We are using Red Hat Enterprise Linux for running various things. We have a lot of virtual machines. The applications that are running on it are a bunch of shell scripts for processing orders, marketing campaigns, generating reports, or running some Java applications.
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A rock-solid, scalable OS that allows you to do things that you want
What is our primary use case?
How has it helped my organization?
We have the customization capability. We can easily customize it, and we can also automate and deploy it. I have a command line interface. I am a command line junkie, and I am able to use that, config files, and Ansible to be able to easily figure out what I need to do to automate things. It feels like I know what it is doing and how to make it do what I want. I do not have to weave some magical arcane hack the way I have to do in Windows.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux has enabled us to centralize development in a lot of ways. We have it hooked in through our GitHub. We are trying to combine where we are storing things and then have a standard way of how we are deploying things and have some standard configurations. With every single server, we do not have to worry about how to set this up because we are doing the same thing the same way. We can just do it across the board, and then we only have to worry about the interesting parts.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux's built-in security features are great for risk reduction, business continuity, and maintaining compliance. There are published CVEs, and there is SELinux, which I do not use and I always turn it off. Firewalls and tooling around that make it easy to use. The automation on top of that makes it easy to configure. With a push of a button, it is done.
We do not have to worry too much about portability. We are coming from Oracle Linux. We were primarily an Oracle Linux shop, and because that is based on it, it just works. We have not had any issues.
What is most valuable?
The fact that it is Linux is valuable. Why I like it in general is that I know what it is doing. I can figure out what it is doing, and I can make it do what I want. I am not delving into arcane registry things.
What needs improvement?
I am still trying to figure out the features it has. There is so much that it can do. What it does really well is that it allows you to do things.
For how long have I used the solution?
It was probably 2008 when I first started using it. The company was using Red Hat Enterprise Linux, and I was with the internal help desk supporting the Linux side.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Its stability is great. It is stable and rock-solid.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Its scalability is also great. It does not matter if the host is beefy or not. It is just going to run on it, and it is going to handle the work. Whether you have a couple of cores or 64 cores, it is just going to do it.
How are customer service and support?
Their support is good. There is good responsiveness. They quickly get me to the person who knows the answer, but I have not used them much.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We were using Oracle Linux. We are switching because of some of the things. Oracle licensing has been a point of frustration. Their support is comparably difficult to work with, and the support documentation is a mess.
Red Hat is so much easier to navigate. It has been overall a much more pleasant experience to work with Red Hat.
How was the initial setup?
We are using it on-prem, and then our cloud is a Kubernetes cluster on AWS, so it is basically on-prem.
Our deployment model is a manual kickstart with Ansible for configuration. My experience with deployment is good. I kickstart it and then hit it with Ansible, and it is done. It is very easy.
What about the implementation team?
I did the deployment on my own.
What was our ROI?
We have not yet seen an ROI. It has not been in for long enough. There are no savings in terms of manhours because the actual day-to-day usage remains the same with Oracle Linux or Red Hat Enterprise Linux. However, getting some of the metrics with Red Hat Insights is going to be helpful as we get into a better patching cycle. I am anticipating an easier life.
We are expecting an overall decline in the costs because of the differences between the Red Hat licensing and Oracle licensing. We are expecting a net decrease in overall cost. For using it, other than the license, there is no cost.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The setup cost is non-existent. With licensing, there was a little snafu because I misread something. There was a slight learning curve because we use virtual data center licensing. We had to understand how it all maps. We had to understand how that mapping works when the hypervisors are Red Hat or VMware. There is a slight learning curve, but it worked out. It ends up being easy.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I did not evaluate other options mainly because I have had experience with it before. From my prior experience, I already knew what I wanted.
What other advice do I have?
We are trying to use Red Hat Insights. I need to finish updating the playbooks to hook our host. We are in the midst of transitioning from Oracle Linux to Red Hat Enterprise Linux. I have not fully hooked everything in, but we will be using Red Hat Insights.
We just started using Red Hat Enterprise Linux for containerization projects. We have not yet seen any impact of Red Hat Enterprise Linux on containerization projects.
If a colleague is looking at open-source, cloud-based operating systems for Linux instead of Red Hat Enterprise Linux, a lot of it would depend on their use case, what they are going to need for it, and whether they have an enterprise environment. There is a cost associated with it which can be a downside. I am an open-source lover. I do not like paying for stuff, but I get it. They need to look at the cost, and if the cost is prohibitive, they need to look at something that is compatible and as similar as possible.
Overall, I would rate Red Hat Enterprise Linux a nine out of ten. I generally do not give out a ten. There needs to be something spectacular for a ten, so that is my personal bias against the top of the scale.
Using RHEL 9
What do you like best about the product?
The most helpful thing about RHEL so far is the stability. I haven't had any system crashes or app lockups since I've been using it. The install process was pretty easy.
What do you dislike about the product?
It's really locked down security wise compared to Windows. It's hard to accomplish simple things like renaming files using the GUI. As an IT administrator I often have to work on system files and it would be nice to just be able to sign in as an administrator and not have to type my password in every time I need to make a change to a sytem file.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
We are using it as a web server for our knowledge base product. It has been working smoothly.
Offers stability and long-term support
What is our primary use case?
We mainly use RPM-based systems to give our developers virtual machines.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable features of using RHEL for us are the standard way to run Linux and tools like NetworkManager. They make things easier for us.
What needs improvement?
I prefer a product that offers everything in a yearly subscription, like VMware, and I think RHEL should consider offering it as well.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using RHEL for 15 years.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The scalability of the solution is good.
How was the initial setup?
We use RHEL deployed in different zones, only on-premise, not in the cloud. Deploying RHEL depends on the end user, but migrations aren't usually a problem due to site forwards. The hardest part is dealing with end-user applications on the machines. We use Ansible for scripting, especially with Oracle. Sometimes, meeting the end of life for RHEL versions is tough, and we have had to buy extended support for RHE because some applications reached the end of life within a year. I appreciate the extended support option, though I prefer not to use it.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
RHEL's pricing and licensing are quite expensive. For a big company, paying these fees might be manageable, but as a government organization, spending tax money on such expensive solutions is challenging, even though we do have the funds.
What other advice do I have?
I see benefits in using RHEL because it offers stability and long-term support. Although we use both RHEL and Ubuntu, I have noticed that updates in Ubuntu can change things unexpectedly within a main release, which I don't like. That is why I focus on RHEL for its consistent and reliable updates.
RHEL's built-in security features are very good for risk reduction, business continuity, and maintaining compliance. We apply security guidelines in Linux using RHEL, which provides all the necessary baselines. We can choose and apply what we need directly to our RHEL systems.
I would say that open-source cloud-based operating systems like Debian are stable and have been around for a long time. There is a whole community supporting it, making it a strong alternative to RHEL with fewer licensing costs.
Overall, I would rate RHEL as a nine out of ten.
RHEL works best for Oracle database
What do you like best about the product?
Comprehensive documentation, support for all Oracle tuning tasks I need to perform.
What do you dislike about the product?
tmux is now integrated into our setup, and I don't like that.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Supporting Oracle database in a High Availability environment
RHEL is stable
What do you like best about the product?
Great operating system, very stable and has support for the community
What do you dislike about the product?
nothing, is the best system operating. I recommend this product.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
is using as application server. support all the operation of our service
RHEL review
What do you like best about the product?
The ease and speed at which updates happen
What do you dislike about the product?
Learning curve for Linux adoption can be challenging for someone who comes from a Windows environment
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Very secure platform
Red Hat is great when you need stable and reliable platform for deploying applications
What do you like best about the product?
the ease of maintaining the OS and security that it provides
What do you dislike about the product?
it seems like some features are getting moved behind different licenses then before such as Tomcat moving behind Jboss instead of part of the general server repositories
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
giving us a secure deployment environment.
Great experience
What do you like best about the product?
Ease of use. I like the ability to manage with satelite.
What do you dislike about the product?
Pricing model could be better. I would like to see improved hypervisor based licensing
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Standardizing on a single linux platform.
Redhat Linux Review
What do you like best about the product?
It is most used and automation is ease of use
What do you dislike about the product?
More cloud tools adoption and TF adoption
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Stratgically it is helping us to adopt quickly
A Great Enterprise-Grade Operating System
What do you like best about the product?
I enjoy the open-source ecosystem of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). RHEL, along with other RPM-based distributions (Fedora, CentOS, etc.), have a great package management system (dnf/yum), and the dependency resolution is really nice, regardless of if fetching content from the public Red Hat servers, or via a local Red Hat Satellite server. I also enjoy Red Hat Insights and being able to view statistics about my system (compliance, patches, asset information) on the go, without needing to log into the system or an underlying hypervisor.
What do you dislike about the product?
I'm unsure if this is specific to RHEL, or if other Enterprise Linux distributions face this same issue, but some of the features included in RHEL are not always FIPS (Federal Information Processing Standards) compliant. The one utility that is not FIPS compliant is Leapp, which is a bit frustrating, especially during the RHEL 7/CentOS 7 End-of-Life.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
It is providing myself and my organization with the ability to run up-to-date versions of software, while also providing a stable infrastructure for Production-level workloads. That benefits me/us by experiencing less downtime, which means our customers and end-users can spend more time developing their applications and completing their work.
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