I have experience with Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), using both the cloud-based and on-premises versions, with a focus on the on-premises deployment. As an infrastructure support engineer and senior manager, my main use cases include providing infrastructure for all applications and businesses. This encompasses user account management, application handling, and operating system requirements for each virtual machine. We are building and delivering products using Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), and we also utilize Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform and Red Hat Satellite for patching the operating system and other Red Hat applications.

We use a ton of operating systems in our environment. We have Red Hat flavors, CentOS, Ubuntu, and multiple Debian versions. I have previously used AIX and Windows servers, with multiple versions of Windows as well. We maintain diversity in operating system usage.

Recently, we purchased Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) with support on a host-based license model. We previously used a per-host-wise license structure, but we opted for the highest license option, which provides unlimited virtual machines per host. The total investment was approximately 1.2 million dollars for around 1,100 hosts.

The purpose of this engagement was to gather survey information regarding Red Hat products and Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) operating system. I understand this will provide better insight into how Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) effectively targets customer inquiries.

The pros of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) in comparison to other solutions I have used include that in most performance aspects, Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is very robust and active in terms of performance, operating system strength, security, and lightweight efficiency.

The best features in Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) include its open-source nature in terms of the Linux background and kernel. The enhancements and features offer various options with timely updates and security measures. You have multiple choices on how to control security and fix bugs. You can modify and tweak the kernel according to your convenience. If you need to perform automation of your own choice, modifications can be made to perform as per your requirements. This can be done in Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) or any Linux-based operating system, but Windows has a ton of limitations. Even for bug fixes in Windows, you cannot announce fixes to others globally. Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) has an open-source community for this purpose, and CentOS has similar benefits. For patching solutions, Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) has its own patching solution such as Satellite. There is also live patching available, including kernel live patching, which is an excellent option for minimal application downtime.

The most important security features in Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) include the ability to control login access with multiple layers of security, such as two-factor authentication. Key-based authentication is one of the best options, and two-factor authentication is also beneficial. You can disable the root user, so normal users will not see or have access to system-secured commands unless they have sudo access. The kernel is much more secure, and most viruses do not affect the Linux kernel because all things are treated as files without extensions, which reduces virus impact in that area. Although any operating system can be vulnerable, Linux is less vulnerable than others.

I did not explore Red Hat Insights much and do not have substantial knowledge about this feature.

Deployment is very easy and straightforward. I did not find any issues with it. Even with automation, it is very easy.

I would suggest that Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) improve the graphical user interface-based experience in a much better way. If you compare with most preferences, many people are more habituated with Windows. If Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) can improve the graphical user interface experience and gaming scope, it would benefit users. Windows handles gaming much better, but Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is more focused on the enterprise edition and server support. If Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) improves the graphical user interface experience, it would be better for users in terms of costing and user experience.

Another suggestion concerns Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform support. I believe Red Hat should provide much better engineers who have greater experience with their product. Although they have knowledge bases and training programs, I feel that Indian engineers at Red Hat are not as effective or experienced with their own product. I have faced some challenges with support level in this area.

Regarding the centralized patching system, Red Hat Satellite should support other operating systems beyond Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). I have observed that Red Hat Satellite has limitations and only supports Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). Most organizations use multiple flavors of operating systems. Excluding Windows and considering only Linux operating systems such as Ubuntu, Debian, CentOS, or SUSE Linux, Red Hat Satellite should support these with a rollback option. If Red Hat Satellite includes support for other operating systems with guaranteed rollback functionality, customers would accept it very readily and would not even consider the price.

I have been using Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) for almost 11 years.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is much more stable in comparison to other operating systems. In terms of failures, sometimes no responses come and occasionally the system hangs up. However, the reasons for these issues are not particularly based on the operating system itself. Stability issues depend on memory and other applications running on the system. I cannot say that issues occur because of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) or Red Hat applications. I have not observed much issue or lagging from the operating system or Red Hat application perspective. We receive more than 99.99% uptime from the operating system perspective for Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL).

Expansion is fine with no issues. The only limitation is that the XFS file system cannot be reduced. Any troubleshooting and expansion tasks are adopted smoothly.

In our environment, most of what we run is critical. Red Hat has their own service level agreement, and we have our technical account manager ready. Whenever there is any urgency, we connect with our technical account manager who helps us resolve the issue within our expected timeframe. It depends on the urgency, but when we request assistance, they fulfill it. Our experience has been very good with Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) compared to other operating systems and original equipment manufacturers.

For any downtime, whether it is a priority one, priority two, or priority three case, their response time is one hour. They usually respond before that timeframe. I have faced some issues with Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform support and did not see that much effectiveness, but regarding the operating system itself, the service has been very good. As I mentioned earlier, for kernel modification and hardening, Red Hat has provided good support.

I deployed Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) myself, and a third party also conducted deployments for us. I have my own hands-on experience in production environments with both manual and automation processes. We deployed Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) using Terraform and other third-party tools. I used AWS Lambda and many other tools to deploy Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) systems.

We purchased Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) directly from Red Hat through their verified vendors. Red Hat does not sell directly but works through their own verified vendors for purchases.

When you use the image builder, the custom image will be standardized and signed off by the original equipment manufacturer, which is Red Hat. When it is certified and signed off by Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), enterprises and auditors will accept it. If we create any custom images on our own, they will be standardized, but the image release will not be certified from the original equipment manufacturer. This can lead to many questions from auditors. However, when Red Hat signs off on the image, it is a good positive point to present to the auditor as evidence. My overall rating for this solution is 8 out of 10.

My use of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is for on-premise vertical solutions, but everything is on-premise. The main use cases for Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) include enterprise applications, such as databases and enterprise web applications, or security applications like WebSphere.

I find the most valuable aspect of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is its stability in working with other enterprise devices, such as firewalls and centralized storage. Enterprise applications and devices communicate well with RHEL, and it provides appropriate drivers for those enterprise devices. However, apart from that, I see almost the same performance with other open-source distributions like Ubuntu or Debian.

When assessing the knowledge base offered by Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), I find their documentation online to be excellent. I would rate the experience I have had with the documentation or knowledge base of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) as excellent, giving it a ten out of ten. It is very good and useful for other Linux distributions as well.

The most important security feature in Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is similar to that of other distributions, such as user creation and minimum privileges during the operating system's operation. In enterprise environments, I don't notice anything special in terms of security compared to others; it interacts very well with enterprise devices like firewalls and storage solutions.

RHEL has its own firewall, which is SE Linux, and I consider that to be a remarkable security feature. I have not tried Red Hat Insights; I don't know how to use that feature of Red Hat. Regarding the Image Builder or System Roles in Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), I haven't used them; I only use the ISO image directly for installation.

The solution has high pricing.

My overall usage of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) has been uninterrupted. In total, it has been three years.

In terms of Red Hat support, I haven't used it, as everything I need to solve is in the documentation, which is very good.

I have previously used other solutions like Debian or Ubuntu.

I switched to Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) based on the direct requirements of the customer, not by my own decision.

The initial setup of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is straightforward; I find it very easy to set up.

My experience with the pricing, setup costs, and licensing of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) indicates that this was the main topic that made me step away from RHEL. Personally, I don't see good benefits from their support and paid licensing compared to completely free and well-documented Linux distributions, as I find RHEL excessively expensive. Normally, the customer asks for a three-year licensing agreement for Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL).

Overall, I would rate Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) as a nine technically, however, considering the cost, I would rate it a six, since it is very expensive. Combining technical and financial aspects, I give it a seven out of ten.

My experience is primarily on-premises. I work in the financial and banking area, which has about 2,000 VMs.

The benefits are reliability, stability, and good support.

I find Red Hat Enterprise Linux stable.

The knowledge base offered by Red Hat is good. They also have good support for the business. The web console has been acceptable, but we don't really use those tools.

I don't find Red Hat Enterprise Linux's security features to be good. They have many vulnerabilities that haven't been fixed for many years. They have numerous vulnerabilities that remain unresolved. Just some security details could be fixed. They have many vulnerabilities left over from previous years, with not enough being fixed, and their commitment is only to fix the critical and important ones. For moderate and low severity issues, they don't have the commitment. The security part is weak. Based on all scan reports, they have many vulnerabilities that can't be fixed adequately.

We will be involved with some Red Hat Enterprise Linux upgrades or migrations to other cloud platforms. It's not straightforward in my opinion; we have to create an image from Red Hat Virtualization Manager and convert the image to a format that can be recognized by other platforms, such as Microsoft Azure. We have to convert the image and then import it to the Azure cloud. It's not easy, as it requires manual work. There's no tool available for this process.

I have three years of experience with Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

The uptime is excellent as it's automated and stable. I would say the uptime is very good.

Overall, their support is good. I would rate their technical support an eight out of ten.

We didn't use any other Linux systems before. Initially, we used other operating systems such as AIX and Solaris, but Red Hat Enterprise Linux was the first Linux we introduced.

We also have SUSE Linux for one specific product.

When it comes to provisioning and patching, we use the satellite. It's acceptable when patching. I am satisfied with the provisioning and patching process as it's easy to manage. We don't use Insight, and I don't know about it. We don't use the Linux image builder or System Roles; we use our own Ansible Playbook to build a system.

We have all the automation set up for server provisioning and patching. We have the web console, but we don't really use its tools. We use our own Ansible Playbook, which allows us to manage and customize. We have many customizations. All the agents are installed for compliance, IP setup, file system creation - everything is automated.

When we create a VM, it only takes running the playbook and clicking a button. It takes about two minutes of work, and the automation handles the rest. In about two hours, the VM is up and running. If we use their tools, there are many limitations for customization, and we can only build an OS, but for the rest, we still have to run the automation. That's why we don't use those tools.

I would rate Red Hat Enterprise Linux a six out of ten.

I have used Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) for most of my career. It is primarily used as the base operating system on which various applications run. Currently, I am attempting to transition away from RHEL due to changes in the organization following IBM's acquisition.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is still considered better than Microsoft's offerings due to its superior handling of virtualization and faster performance. Microsoft often incorporates parts of RHEL's code, such as the networking stack, into its own products. The LEAP functionality for upgrades between versions is well-written and satisfactory.

RHEL has experienced a change in approach after being acquired by IBM, and the company has shifted away from open-source principles. The knowledge base is now outdated and lacks documentation for features in RHEL 9, relying instead on old documentation from RHEL 7. The introduction of unstable and undocumented products also detracts from the product's reliability.

I have used RHEL since it existed, so since 1991 or 1992.

RHEL has become less reliable due to undocumented updates and the release of unstable packages, which detracts from the product's stability.

Within the same vendor, moving workloads is easy. However, switching between vendors requires a significant migration effort.

The quality of Red Hat's support has declined in the past five to six years after outsourcing support to India. Complex issues are difficult to resolve due to communication challenges.

I have not switched from RHEL, but I am exploring alternatives such as Rocky Linux and Debian, which offer similar features without the high costs.

Setting up RHEL is quite straightforward, especially for someone familiar with it. The software asks the necessary questions for configuration, and the documentation generally explains these well.

The return on investment with RHEL is challenging to calculate but involves paying more upfront compared to Microsoft solutions for better reliability and stability, avoiding potential downtime costs.

The setup and licensing costs for RHEL are high, especially concerning support and associated applications. Red Hat charges high prices for support solutions like Ansible Tower, which can deter companies from using their products.

Other solutions evaluated include Ubuntu, Rocky Linux, and Debian. These alternatives offer similar functionality at a lower cost, especially concerning support.

Overall, I would rate Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) a seven out of ten. People are now turning to other Linux distributions due to RHEL's declining quality and high costs. I suggest caution when considering Red Hat due to the divergence from its original open-source model.

Our clients use it as an operating system. One of the reasons for going for Red Hat Enterprise Linux was to reduce the downtime that a client was having with AIX.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux is super fast, and our systems have less downtime. There is about a 60% reduction.

We use Red Hat Enterprise Linux both in the cloud and on-premises. We move workloads between the clouds and data center using Red Hat Enterprise Linux. This functionality is very important for us.

They offer support as well as training. Most of our staff is Red Hat certified. They have a good knowledge base with a lot of videos and useful content.

We are very satisfied with the patching and upgrade experience. We moved from Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 to Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8. It was easy. The live patching capability is very useful. It is one of the best features. Provisioning is also simple.

Red Hat Insights helps to identify and address any vulnerability risks. We get to know about any required patches.

Red Hat Console is very helpful for having an overview, patching, and maintenance.

The support is valuable. We get direct support from Red Hat. There is also no downtime. We can sleep better at night knowing that our systems are running.

Live patching should be improved.

I have been using it for three years.

The stability of Red Hat Enterprise Linux is very high. There is no downtime.

The scalability of Red Hat Enterprise Linux is a six out of ten.

It is the base OS. Most client applications run on Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Our clients are big organizations. In our company, we have 15 people working with Red Hat.

I would rate Red Hat's support a nine out of ten. They provide a quick response.

Our client moved from AIX to Red Hat Enterprise Linux because they were having downtime issues.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux is different from other Linux solutions because they offer support.

We have a hybrid model of deployment with both on-premises and cloud setups. The deployment overall was easy.

Its maintenance involves patching and upgrades. Patching is easy. The migration to the cloud and upgrades are also simple.

We have seen about 20% ROI.

It is cost-efficient.

We have plans to increase its usage. I would recommend Red Hat Enterprise Linux. I would rate it a seven out of ten.

We use Red Hat Enterprise Linux as the operating system to host various applications developed by our application group. It has our test tools, web servers, and Java applications. We install it based on the requirements of the applications.

It is a good product. All Linux solutions are pretty solid. It carries a different business model than a lot of them, which fits more into our business model. That is where it excels. We do not prefer unsupported ones or buying third-party support.

The most valuable feature of Red Hat Enterprise Linux is its support. I primarily use the product because it offers a phone number for support when needed.

It integrates well with our existing systems like SaltStack for patching and provisioning. However, its primary value is in having support when issues arise.

There is room for improvement in terms of pricing and its knowledge base.

I consider the cost high. The knowledge base is extensive and deep but can be confusing due to outdated or non-applicable information that you have to sift through to find relevant answers.

I have had experience with the basic and extensive use of Red Hat Enterprise Linux for about 15 years.

Customer service varies. I would rate their support a five out of ten, as it depends on the person at the other end. Sometimes the support is good, and sometimes it is not so good. It is like any other support organization.

I did not switch from any previous solution. Red Hat Enterprise Linux has been in use since before my tenure.

I work in the casino gaming industry. Most of our servers are in Windows. We have about 30 Linux instances. We install it based on the implementation requirements of an application. There is a justification for putting an application into our environment. It goes through a process at our company, and then where we install it or what we install it on is usually up to the requirements of the application.

We have on-premises and cloud-based environments. Red Hat Enterprise Linux is running in one of those environments. It has adequate features for security in cloud environments.

We use SaltStack, and we built the patching mechanism ourselves. We are pretty satisfied with it. If we were not satisfied, we would change it.

The upgrades with Leapp used to be painful. It used to not work at all for us. When we went to Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9, it did work, but it was a fairly painful process. The advantage is we do not have to reinstall the apps on top of the new image of Red Hat. It is an in-place upgrade. The problem is that you can install Red Hat Enterprise Linux in 50 different ways, and in the past, Leapp assumed you did it the default way. They have added some flexibility so that we can work around some of the stuff, but it makes you install it a certain way, which is not necessarily the way we would do it, mainly because of our security standards and performance needs.

We have not experienced a noticeable return on investment with Red Hat Enterprise Linux itself, as the operating system serves its intended function without bringing additional advantages.

Pricing depends on the model used, costing about $3,000 per virtual host in the virtual environment. It varies depending on whether you get high availability. There are modules that are upsold such as kernel patching, which we do not use due to cost considerations.

In the cloud, we use their licensing. For on-premise, we use the subscription, so we have two different licensing models.

I would rate Red Hat Enterprise Linux a seven out of ten.