red Hat Enterprise Linux Developer Subscriptions options with Red Hat support, too.
For more detail please contact eRacks Systems or visit Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 official Page.
Asif Raihan May 12th, 2019
Posted In: Linux, New products, News, Open Source, Operating Systems, virtualization
Tags: Cloud Computing, linux, New products, Open Source, operating system, Red Hat
Fedora 30 is now available
Fedora 30 is now available on all eRacks systems.
Fedora is a community-driven Linux distro that’s sponsored by the open source giant Red Hat. As Fedora is the upstream source of the company’s commercial RHEL distro, it’s also used as a testing ground for RHEL. As Linux enthusiasts might already know, Fedora is known as an innovative Linux distro that doesn’t hesitate when it comes to testing new technologies and helping other distros by making changes upstream for all distros. Shipping with many useful open source software, it’s known for providing a GNOME-based fluid desktop experience.
Fedora community recently released Fedora 30 just after about the 6 months from the version release as Fedora 29. On Fedora magazine they wrote about the early release of Fedora 30.
“It seems like it was just six months ago that we announced Fedora 29, and here we are again. Today, we announce our next operating system release. Even though it went so quickly, a lot has happened in the last half year, and you’ll see the results in Fedora 30.”
Many desktop users love Red Hat’s community Linux Fedora. They have good reason. Fedora is a great Linux desktop. But Fedora’s far more than just a desktop. It comes in three major versions: One for the workstation, another for containers, and still another that works as a server both on your server hardware and on the cloud.
About many changes, “Matthew Miller”, the Fedora Project Leader, explained in a statement:
“Computing scenarios don’t remain static and neither does Fedora. With the updates around Fedora 30, we’re providing an evolving spectrum of operating system editions to better meet diverse IT challenges. From containerized developer workspaces with Flatpak and Silverblue to expanded server and container infrastructure options in Fedora 30 Cloud and Fedora CoreOS, the Fedora Project remains focused on Linux innovation.“
Get your Own eRacks/FLASH10 Server Pre-configured with With Fedora 30 Server or Workstation Edition.
New features in Fedora 30
The biggest change in Fedora 30 is the new GNOME 3.32 desktop environment. Over the course of past few releases, GNOME desktop has made many changes to reduce its memory consumption; GNOME 3.32 takes things further and makes things more fluid and snappier by making enhancements in the core GNOME libraries.
On the visual front, the desktop environment adds a refreshed visual style that makes the overall look more polished. Moreover, the application icons, user icons, buttons, switches, etc., are also redesigned.
Talking about different packages that are included in the distro, you get the latest GCC 9, PHP 7.3, Bash 5.0, Ruby 2.6, and other apps.
This release is powered by the latest Linux 5.0, which brings better hardware support and display performance. You also get new features like support for energy-aware scheduling, Btrfs swap file, AMDGPU FreeSync, etc.
With the Fedora 30 release, the cloud and server releases are being combined into the Fedora Server Edition. Also, Fedora CoreOS is replacing Fedora Atomic Host as the container-focused offering. There are other variants as well, including Fedora Spins and Labs.
Fedora 30 Workstation
Fedora 30 Workstation includes the latest version of the GNOME interface, GNOME 3.32. Fedora also supports the other major Linux desktop environments, including Cinnamon, KDE, LXDE, MATE, and Xfce. It also includes fractional scaling, a refreshed visual style, animation improvements, and new icons. The net effect is to make a more visually pleasing desktop, which works well on high-end monitors.
Fedora Workstation now uses the “flicker-free boot” system, so the display does not turn on and off during the boot process.
You can also now run the Fedora desktop as a containerized desktop, Fedora Silverblue, with rpm-ostree at its heart. This replaces the traditional RPM package management with atomic upgrade/rollback. In this model, Fedora provides ready-made base operating system image. When you install a program, using either rpm-ostree or Flatpak, it creates essentially a restore point. These are then tracked, and if something goes wrong, you can reset to your restore point with minimal harm done.
Fedora 30 Server
Fedora 30, released April 30, 2019, has the following new and improved features:
The product definitions for Fedora’s “Editions” have been revamped. Fedora Cloud and Fedora Server editions are now a single product, simply called Fedora Server. Fedora Atomic Host has been replaced with Fedora CoreOS, in the wake of Red Hat’s acquisition of that container-based Linux distribution. Fedora Workstation remains mostly the same.
Fedora Server now supports Linux System Roles, created by Ansible to provide consistent ways to configure common Linux subsystems such as the network, the email system (Postfix), SELinux, and a few others. The list of roles is constantly being expanded.
Almost all Python 2 packages have been removed from the system, as part of Fedora’s switch from Python 2 to Python 3.
MongoDB has been removed from Fedora, as its licensing (the Server-Side Public License v1) is not believed to be compatible with other free software licenses.
Support for many deprecated cryptography standards is being removed: DES, 3DES, CRC32, and MD4. RC4 and MD5 are being marked as deprecated.
As with each edition of Fedora, many individual software components have been upgraded:
- Bash 5.0
- Boost 1.69
- Erlang 21
- FreeIPA 4.8 (which now uses Python 3.6)
- GCC 9
- glibc 2.29
- Golang 1.12
- GNOME 3.32
- Haskell GHC 8.4
- java-openjdk JDK12
- PHP 7.3
- Ruby 2.6
- Vagrant 2.2
For more details please visit the official Fedora Releases/30/ChangeSet.
To upgrade your existing Fedora 29 installation to Fedora 30, you need to run the following commands in terminal one by one:
sudo dnf upgrade --refresh sudo dnf install dnf-plugin-system-upgrade sudo dnf install dnf-plugin-system-upgrade sudo dnf system-upgrade reboot
You can also perform a clean installation of the Fedora 30 by visiting its download page and download the ISO file. Or click the link below:
If you feel like doing so, do give it a try or ask for the help from eRacks Systems’ experts.
Asif Raihan May 4th, 2019
Posted In: Fedora, Linux, New products, News, Open Source, Operating Systems, Upgrades
Tags: fedora, linux, New products, Open Source, Red Hat