| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 is almost here |
Mar. 06, 2007
Unless something goes badly wrong, Red Hat Inc. will be releasing the next version of its flagship operating system, RHEL 5 (Red Hat Enterprise Linux), on March 14.
RHEL 5 implements a fully integrated Xen-based server and storage virtualization solution, by coupling server virtualization with Red Hat's clustering support. In addition, RHEL 5 comes with a virtualization manager that should make installing and administering Xen virtual machines much easier.
With this version, RHEL moves from Linux kernel version 2.6.9 to 2.6.18. In addition, Red Hat says it has made extensive enhancements to the operating system's network and I/O subsystems, to improve performance and scalability, as well as the kernel ...including a little back-porting from 2.6.19.
The new distribution will also include comprehensive security profiles and improved compiler and runtime buffer management technologies. In addition, RHEL 5's SELinux (security enhanced Linux) is much easier to deploy and maintain than it was in RHEL 4.
For greater availability, the new RHEL will boast failover at either the application or virtual machine level by the combined use of Red Hat Cluster Suite, Red Hat Global File System, and Cluster Logical Volume Manager. According to Red Hat, this technology allows application data to be securely accessed and shared by any guest from any system.
Additionally, with RHEL 5 Red Hat is expanding its horizons. According to RHEL product marketing director Joel Berman, customers will now be able to buy one-off copies of "RHEL Client," which is the new Red Hat Linux desktop.
While Red Hat believes the Client would best be deployed in a business environment, where the RHEL desktops can easily be maintained by a local IT-managed RHN (Red Hat Network), it will also be available for individual users and SMBs (small-to-medium businesses).
It also appears that RHEL 5 will be a fast Linux distribution in some configurations -- very fast. In a report by Nick Carr, an RHEL product marketing director, RHEL 5 set a new world record for a 16-way SMP (Symmetric Multiprocessing) configuration on an IBM POWER system. That result was 78 percent faster than the previous Linux record holder. RHEL also showed its heels to both Sun Solaris and HP/UX -- it was 210 percent faster than the former, and 132 percent faster than the latter.
With over two million installations of Fedora, RHEL's community brother in the Linux distribution family, it's clear that RHEL is truly red hot, as Red Hat readies it for its latest unveiling.
-- Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols
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