What is RHEL (Red Hat En­ter­prise Linux)?

RHEL is a com­mer­cial Linux dis­tri­bu­tion from Red Hat, spe­cific­ally tailored to meet the needs of busi­nesses. It excels with features like technical support, LSB cer­ti­fic­a­tion, and flexible sub­scrip­tions. Typical use cases range from high-avail­ab­il­ity database and file servers to DevOps pipelines and edge computing.

What is RHEL?

RHEL is a Linux dis­tri­bu­tion developed by the company Red Hat and designed for use in busi­nesses. Red Hat En­ter­prise Linux is con­sidered the leading en­ter­prise Linux dis­tri­bu­tion and is ex­tens­ively supported by a variety of in­de­pend­ent software vendors. The Red Hat En­tre­prise Linux OS is based on proven open-source core com­pon­ents, but is sup­ple­men­ted by strict quality assurance, cer­ti­fic­a­tions and pro­fes­sion­al support. This means RHEL offers a stable and validated platform for pro­duct­ive en­vir­on­ments, serving as a found­a­tion for various IT struc­tures.

What product variants of RHEL are available?

RHEL is available in different product variants, each tailored to specific workloads and use cases. The product range includes the following editions:

• Red Hat En­ter­prise Linux Server: This edition rep­res­ents the most commonly used RHEL variant. It offers straight­for­ward control and ad­min­is­tra­tion and can be deployed on both physical hardware systems, virtual machines, and in the cloud. Red Hat En­ter­prise Linux Server serves as a found­a­tion for IT in­fra­struc­ture and stand­ard­ises de­vel­op­ment as well as de­ploy­ment.
• Red Hat En­ter­prise Linux AI: RHEL AI is optimised for AI workloads and machine learning. Spe­cific­ally, this edition provides a platform for found­a­tion­al models, enabling companies to develop, test, and run their ap­plic­a­tions using large language models (LLMs).
• Red Hat En­ter­prise Linux for Work­sta­tions: The work­sta­tion variant is par­tic­u­larly suitable for high-per­form­ance and graph­ic­ally intensive workloads such as animation, visual effects (VFX), and sci­entif­ic research.
• Red Hat En­ter­prise Linux in the Cloud: RHEL for the cloud offers cer­ti­fic­a­tions for hundreds of public clouds and ensures flex­ib­il­ity through stand­ard­isa­tion.

What features make RHEL stand out?

RHEL has a range of char­ac­ter­ist­ics that make it ideal for busi­nesses. These include:

• Long lifecycle: In­di­vidu­al RHEL versions receive support for ten years. Red Hat has oc­ca­sion­ally extended the lifecycle by an ad­di­tion­al three years. However, during the Extended Life Phase (ELP), only limited support is provided.
• Com­pre­hens­ive security mech­an­isms: The Red Hat En­ter­prise Linux OS features various in­teg­rated security functions like SELinux (access control) and Mandatory Access Controls (pre­vent­ing un­au­thor­ised access and enforcing policies). RHEL is also certified according to Common Criteria and FIPS 140-2.
• Software man­age­ment: The in­stall­a­tion of Red Hat En­ter­prise Linux is done through a graphical installer called Anaconda, which is easy to use even for in­ex­per­i­enced users. For package man­age­ment, RHEL uses two pro­pri­et­ary tools, RPM and YUM.
• Open-source insurance: Red Hat offers insurance for its RHEL dis­tri­bu­tion against in­tel­lec­tu­al property lawsuits directed at the software. This option allows users to legally protect them­selves against claims made against them.
• LSB cer­ti­fic­a­tion: All RHEL versions are certified by the Linux Found­a­tion according to the Linux Standard Base (LSB) spe­cific­a­tions. This cer­ti­fic­a­tion proves that Red Hat En­ter­prise Linux is binary com­pat­ible with other Linux dis­tri­bu­tions.

What are the ad­vant­ages and dis­ad­vant­ages of RHEL?

A sub­scrip­tion for Red Hat En­ter­prise Linux offers busi­nesses numerous ad­vant­ages that go beyond basic operating system func­tion­al­ity. The following overview sum­mar­ises the main ones:

• Pro­fes­sion­al support: Busi­nesses can access dedicated phone and online support, com­pre­hens­ive doc­u­ment­a­tion as well as a detailed knowledge base for resolving issues.
• Stable and secure: To ensure maximum security and stability, ap­plic­a­tions and updates are thor­oughly tested by Red Hat.
• Com­pat­ib­il­ity: RHEL is licensed by thousands of software, cloud, and hardware products, ensuring seamless in­teg­ra­tion.
• Supported li­fe­cycles: An RHEL sub­scrip­tion allows you to freely choose between supported versions and perform upgrades in­di­vidu­ally.
• Product roadmaps: Users can view product roadmaps and influence the direction of RHEL through feedback.
• In­teg­rated analytics services: The Linux dis­tri­bu­tion comes with Red Hat Insights and as­so­ci­ated ana­lyt­ic­al services, which allow for rapid iden­ti­fic­a­tion and res­ol­u­tion of security, com­pli­ance and con­fig­ur­a­tion risks.
• High usability: RHEL boasts a user-friendly, often intuitive interface that allows users, even those without spe­cial­ised knowledge, to work with the Linux dis­tri­bu­tion.

The only downside to mention is the paid sub­scrip­tion for Red Hat En­ter­prise Linux OS. This makes Red Hat En­ter­prise Linux less at­tract­ive for in­di­vidu­als and small busi­nesses, such as startups.

What is RHEL best suited for?

Red Hat En­ter­prise Linux primarily targets companies and or­gan­isa­tions that rely on maximum stability, security, and long-term planning of their IT in­fra­struc­ture. Target audiences include IT de­part­ments of large en­ter­prises, de­vel­op­ment teams, and data analysts. Typical ap­plic­a­tion areas include:

• Business-critical workloads: Databases, ERP/CRM systems, or email clusters
• Security-critical ap­plic­a­tions: Financial services, health­care, or gov­ern­ment de­part­ments
• High per­form­ance computing (HPC): Sci­entif­ic research, risk analyses in the financial sector, or animation and special effects
• Edge computing: IoT ap­plic­a­tions (IoT = Internet of Things), autonom­ous driving, or Industry 4.0
• App de­vel­op­ment: CI/CD pipelines, testing and deploying ap­plic­a­tions, container workflows
• SAP workloads: Operating and hosting SAP NetWeaver, S/4HANA, and other SAP solutions

What RHEL licence models are available?

Which licence model applies depends on whether RHEL is used phys­ic­ally or virtually. If physical hardware is used, the number of socket pairs in the systems used is crucial. One sub­scrip­tion covers two sockets, but they cannot be split. In virtual en­vir­on­ments, the number of virtual nodes de­term­ines how many sub­scrip­tions are needed. Here, one sub­scrip­tion covers two virtual nodes.

Sub­scrip­tions can be booked for one year or three years– either without support (Self-Support) or combined with a Service Level Agreement (Standard or Premium). After the sub­scrip­tion expires, the software can still be used, but this doesn’t apply to ap­plic­a­tions based on Red Hat services.

What are the main al­tern­at­ives to RHEL?

Among the numerous Linux dis­tri­bu­tions, several qualify as al­tern­at­ives to RHEL. For a long time, one of the most popular al­tern­at­ives was CentOS, mainly because it’s a clone of RHEL. However, as of June 2024, no new updates or security patches will be released for CentOS. CentOS Stream is its successor project.

Other popular al­tern­at­ives include:

• Ubuntu is a promising al­tern­at­ive, featuring high user-friend­li­ness, easy con­fig­ur­a­tion, and reliable stability. New versions of Ubuntu typically receive five years of support.
• AlmaLinux is an open-source dis­tri­bu­tion with high stability and extensive security features, based on RHEL.
• Rocky Linux is also based on RHEL and places great im­port­ance on stability, forward-looking roadmaps, and trans­par­ency in de­vel­op­ment processes.