RSS
Email
Print
ShareRed Hat Enterprise Linux 3.0
Posted by Christopher T. Beers on January 30, 2004
Thus the operating system had difficulty scaling to thousands of simultaneous threads, and Java-based applications requiring threading support were near impossible to deploy. NPTL was initially available in the 2.5 development seed of the Linux kernel, so distributions can incorporate back into the 2.4 source or use the 2.6 kernel.
Our tests revealed that RHEL 3.0 also delivers better storage management, including more robust drivers. We were happy to see support for SATA (Serial ATA)--we expect these faster disk drives to become more common as hardware vendors better integrate SATA devices. RHEL does not contain drivers for iSCSI disks because the driver does not meet the ratified specifications. Red Hat says it hopes to release an update to 3.0 that will contain this support.
License and Registration, Please
But there is a catch (you knew there had to be one): Red Hat's purchase model--based on RHEL version, per server, per architecture, per support level per year--will be daunting to manage in large installations. Because customers are unlikely to install RHEL on all nodes all at once--instead accumulating an environment over many years to meet the demands of their businesses--purchasing agents could be renewing RHEL licenses and support every month.
Red Hat needs to ease this support burden by offering yearly support contracts that are renewable based on the server's classification and allow midyear purchases to co-terminate with a customer's existing support contract.
We installed all flavors of RHEL 3.0 from the same base media. Red Hat uses "Personality Technology" to customize the installation to WS, ES or AS--only the installation-boot CD differs. The company says this technology will let it create custom distributions of RHEL for large desktop rollouts or government organizations. All versions are supported by Red Hat technical support at various levels; the distribution also supports major independent software vendor applications, such as Oracle and IBM WebSphere, and includes desktop applications like Mozilla and OpenOffice, along with must-haves like Apache, Samba and NFS.
After installing all three versions, we examined the management functions of RHN (Red Hat Network) satellite and proxy servers. Installation was straightforward and easy to follow on the RHEL x86-supported hardware. All our test-bed devices, including network and sound cards, were installed and configured automatically. Previous users of Red Hat Linux or RHEL will feel right at home with the installer, which is based on Red Hat's venerable Anaconda installer interface.
The WS version is best-suited for desktop clients because it supports hardware with a maximum of two processors. However, the operating system will run on 32-bit architecture/x86 hardware, as well as 64-bit hardware, including Intel Itanium and AMD 64. WS is the least expensive variety, starting at $179 per copy without support, but it includes one year's worth of the RHN update module. Technical support, limited to 12/5, is available starting at $299 per workstation.
Unfortunately, Red Hat premium support, 24/7, is only available for the AS version. Although Red Hat aims this release at the desktop/client market or as part of a technical computing farm, the WS version could function as low-budget Web or file servers because it includes Apache and Samba and supports more than 8 GB of memory.
The ES version, targeted to edge network services like DNS, DHCP, Web, and file and print, runs only on x86 32-bit architectures with memory footprints smaller than 8 GB. Unlike WS, this version let us install Red Hat-supported packages, including DNS, DHCP, FTP and LDAP servers, and firewall services.
IT Minute: Linux in the Enterprise Grab your RealPlayer and get the inside scoop on which applications you'll need to put Linux to work in your organization. |
AS is Red Hat's premier edition of RHEL and boasts compatibility with a wide range of hardware architectures. This version of RHEL can run on typical Linux hardware, like x86, Intel Itanium and AMD 64, as well as atypical hardware, such as IBM pSeries, iSeries, zSeries and s/390 processor architectures. AS is supported on machines with very large processor and memory configurations--up to 16 processors and 64 GB of memory in x86 architectures (other architectures vary). RHEL AS is expensive compared with WS and ES, but it's the only version that offers 24/7, one-hour-response technical support--a must for mission-critical application servers.
Taking into account the less-expensive x86-based hardware and RHEL AS costs, AS is more affordable than Sun Microsystems Solaris or IBM AIX running on SPARC or pSeries servers. RHEL AS for x86 processors starts at $1,499 with standard support and increases to $2,499 for premier-level access. RHEL AS on zSeries and s/390 architectures starts at a hefty $15,000, which does not include premium support--tack on $3,000 for that!
We found the default package selection appropriate for each version, and the Red Hat installer let us customize the installation from the default selections. RHEL also lets administrators custom-compile applications on the operating system; this worked flawlessly on all three varieties when we compiled the latest version of the Apache Web server. Although custom applications are not supported by Red Hat per se, use of such applications does not invalidate the company's support offerings.
So you've decided to take the plunge and purchase a data center full of RHEL servers. But how do you manage them most efficiently? With the included RHN services, of course. RHN is a complete systems-management tool built on a simple Web-based interface and comes in three flavors: hosted, proxy server and satellite server. You can increase the functionality of the service by adding modules such as update, monitoring, management and, by the time you read this, provisioning.
Add Your Comment: