I use Rocky Linux for production web servers. It runs Apache with Moodle, for example. I primarily use Rocky Linux for stable, production-ready services. I also use it for containerized workloads and testing automation scripts. My setup includes custom monitoring and optimized security hardening.
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Consistent servers have reduced maintenance time and support reliable automation for web workloads
What is our primary use case?
What is most valuable?
Stability, long-term support, and compatibility with Red Hat are the top features. I also value its strong community, its package management, and reliability for production workloads.
Long-term support ensures I can run services securely without frequent major upgrades, saving time and reducing risk. Red Hat compatibility lets me use Red Hat tools, packages, and enterprise features seamlessly. The community is very active and responsive, and back-end management is straightforward with standard tools such as DNF and systemd and automated configuration.
Rocky Linux is lightweight and predictable, making it easy to automate deployments and maintain consistency across multiple servers. Its security updates are reliable, and it integrates well with cloud and container environments.
It has improved stability and uptime for our services, simplified maintenance, and reduced costs by avoiding frequent migrations. It also makes automation and deployment more consistent across environments.
Rocky Linux simplifies maintenance because security patches and updates are predictable and rarely break existing setups, so I spend 30-40% less time on server upkeep. Consistency comes from using the same Rocky Linux base across all environments (dev, test, and prod), so deployments work the first time, reducing rollout issues by approximately 25%.
What needs improvement?
One area for improvement is the ecosystem of pre-built third-party packages. Sometimes, I need to build from source. Additionally, documentation for niche use cases could be more detailed. Otherwise, it is very reliable and stable.
One small thing is that Rocky Linux could offer more official guidance or tools for cloud-native setup and container orchestration. It is mostly community-driven, so having a few official examples would save time.
An improvement could be more built-in tools or official support for automated testing and CI/CD pipelines. It is doable with the community, but official samples would make adoption faster.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have used Rocky Linux for approximately six years.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Rocky Linux scales very well, from small virtual machines to large clusters, because it is lightweight, stable, and compatible with Red Hat tools for automation, containers, and orchestration.
How are customer service and support?
The official Rocky Linux project does not offer paid customer support, but the community support is very active and helpful through forums, docs, and chats. For enterprise needs, I can get support through third-party vendors.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I used CentOS previously. I chose Rocky Linux because CentOS reached end-of-life, and Rocky Linux provides the same Red Hat compatibility with long-term support, making it a stable and reliable replacement.
How was the initial setup?
I recommend starting with Rocky Linux for any production or test environment where stability matters. Take advantage of its Red Hat compatibility, engage with the community for support, and plan automation and deployment using standard tools such as DNF, systemd, and containers.
What was our ROI?
I have seen a clear ROI. Using Rocky Linux reduced server maintenance time by approximately 30-40%, cut licensing costs compared to paid Linux distributions, and lowered deployment issues by 25%. This translates to both time and money saved without needing extra staff.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Rocky Linux has no direct licensing or subscription cost, which makes it very cost-effective. Setup cost is mostly time for initial configuration, but overall, it is low compared to paid enterprise Linux distributions. The lack of a subscription fee saves money while still giving enterprise-grade stability.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I evaluated AlmaLinux, Ubuntu, and Oracle Linux but chose Rocky Linux for its strong community support, Red Hat compatibility, and proven stability in production environments.
What other advice do I have?
I give this review a rating of 10.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Has improved security practices and streamlined server hosting in on-premises environments
What is our primary use case?
My main use case for Rocky Linux is for the Nutanix environment, where we have a data center and everything is hosted there, including all the services and systems. Rocky Linux is the main OS of the Nutanix, which we use for hosting the servers.
In the Nutanix environment, Rocky Linux makes security hardening easier because we have guidelines to follow for those processes as per their advice.
How has it helped my organization?
My organization has seen positive impacts, particularly in security, as it is more secure and scalable. The commands are quite easy to use in the open-source environment, and scaling up or down is simple. Overall, it is more scalable and security-wise, it is good, and after using many commands, I become familiar with them.
What is most valuable?
The best features Rocky Linux offers, in my experience, are its simplicity, which helps us troubleshoot effectively, along with enhanced security features, security hardening capabilities, and the ability to perform regular patches.
My organization has seen positive impacts, particularly in security, as it is more secure and scalable. The commands are quite easy to use in the open-source environment, and scaling up or down is simple. Overall, it is more scalable and security-wise, it is good, and after using many commands, I become familiar with them.
What needs improvement?
I am not an expert on Rocky Linux, but I do not have anything to say regarding improvements; I think it is doing better.
I chose a rating of eight out of ten because Rocky Linux must grow more; it is not as comparable to Red Hat, which is why I took off those two points.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Rocky Linux for a couple of years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Rocky Linux is stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The scalability of Rocky Linux is very good.
How are customer service and support?
We take customer support from Nutanix, and I think Nutanix support users are familiar with Rocky Linux, so I find the customer support to be very good.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I am not sure what solution we previously used before Rocky Linux, as I am new to the organization. I think they might have used VMware, but those were not on Rocky Linux, and the licensing cost was likely higher, which is why we changed to Rocky Linux in the Nutanix environment.
How was the initial setup?
Rocky Linux is a product of CentOS, and I have experience using CentOS as well. I think CentOS and Rocky Linux are similar to each other, with almost all of the features being similar.
The pricing, setup cost, and licensing for Rocky Linux are favorable because they come bundled with the Nutanix environment, making the costs and licensing cheaper than the VMware environment, which is why we chose the Nutanix environment.
What was our ROI?
I have seen a return on investment, including money saved and time saved.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The pricing, setup cost, and licensing for Rocky Linux are favorable because they come bundled with the Nutanix environment, making the costs and licensing cheaper than the VMware environment, which is why we chose the Nutanix environment.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Before choosing Rocky Linux, I evaluated options based on cost.
What other advice do I have?
My advice to others looking into using Rocky Linux is to go ahead and use it. I give Rocky Linux a rating of eight out of ten.
Migration from discontinued systems has gone smoothly and supports reliable hosting for government websites
What is our primary use case?
My main use case for Rocky Linux is web hosting.
I have used Rocky Linux to host Drupal websites for my employer.
I don't have anything else to add about my use case or how I use Rocky Linux.
What is most valuable?
The best feature Rocky Linux offers is compatibility with Red Hat. This compatibility helps me because packages that aren't specifically available to the Rocky Linux repositories are able to be installed as long as the correct binary for the correct corresponding version of Red Hat and Rocky is selected.
Rocky Linux has positively impacted my organization by allowing us to migrate away from CentOS 7 as a result of the end-of-life for that operating system and then the end of CentOS 8, so we were able to move away from it without losing data and without having to rebuild VMs from scratch. The migration process went smoothly, with the main thing that stood out being the exchanging of repository links and the use of purpose-built scripts by our infrastructure and hosting team that took care of the heavy lifting.
What needs improvement?
I don't have specific suggestions on how Rocky Linux can be improved.
I don't want to add more about the needed improvements, even minor things or little annoyances.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Rocky Linux for a couple of years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
In my experience, Rocky Linux is stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Rocky Linux's scalability is good; it has handled growth or changing needs well considering that it was able to scale up our high availability environments for our web hosting services.
How are customer service and support?
I haven't needed to reach out for help regarding customer support for Rocky Linux.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I previously used CentOS, and the reason for the change to Rocky Linux was because of the end-of-life of CentOS 7 and 8 since those distributions were being discontinued and we needed a platform to move to that wasn't going to cost us an arm and a leg for licensing.
What was our ROI?
I have seen a return on investment since there was definitely money saved at the time due to the lack of need for licensing since Rocky is available openly.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing has been that there was no cost associated with licensing for Rocky at the time because it was available openly and freely.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Before choosing Rocky Linux, we evaluated one other option, which was AlmaLinux, and we chose to go with Rocky instead.
What other advice do I have?
My advice for others looking into using Rocky Linux is to be sure to look at tutorials on how to get started if they are new users to the Red Hat RPMs or if they are unfamiliar with Linux as a whole.
I think it's been a great operating system to use both professionally and personally, and I've been able to adapt Rocky Linux into my WSL environment on my personal computer running Windows 11 and WSL Rocky.
I found out about the interview through LinkedIn.
On a scale of 1-10, I rate Rocky Linux a 10.
Has reduced privilege escalation and improved patching efficiency through automation
What is our primary use case?
My main use case for Rocky Linux is the user-friendly commands and being able to work much easier on the RHEL supported flavor as compared to other flavors whereby you have to ask for escalation when you want to install something or change file permissions or anything of that sort.
A specific example of how Rocky Linux has made things easier for me is that it has streamlined processes by not requiring privilege escalation all the time. Once I'm logged in as root, I don't have to escalate using sudo, which makes things much easier, especially since it's not a security risk when proper restrictions are set up in the perimeter with SSH and firewall rules and jump host, making it much smoother.
What is most valuable?
The best features Rocky Linux offers include not having to escalate privileges all the time, and it is binary compatible with RHEL systems, which means long-term support, making it much more predictable when it comes to updates. It also has a strong focus on enterprise workloads.
Binary compatibility and long-term support features have made things simpler because you can easily integrate the two systems with your Red Hat kernel. The long-term predictable updates make it a clear choice because I know that whatever I'm implementing now is guaranteed to receive updates in the long term.
Rocky Linux has positively impacted my organization by making things simpler, especially with not having to escalate privileges all the time using sudo as compared to Ubuntu flavors.
I've experienced less downtime in terms of having to focus on updates, which improves the security posture. Rocky Linux is compatible with automation tools, including Ansible, whereby we can deploy the infrastructure using code. It easily integrates with other containers and automation tools, making it easier to push updates, particularly security updates, and upgrade packages.
What needs improvement?
At the moment, I don't see much improvement that can be made to Rocky Linux. We work in IT and security is the main factor that we focus on, so perhaps more security control rules could be implemented. However, so far, I don't see much room for improvement.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Rocky Linux for three to four years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Rocky Linux is stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
In terms of scalability, you need to have automation tools.
How are customer service and support?
The customer support for Rocky Linux is good, as it offers long-term support.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Neutral
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I haven't necessarily switched. I used Ubuntu before, and we still use Ubuntu even in this current company along with Rocky Linux.
How was the initial setup?
It is not difficult to deploy Rocky Linux in my organization which is set up on a private cloud.
What about the implementation team?
I never worked on the implementation or pricing part, but I know that Rocky Linux is free, and I can download it and deploy it in whatever environment I have, whether it be H3C, VMware, or Hyper-V. I am not involved in costs.
What was our ROI?
Regarding return on investment in terms of time saved with automation, I wouldn't know about money saved as I am not in the finance department.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I never worked on the pricing part, but I know that Rocky Linux is free, and I can download it and deploy it in whatever environment I have, whether it be H3C, VMware, or Hyper-V. I am not involved in costs.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Before choosing Rocky Linux, I didn't evaluate other options.
What other advice do I have?
My advice to others looking into using Rocky Linux is they should go for it. There isn't much difference compared to other flavors, and it is much closer to RHEL systems, so whatever commands you would use in your Red Hat, you would use in Rocky Linux. I rate Rocky Linux 8 out of 10.
Have built a secure server cluster environment and reduced vulnerabilities over time
What is our primary use case?
For the last two years, I have been using Rocky Linux for our project. I do all the things: installations of Rocky Linux, coding in Rocky Linux, and using Rocky Linux as a platform.
We use Rocky Linux as a base OS for our project, and on top of Rocky Linux OS, we are building our project. We have chosen Rocky Linux because it supports long-term support.
We are using Rocky Linux for one of our projects in CommScope, using it as a base OS, and on top of that, we are installing many RPMs and making it customized. We are adding numerous security patches, as Rocky Linux continuously provides security updates and patches, which is one of the best benefits we are getting. We are also using Rocky Linux for high availability purposes, with approximately 11 to 12 server clusters.
What is most valuable?
We are using Rocky Linux because it has strong security, compatibility with RHEL, and enterprise-grade stability, which is the main reason for choosing Rocky Linux. The plus point is that they regularly provide security updates and patches, which is very helpful to us.
Rocky Linux offers strong security and enterprise-grade stability as its best features. These are the two main advantages compared to others.
Enterprise-grade stability refers to the fact that it uses the RHEL source code, ensuring compatibility, and is suitable for servers, production environments, and critical applications, built to be a reliable, long-term support OS.
In terms of security, we are getting regular security patches and updates, which is one of the best use cases I've noticed positively impacting Rocky Linux in my organization.
Day by day, the vulnerabilities are decreasing, and as we have implemented good practices, there is less downtime.
What needs improvement?
Currently, I have nothing to say about how Rocky Linux can be improved.
The rolling update for Rocky Linux is very limited and focused on stability, so the software may not always be the latest version, which is something they need to improve.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been working in my current field for the last two years and eight months.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Rocky Linux is stable.
Regarding scalability, Rocky Linux is a very good OS, and we haven't faced any issues currently.
How are customer service and support?
Currently, the customer support for Rocky Linux is not fully developed and is in a growing stage; the customer support is also not very responsive.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Previously, we were using CentOS, which reached its end of life, prompting us to switch to Rocky Linux because we found it is an LTS with stability and long-term support.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The pricing for Rocky Linux has no major difference compared to enterprise-level software, which is similar to enterprise-level Linux, so there isn't much difference and it's a good experience with both the older and newer versions compared to CentOS and Rocky Linux.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We checked some enterprise-level OSs such as Debian before choosing Rocky Linux, but we found we were more inclined toward Rocky Linux as it gives LTS support and stability, so we moved to Rocky Linux.
What other advice do I have?
If you are looking for a long-term support OS, an LTS, then I recommend choosing Rocky Linux, as they are releasing many patches and updates regarding security.
Rocky Linux is best for someone who wants good scalability, enterprise-grade stability, substantial community engagement, compatibility with RHEL, and strong security. I also feel there is good documentation with Rocky Linux, along with providing long-term support, which makes it better to choose Rocky Linux.
On a scale of one to ten, I rate Rocky Linux a nine out of ten.
Has supported uninterrupted live broadcasts and optimized media workflows across critical infrastructure
What is our primary use case?
My main use case for Rocky Linux is to use it as an enterprise server OS, providing a production-grade server platform equivalent to RHEL, running critical workloads, ERM, CRM, database servers like PostgreSQL and MySQL, and supporting broadcast and media workflows, where it serves as a stable OS for encoding, transcoding, and streaming platforms like Haivision and other OEM encoders, ensuring predictable performance for low-latency live streaming and content packaging workflows.
My use case with Rocky Linux also includes web and application hosting, cloud and virtualization, media and streaming workflows, serving as a stable foundation for live encoders, packagers, and CDN nodes; we use it with platforms such as Titan Live, Near-live, Haivision, and Wowza for OTT delivery, high-performance computing, and security-sensitive workloads.
What is most valuable?
The best features Rocky Linux offers include being 100% bug compatible compared to RHEL, providing enterprise stability for production workloads, meeting the need for reliability and long-term support, and being managed by the Rocky Enterprise Software Foundation, with its security and compliance features and migration tools making a significant difference for us.
Rocky Linux performs excellently in low-latency live streaming and content packaging workflows, as we use it for optimizing compatibility with the streaming platforms, utilizing an optimized kernel for networking, tuning profiles, IRQ affinity, security, reliability, and hardware and driver support.
Rocky Linux has positively impacted our organization; it works reliably and enhances our low-latency streaming workflows for our affiliates, performing well without noticeable glitches in our workflow. Since we started using Rocky Linux, we have drastically reduced low latency, especially across the public network, and we haven't seen much downtime, significantly decreasing downtime for the servers accommodating low live streaming workflows.
What needs improvement?
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Rocky Linux for three years.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We haven't tried to scale Rocky Linux since we recently started using this solution, but in the future, we definitely plan to scale as per our needs.
How are customer service and support?
Rocky Linux is up to the mark; the solutions are really customer-focused and revenue-oriented, and the support level is extraordinary, providing on-time assistance, making it commendable.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
What other advice do I have?
The migration tools have been incredibly helpful; we use migrate2rocky.sh, a primary tool developed by the Rocky Foundation, which automates the conversion process of a compatible system to Rocky Linux, and applies it for log correlation and diagnosis of issues we encounter in our live streaming workflows.
Rocky Linux has a long-term life cycle for 10 years, being minimal and customizable, with performance tuning tools and an enterprise hardware ecosystem that stand out for our team.
My advice for others looking into using Rocky Linux is that if any organization is in search of a robust, stable, scalable solution in the broadcast media tech sector, they should definitely assess it, as they will likely achieve the desired results.
Currently, we are just a broadcaster and not a partner or reseller for Rocky products; however, in the future, we will explore a partnership for a B2B relationship.
We are currently satisfied with Rocky Linux, but if we encounter issues in the future, we will definitely highlight them.
I rate Rocky Linux 9 out of 10.
Has supported our hybrid cloud migration and reduced vendor dependency with strong community collaboration
What is our primary use case?
Our main use case for Rocky Linux is to host servers and developer environments for leading telecom vendors.
What is most valuable?
The best features Rocky Linux offers, in my experience, include long-term support, stability, and one-to-one binary compatibility with Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
Rocky Linux has been a major driver for our cloud migration strategy and has proven to be one of the most cost-effective solutions for us, allowing us to save huge revenue while maintaining fantastic consistency with updates.
What needs improvement?
From a feature or experience perspective, it has been fantastic, but the only drawback we have seen is that even though there are timely deliveries of security patches and vulnerability fixes, the Rocky Linux Security Advisor or RLSA updates via the DNF utilities are broken or delayed. When we use the DNF functionality to search the affected RLSA or RLSA with CVE IDs, it's not working as expected, and the mirrors or the XML files need to be updated similar to Red Hat, which would help us keep our environment more secure and make maintenance easier. Otherwise, we have to do extensive research to identify the affected packages or RPMs with specific RLSA numbers.
I would like to see improvements in the security areas and updates of RLSA details as soon as the RLSA numbers are updated in the XML file. Security has been a major driver for IT organizations across the world and must be addressed at a faster pace. The unavailability of RLSA in the DNF search has been a major drawback that I would like to see improved in the future.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Rocky Linux for three years for our day-to-day use cases.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
We have seen a stable Rocky Linux environment as of now.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Our solution does not currently involve architecture with scalability.
How are customer service and support?
Customer support for Rocky Linux is excellent, and the documentation is also very good.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
How was the initial setup?
It has been a wonderful experience associating with Rocky Linux, and we would continue to use it full-fledged. I don't see that we have to choose any alternative OS in the near future.
What was our ROI?
ROI has been good as we have significant open source community involvement. In fact, we have increased our footprints, allowing us to onboard more resources or employees, which is a positive sign.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
My experience with pricing, setup costs, and licensing for Rocky Linux is good and streamlined, with no hiccups.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Before choosing Rocky Linux, we evaluated other options including Ubuntu, Oracle Linux, and a few other flavors, but since Rocky Linux has one-to-one binary compatibility with Red Hat, it was the best fit.
What other advice do I have?
Rocky Linux has been a ready-to-use solution for us, so we don't need to have vendor dependency or vendor lock for any support or help. The community has been a great help in resolving all issues, and while from a monetary point of view, it has resulted in significant savings, we cannot provide the exact numbers as some of this is company confidential.
There is not much need for further improvements at this juncture.
If you want to get a premium product with the best in-house community support, Rocky Linux would be the one solution.
On a scale of 1-10, I rate Rocky Linux a 9 out of 10.
Has supported critical applications and reduced infrastructure costs through community-driven updates
What is our primary use case?
My main use case for Rocky Linux is that all the applications used by our company are hosted in Rocky Linux servers, so we will be maintaining, remediating the vulnerabilities which are getting reported on the servers, patching the servers and making them up to date, and helping all the users who log into servers to use their applications without any issues.
A specific example of an application where I'm using Rocky Linux in my company is the POS machines which are used by the customers, where all the POS related applications are hosted in Rocky Linux operating system, so that's where Rocky Linux came into the picture, and from the OS level, we will be giving all the support wherever it is necessary.
The middleware packages such as Apache Tomcat, Java, HTTPD are all running on these Rocky Linux servers, so we ensure all those services are up and running without any issues.
What is most valuable?
The best features Rocky Linux offers are that it is much easier to use. Since it is open source, whatever issues we face, we can get answers from the community for each and every issue we encounter, so finding a solution for each problem is much easier, and that's the major feature I feel for Rocky Linux.
When comparing Rocky Linux to Red Hat, it is more stable, as whatever issues arise, we can solve them quickly, and since there is an open community, we receive help from everybody who is using this.
Rocky Linux has helped our organization significantly in terms of cost. If we were purchasing a Red Hat subscription, it would cost significantly more, but since Rocky Linux is open source and free, it has helped with cost reduction, allowing us to utilize those funds for other needed things.
When we moved from Red Hat to Rocky Linux, we saved around 70% of the cost which was used for subscriptions. That money is now used for other things such as middleware applications and monitoring applications including DataDog and Dynatrace.
What needs improvement?
To improve Rocky Linux, providing releases for each package, firmware, and kernel more quickly would be beneficial. Currently, it takes more than one month to release a new package or kernel, so speeding that up would help reduce reported vulnerability remediations.
Documenting the frequently asked questions and related issues in a PDF or Word document would be helpful so that everybody can refer to them, eliminating the need to post a question and wait for a reply, thus reducing time delay.
Currently, there aren't many needed improvements, only the support aspect needs a little improvement. Everything else is going well and smoothly.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Rocky Linux for more than six years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Rocky Linux is stable, scalable, and it is very much easier to use.
How are customer service and support?
Regarding customer support, since it is open source, most of the solutions are available on the community page, but even if we raise a support ticket, we receive a resolution or a reply from the team within two business days.
I would rate the customer support a seven.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Before choosing Rocky Linux, we were considering moving with Red Hat itself, planning to move from RHEL 8 to RHEL 9, but after considering the cost involving Red Hat, we thought about an open source solution, which led us to Rocky Linux.
What was our ROI?
When it comes to return on investment, a lot of money is saved since we moved from a purchased license to the open source provided by Rocky Linux. Time is also saved since whenever an issue arises, we get resolutions from the community without needing to raise a ticket with the support team.
What other advice do I have?
When we encounter an issue, we look all over the internet, not only depending on the community, so whichever solutions provide us with proper resolution are considered.
My advice to others looking into using Rocky Linux is that it is much easier to use, it's scalable, performance is good, and there is no cost involved in using it.
I rate Rocky Linux nine out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Hybrid Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Has supported seamless migrations and enabled running complex data workloads securely
What is our primary use case?
We use Rocky Linux as a big data platform, with a Solar, Apache setup having many nodes, in production just eight and two in test. We have an application server with Tomcat and TomEE, and we use it for the application server for this big database, Quadrant, Docker, and we have CUDA installed with Docker, using PySpark, Torsion, TensorFlow, and many other things. We use Rocky Linux for all, and I have installed Ansible and Prometheus to monitor all servers in production.
We have a normal three-tier architecture and new things on Docker with PySpark, using it for enrichment and loading a million records of data in our database. We have a Spark node with Apache Spark; it's part of our big data, similar to Hadoop big data.
What is most valuable?
The best features Rocky Linux offers include clustering and all the packages from Red Hat.
Rocky Linux has impacted my organization very positively because we migrated everything from CentOS and Windows servers to Rocky Linux. Everything is clear, with good packaging, and now it's version 9.6, which is very important for us due to security problems since we are in Europe. Rocky Linux is very good for security and other aspects.
Since migrating to Rocky Linux, I've seen specific outcomes such as improved security because CentOS stopped the project, and security patches aren't being released. We need to maintain a system similar to Red Hat, which is very stable and has many features such as file system, topology, and containers.
What needs improvement?
Rocky Linux could be improved by having more integration with Kubernetes.
For how long have I used the solution?
I started using Rocky Linux two years ago because we migrated many servers from the CentOS distribution, and now we have all servers migrated by me in Rocky Linux.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
When I started to migrate, we had Ubuntu as another choice to move from CentOS, but Ubuntu is a little different, and the best way is to maintain Rocky Linux. We used Rocky Linux, and now we are very happy with it; it's a very good choice, and I think it's very powerful, making it an excellent option with 17 VMs using VMware and many instances.
What other advice do I have?
I give Rocky Linux a nine out of 10 because ten represents perfection, perhaps similar to a real-time operating system such as those used in airplane computers.
My advice for others looking into using Rocky Linux is to choose it, especially for people coming from CentOS; I suggest Rocky Linux as the best option, not any other distribution.
My company has a business relationship with this vendor as a partner.
You can use my real name when publishing my review. You can use Joint Research Center, JRC, but not my real company name in the review as I'm working for another company.
Has supported automated deployments and improved security through consistent patching
What is our primary use case?
As a Cloud Ops Engineer, we are setting up the server on the EC2 machine with Rocky Linux, while also doing some setup related to the frameworks for Ruby. We are installing their dependencies related to the Ruby on Rails application and other security-level software such as Rapid7, CrowdStrike, and many more.
On Rocky Linux, we have deployed a Ruby on Rails application, and we have set up other applications as well.
We are not doing this stuff manually, as we have set up an Ansible automation script to set up all this stuff on Rocky Linux, and for the installation and server setup, we are using Terraform. Using Terraform, we are spinning up the instance on AWS EC2.
I purchased Rocky Linux through the AWS Marketplace.
What is most valuable?
Rocky Linux provides us with extended maintenance, security patches, and support lifecycle aligned with RHEL, making it highly reliable for critical systems. For production deployment, Rocky Linux is a great choice because it offers full RHEL compatibility without licensing costs, along with strong community support.
If we are planning to migrate from CentOS, it was very smooth and straightforward, and we can follow their official document to migrate from CentOS to Rocky Linux. Rocky Linux 8 is supported until 2029, and Rocky Linux 9 is supported until 2032, which is a significant benefit.
Previously it was CentOS, which is already EOL, and now we have the latest packages and an up-to-date operating system, so we get the most benefit at the security level. Also, performance-wise, we are seeing improvement in the application and day-to-day operations.
What needs improvement?
I have no suggestions regarding how Rocky Linux can be improved. I haven't identified any areas that need improvement yet.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Rocky Linux for over a year.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Rocky Linux is stable in my experience.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Rocky Linux's scalability is very easy. Even if the server is not responding and we want to attach the volume on another instance or a temporary instance, it is very easy and straightforward with no hiccups.
How are customer service and support?
I have not reached out to customer support for Rocky Linux. This has not yet been discussed with my security team, as this is recent, and the security team started checking on this.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Negative
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We switched to Rocky Linux because our previous OS was EOL, and we had to switch to the new OS, so we chose Rocky Linux.
What was our ROI?
Regarding return on investment, we have chosen the same exact resource that we were using earlier, so there is no immediate return on investment. That needs to be identified if we can cut down our resources with a smaller instance, but that has not yet been figured out.
I notice money saved as a return on investment.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
There is no extra cost for a license if we are purchasing Rocky Linux from the AWS Marketplace.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I didn't evaluate other options before choosing Rocky Linux.
What other advice do I have?
I rate Rocky Linux a nine out of ten.
If you are using any other RHEL-based OS, Rocky Linux is very similar to other RHEL operating systems.
I see some performance-related issues, but we are still checking on that, and we don't know if it is related to the OS or the resource; that is something still to be checked from our end.
I would recommend doing a POC on your existing application or use case with Rocky Linux. If it works smoothly, then observe it for a few periods, and if it works properly for your application and whatever your use case is, proceed with implementation. Each application and use case works totally differently, so if it works for some applications properly, it's not a given that it will work for every application. First do a POC, and if it works properly, then you can proceed with implementation.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Hybrid Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Amazon Web Services (AWS)
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