Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) Reviews

The main use case is generating golden images. All the deployments of operating systems and virtual machines on the servers are based on the golden image. The developers and providers can run all the applications on top of those.

Whenever we need to remediate any vulnerabilities, patches are available. These patches are not only for current exploits but also for back-porting for bug fixes and security fixes. These patches are available from the most recent versions to the specific version that we are using.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux has enabled us to centralize development. We have a golden image of the operating system. That golden image sets the standard for all the security policies that we are applying to it. For example, the partition scheme and the best practices that we apply to the golden image are the starting point for all the developers to start working with all the applications and also executing appliances or applications from providers.

We are using Red Hat Enterprise Linux with Podman for containerization projects. Red Hat offers what is called UBI or Universal Base Image. That image is already configured to be secure and have good performance. To start working with containers, we just have to pull UBI as a base for our images and start working on those. It has impacted our containerization project because instead of using Docker, we can use Podman. There is a common container image that is used by the majority of the customers, but I forgot the name of that one. Instead of using that, which is like a very minimal image, we are using UBI because it is already secure. It has the majority of the benefits of our Red Hat Enterprise Linux image but in a container image.

There is portability of applications and containers built on Red Hat Enterprise Linux for keeping our organization agile. That is a very good option to have because you do not have to worry about the underlying system. You just have to worry about your application and have the application running on top of your image based on UBI. It is going to be so easy to have the application running either on a machine with Podman or have the same application running just on top of OpenShift. It is so easy to move a container-based application that can be executed on top of Red Hat Enterprise Linux with Podman or on top of OpenShift. 

Security, packages, and updates are valuable. There is also the possibility to do unattended installations. This way you can define how you want the installation to behave and be configured whenever you do the deployment.

One of the best features is having a tool called OSCAP, which is a tool that is going to allow us to apply security profiles to the golden image. This way, all the security features or policies can be applied in real time. This way, we can follow all the policies that are defined by our security teams.

There are not a lot of areas to improve because the majority of the time, Red Hat is constantly improving it. The only area would be in regards to being capable of running on other architectures like ARM. They are about to release a new version that is available to be executed on ARM architecture.

We have been using Red Hat Enterprise Linux for about a year.

It is very stable.

It is scalable. We have plans to increase its usage.

It used to be better. It is still good as long as you can get in touch with a level 3 support engineer. If you have a trained engineer who helps you with what you need and who understands how to ask for specific details of what you need, you should be good. But, unfortunately, if you start with a simple detail of what you are experiencing and what kind of help you need, you will receive the same response. For example, you are pointed to a knowledge base article, and that is it. The support engineer is supposed to help you with your issue or request, but unfortunately, that is not happening anymore. It used to, but I understand.

We are looking for a support engineer to go all the way. The only way for you to contact support is via the support case system or page. After that, you interact through the ticket or email. You do not have a chance to have a call. If we have escalated a case, it is usually better if you have a person for a proper understanding and proper advice on what you have to do and how to resolve the issue. It could be that you need a new product, subscription, or service, but you do not know that.

Neutral

When I got into the company, they were already using Red Hat Enterprise Linux, but back in the day, I used to have HP-UX. That was a very ancient system. It was Unix-based. It was a proprietary solution. HP-UX was a platform licensed based on the old Unix code that was tightly integrated into hardware built only by Hewlett-Packard. You could not run HP-UX in any other place. You could only run it on hardware created by Hewlett-Packard. The intention with that was to run only on the Itanium architecture, whereas Red Hat Enterprise Linux can run on x86 architecture. It is also open-source.

We have it on-premises. It is in different locations. We are following a strategy to publish the images of the operating system. This way, multiple teams can grab the images and have their own procedures to deploy within each separate environment. We have multiple teams working on developments and they need a base image to start working on all the development stuff. Because they are all independent teams, they have access to a single source of image. This way, they can start working on further customizations and whatever they need.

We implement it in-house.

The ROI is in terms of the time that I have to invest in doing customizations, applying security policies, and fixing the supply to the system, wherever I need those.

The reason for going for Red Hat Enterprise Linux is to improve the time to market. It is so easy to just generate a new image. We can configure it with all the security features and all the libraries and packages we need. We can also configure it with the ones requested by developers. We can do all of that. It is so much easier than what we can do with Windows, for example.

It is very straightforward. We do not have to think much about having to get all the subscriptions related to the Red Hat Enterprise Linux fleet that we have because all the subscriptions came in pairs of CPUs or even for an entire bare-metal server. That way you can partition your bare-metal server into multiple virtual machines, and then you are covered. As long as your bare-metal server is covered, you can roll out any number of virtual machines on top of it. It is very easy to get subscriptions for your bare-metal server, and you can utilize whatever you want.

We evaluated operating systems or Linux distributions created by the community or run by the community only. We evaluated them mainly because of costs.

To a colleague who is looking at open-source, cloud-based operating systems for Linux instead of Red Hat Enterprise Linux, I would say that they would not have the same team supporting all the operations and all the critical features and patches that they receive with Red Hat Enterprise Linux. They can go with one of the clones, but unfortunately, at the end of the day, the clones are going to deviate from Red Hat Enterprise Linux. With Red Hat Enterprise Linux, you can also create support cases to receive back-ported bug fixes and security fixes, and you get very cool features such as Insights, Satellite, or system roles provided along with Ansible. 

We are currently not using Red Hat Insights but that is an awesome tool.

Overall, I would rate Red Hat Enterprise Linux a ten out of ten. It is an enterprise Linux distribution. It was one of the first distributions to focus on the enterprise. There are others, but Red Hat is the main contributor to the Linux ecosystem. Because of that, it is so stable. It has proper support. It also provides the Linux ecosystem with new features and enhancements.

We use Red Hat Enterprise Linux servers and Satellite for patch management. We're also using Ansible for automation and hardening. Additionally, I'm doing a migration project from RHEL 7 to RHEL 9. Our environment is a mixture of on-prem and cloud systems. We are a hospital, so we can't keep some information on the cloud for compliance reasons. 

We have a separate team for the hybrid, and I'm part of that team. We've been migrating a few servers from on-prem to the cloud. Everything used to be on a hardware server, but now we use the cloud for the storage network. We share workloads between the cloud and the physical data center. Our Rubrik data backup archives to the cloud with Microsoft Azure. We also partner with Pure Storage, which we use for on-prem storage.

We have physical Red Hat Enterprise Linux servers for the Splunk environment, which is the security solution we use. Hadoop went to the cloud, but it used to be on Red Hat Enterprise Linux. We have VMware, and our VMs are reserved for Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

We have been using Red Hat since I was hired. All the app owners want Red Hat. Red Hat Enterprise Linux supports SQL and Oracle databases, which is helpful.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux has made significant improvements in terms of storage. You can mount an 18 terabyte file system. It also supports NFS shares and the SIP share for the photos. There have been many features added since RHEL 6. It's more user-friendly and graphical. 

We use Ansible as a go-to for provisioning and hardening the servers. It's so much easier with Ansible because we used scripts in the past. We had to log into each server as such, and it took a long time. With Ansible, we just run one playbook, and it takes care of everything. 

I used Leapp for my upgrade from RHEL 7 to 8. It's an excellent utility tool. When I run the Leapp script, it tells me everything I need to take care of before I run a migration. Red Hat Insight is good because it tells you about the future patches available. 

We use Red Hat Enterprise Linux image builder. Our golden image is a real image. We harden it, and it's our golden server. When we need a new VM, we can just make a snapshot of that. If it's a physical server, then I have to do it manually.

AIX will be out of support in the next few years, so that is a problem because a lot of the clinical apps use AIX. 

I have used Red Hat Enterprise Linux since I started working at this hospital six years ago.  

I rate Red Hat support eight out of 10. It's helpful when we face hardware issues, kernel panics, or the server is hanging. We always open a support case with Red Hat, and they're helpful at every level. It used to be in the United States, but now they outsource everything to India, so there is a big time difference. That's the only issue. 

Positive

We have always used Red Hat, but they use CentOS for a few applications. Most are using Red Hat. Another team uses Microsoft Windows 2016. It's a different team. The application team decides which one they prefer, but most clinicians use Red Hat Enterprise Linux servers.

The application owners like Red Hat instead of CentOS or another flavor of Linux because the support is reliable. If something breaks, they can call Red Hat support. It's the enterprise standard Linux.

I do the Red Hat Enterprise Linux upgrades. It's straightforward because I can just run Leapp to upgrade it

I rate Red Hat Enterprise Linux nine out of 10. 

I am working with a FinTech company. We have clients in the US, and for these clients, we have applications that are hosted in Amazon Web Services Cloud. We use the Red Hat Enterprise Linux operating system to run these applications.

We have a data center as well. In our organization, we are using a hybrid model. We have the AWS cloud and our data center is using VMware. Some of the workload is in the data center, and some of the workload is running in AWS.

We have various products, and we are trying to move all of the products to the AWS cloud. Our legacy applications are hosted in the data center. We are planning to move this data center to the AWS cloud in 2025. We are using AWS lift and shift technology for that.

The console is user-friendly. The web console provides an interface to manage all your resources.

Overall, I am happy with it, but I believe, security-wise, it could be better.

I have used Red Hat Enterprise Linux for almost eight years.

We never faced any major issues.

We are not taking any support from Red Hat. If we face any kind of issue, we just search on the web.

Neutral

I am very comfortable and happy using the Linux operating system. My experience with Windows is very bad.

There are no significant issues; it is very easy to set up. The implementation takes a couple of weeks.

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

Our servers utilize Red Hat Enterprise Linux for production and development environments due to the application's strong performance on this platform. Additionally, some workstations also use Red Hat Enterprise Linux as their operating system.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux has robust built-in security features that effectively mitigate risk and help maintain compliance.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux offers a comprehensive knowledge base that provides reliable support. When online searches fail to yield the necessary information, their resources consistently deliver the answers needed.

It also offers a positive management experience. Its monthly update patching, scheduled according to the number of users and their security profiles, facilitates efficient system maintenance and allows for the closure of inactive accounts.

I used the Red Hat LEAP feature when upgrading from Red Hat Enterprise Linux seven to eight, which simplified the upgrade process.

The Red Hat Enterprise Linux web console is user-friendly. Simply open a new terminal, log in, and enter our desired commands or searches.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux has yielded cost savings compared to a Windows environment, offering better stability, ease of use, and maintenance. Unlike Windows servers, it eliminates the need for reboots during updates, enhancing operational efficiency.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux has improved our uptime and security. 

I appreciate the simplicity of reporting in Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Running a command, tagging the log, and sending it to support is all it takes. The user-friendly interface has consistently improved from version four to eight, particularly in login and display features. Overall, the system is stable, easy to use, and maintain.

Red Hat should improve its support services, specifically the responsiveness and expertise of its India-based team. Response times need to be faster, and support staff should have access to more detailed procedures to address customer cases effectively.

I started using Red Hat Enterprise Linux in 2019. Specifically, I started with Red Hat four and then upgraded to version eight.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux is very stable. I would rate its stability as nine out of ten.

Scalability is easy because Red Hat Enterprise Linux supports virtual machines. I would rate the scalability a nine out of ten.

Technical support is taking a long time to resolve our issues, and we must monitor the resolution time for each ticket.

Neutral

The initial deployment is easy; follow the instructions and use the automatic setup. This straightforward process takes no more than 15 minutes, even for new users.

I rate Red Hat Enterprise Linux as nine out of ten.

We have Red Hat Enterprise Linux deployed in one location with 15 users.

We have local maintenance for Red Hat Enterprise Linux by certified admins. 

I recommend Red Hat Enterprise Linux for enterprise production environments due to its stability and proven industry track record.

Our primary use case for Red Hat Enterprise Linux is to deploy OpenShift solutions on the cloud.

We use Red Hat Enterprise Linux with AWS, GCP, Azure, and Oracle Cloud.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux offers easy migration between cloud platforms, a crucial advantage for businesses. For example, we recently helped one client move from AWS to Azure and another implement a VPN solution using both Oracle and Azure to leverage the strengths of each platform.

It offers a comprehensive knowledge base that can be accessed through the Red Hat portal.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux helps support our hybrid cloud strategy.

The upgrades and migrations are straightforward and typically performed when introducing new hardware.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux's most valuable feature is its seamless integration with Kubernetes, a powerful platform for automating the deployment, scaling, and management of containerized applications.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux should enhance its support for commonly used application servers such as JBoss, Tomcat, and Apache.

I have used Red Hat Enterprise Linux on the cloud for five years.

I have a Red Hat account for client support, and their technical support is excellent.

Positive

We have used other Linux solutions, such as Ubuntu, SUSE, and Debian, but the primary difference lies in the level of knowledge and support provided. Red Hat excels with a comprehensive support portal, while SUSE offers less extensive support, and Ubuntu provides no official support options.

The initial setup is complex. I rate the complexity as two out of ten, with one being the most complicated.

Our clients see a return on investment within the first year.

The licensing for Red Hat Enterprise Linux in Peru is very expensive. On a scale of one to ten, with ten being the most expensive, I would rate the cost an eight.

We leverage Red Hat's Hybrid Committed Spend program to procure and implement Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

I would rate Red Hat Enterprise Linux eight out of ten.

Our primary use case for Red Hat Enterprise Linux is as an operating system foundation for running a wide range of applications and workloads. It is commonly found on Linux workstations and is frequently used in conjunction with Kubernetes and containerization deployments.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux facilitates standardization, streamlining automation and general server usage. Its seamless integration with Ansible simplifies network and infrastructure automation, ensuring consistency across development and operations for a more efficient workflow.

The hybrid use of Red Hat Enterprise Linux has positively impacted our operations by providing flexibility in where we run our systems. Whether in the cloud or locally, the consistency of the platform simplifies management. Potential network restrictions may arise, but it has streamlined our processes overall.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux enabled us to centralize development and standardize our platform. This means all developers, regardless of their programming language, like C# or .NET, develop for the same Red Hat Enterprise Linux platform. This standardization allows us to run applications consistently across different environments, whether on the cloud or on-premises.

We use Red Hat Enterprise Linux with Podman for containerization. The combination of Podman and Red Hat UBI has significantly benefited our workflow, primarily due to the ease of use. Setting up Podman on other systems, such as Ubuntu, can be challenging because the installer from the Debian repositories sometimes has compatibility issues. However, on Red Hat Enterprise Linux, installing Podman with Yum is seamless.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux is lauded for its robust security, though its strictness can tempt automation engineers to temporarily disable certain measures for specific tasks, potentially leading to oversights in reactivating them. While these stringent security protocols can pose challenges for some users, they ultimately enhance the overall reliability and stability of Red Hat Enterprise Linux systems and their applications, making them a worthwhile trade-off.

Containers built on Red Hat Enterprise Linux with Podman offer excellent portability, running consistently across various environments such as Kubernetes and other Linux distributions. While they run virtually anywhere, the containerization workflow on a Red Hat Enterprise Linux system is arguably more streamlined and user-friendly for professional use.

Red Hat Insights is an excellent tool for addressing urgent security issues, non-compliant settings, and unpatched systems. It provides a clear understanding of areas for improvement and existing vulnerabilities within an organization, enabling a focused approach to remediation and enhanced security.

While Red Hat Enterprise Linux offers robust security, the complexity of some security features can be a challenge when automating tasks. Nevertheless, I highly value its security measures, along with its user-friendliness, virtualization capabilities, and ease of deployment and automation.

To improve standardization, deprecate YUM and transition to DNF. While backward compatibility is necessary, a decision to move to DNF was made two years ago. Run both in parallel for a period, then drop YUM or limit it to Red Hat Enterprise Linux eight, not nine.

I have been using Red Hat Enterprise Linux for ten years now.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux is highly stable.

The solution is highly scalable due to the interconnectivity between installations and the central management capabilities like the Red Hat Cockpit. It allows for seamless scaling across different environments.

Customer service is rated highly, with support available out of the box through the subscription. The support team assists with bugs and mitigation guidance, and knowledge base articles help resolve common issues.

Positive

The biggest return on investment includes built-in security, ease of machine setup, and consistency across all deployments. These features contribute to efficiency in development and operations.

While the cost of Red Hat Enterprise Linux may seem high, it's necessary to support Red Hat's extensive research and development, which includes maintaining long update cycles for the operating system. This cost, however, can create a barrier to entry for those new to the industry, making knowledge of Red Hat Enterprise Linux more exclusive. Despite this drawback, the price is ultimately justified by the benefits of using a stable and well-supported operating system.

I would rate Red Hat Enterprise Linux nine out of ten.

For small-scale or hobby projects, open-source cloud-based Linux is perfectly sufficient. However, for professional workflows in larger organizations, investing in a Red Hat Enterprise Linux license is recommended. This provides support, a more standardized development process, and enhanced features.

The impact on the TOC is minimal because many people are already accustomed to it. This is a benefit of Red Hat Enterprise Linux's standardization, as widespread familiarity simplifies ownership. However, platforms outside the Red Hat Enterprise Linux scope, such as Ansible Automation Platform or OpenShift Container Platform, require specialization and have their own ownership structures. In my experience, this doesn't necessarily expand ownership of the underlying Red Hat Enterprise Linux virtual machines.

We have RHEL running on our machines, which handle extensive computing tasks and data analysis. The team is responsible for managing the operating system and virtual machines that host various applications run by developers. My department doesn't use containerization, but other departments do.

Red Hat's security patches and standard compliance ensure risk management and continuity.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux helps us reduce risks in our environment through operating system patches. In my previous job, we ran baselines through Ansible to ensure every server was compliant with the company's standards based on CIS standards. Red Hat Enterprise Linux has contributed significantly to business continuity and compliance efforts.

We haven't encountered any critical vulnerabilities that required Red Hat Insights to resolve. They all had low CVE scores, so they could be handled with regular patching. We haven't had to use emergency procedures yet. Red Hat Insights has dashboards you can use to see your performance, what systems are critical or require patches and all that stuff. 

Red Hat could add some AI features. There's a lot of talk about AI nowadays, but I don't think will be in Red Enterprise Linux itself. The cloud applications benefit from AI, but I don't think that will be integrated into the OS yet. 

I have been using Red Hat Enterprise Linux for about seven years now.

We've hardly had any downtime. It goes down occasionally, but the system performs well overall. There aren't many problems, and when we do experience issues, Red Hat support resolves them quickly.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux can scale to meet the organization's needs as they evolve.

Customer service is rated eight out of ten.  Red Hat support has been instrumental. As an industry standard, it provides quick solutions to any technical problems that arise.

It is generally easy to initiate a support case with Red Hat, and there are clear escalation paths if needed. The support team responds based on the contract level.

Positive

I used Sun Solaris previously. It was nearly perfect, but it had some areas for improvement, similar to Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

The benefits of investing in Red Hat Enterprise Linux include stability, continuity, and robust support.

Other Linux operating systems like Debian are community-driven but lack the large company support that Red Hat offers.

I rate Red Hat Enterprise Linux nine out of 10. Red Hat is a large organization with a solid community that can provide upstream and downstream support. I don't give it a 10 because operating systems always have room for improvement. It's almost there, but there are a few things that Red Hat could do better. 

We use Red Hat Enterprise Linux in the enterprise for production environments. We mostly use it on bare metal servers, which are dedicated. In terms of deployment, we use the on-premises version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux has given us better insights and allowed us to manage the environment more effectively. In terms of overall performance improvements, it has provided us with increased visibility into security, which has been helpful for our cybersecurity team.

Its built-in security features seem pretty sufficient for our purposes, but we have other teams that manage the security and build aspects. I am more involved in the maintenance of it, but in terms of the built-in security features, I find it sufficient. The security team also takes care of the compliance aspect.

I mainly use the Red Hat database for vulnerabilities. It is pretty good for determining whether or not a vulnerability has been resolved. 

We use Red Hat Satellite for patching. I like Red Hat Satellite for patching and keeping us secure.

We have used Red Hat Enterprise Linux in hybrid environments. It seems to work fairly well. For hybrid environments, it is probably one of the easier ones to deploy because it allows us to scale.

We were able to realize the benefits of Red Hat Enterprise Linux immediately after the deployment.

In terms of the organization and structure, the support is on point. The reporting and other things are very standardized. It does not leave much room for error when working in production environments.

When we first deploy Red Hat Enterprise Linux, it is very challenging to determine which security features have been deployed. It would be beneficial to have more insight into this. Additionally, once it is built, there does not seem to be an option to retroactively change security features, which can make it difficult to ascertain which ones have been deployed.

Their knowledge base is very verbose. There is too much information. It can complicate things a little bit. It is very detailed. If they can shorten it, that might be helpful.

We have been using Red Hat Enterprise Linux for a few years now, approximately seven to eight years.

I would rate the stability of Red Hat Enterprise Linux as seven out of ten. We do encounter problems, most of which can be resolved. Occasionally, we face issues that cannot be resolved until the kernel developers address them. These are typically dealt with through quarterly releases or major upgrades.

In terms of scalability, I would rate Red Hat Enterprise Linux about a nine out of ten. It is easy for us to make snapshots when we are patching. If we need to clone, we can do so, although they might not be full backups necessarily.

We use their portal for contacting support. The support from Red Hat is quite quick because it operates on a service-level agreement (SLA). For the paid support features, they are very responsive.

Positive

I am familiar with CentOS, and I have used OpenSUSE and SUSE Enterprise for testing and comparison purposes.

CentOS did not have as many security features. Of course, CentOS had the community support. CentOS was bought by Red Hat, and then the support started lacking. It was then discontinued to promote Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

We have done some physical to virtual migrations using VMware. We have been mostly involved in that. We have done a little bit of virtual-to-cloud migration but not as much as physical-to-virtual.

The migration is more on the complex side. There are quite a few players involved. We need to collaborate with different teams. We need to make sure that the database is there, and that the database team is always involved. It is not terribly simple. It requires quite a bit of project planning and coordination. We usually have a six-month project so that it can be planned and tested.

It does require maintenance on our end but not very frequently.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux licensing is quite costly, but I personally do not deal with pricing.

My advice to new users would be to focus more on the build aspect because it can be overlooked by many new users.

The Leapp utility works well when you do not have a much-customized environment. The more customized your environment is, the more complicated it gets to get Leapp to work to switch over to Red Hat Enterprise Linux. It is possible, but the more customized your environment is, the harder it is because it will require the kernel module. Convert2RHEL is pretty much the same as Leapp. The more customized the environment, the harder it is. It is feasible. It is just a matter of how much time you are willing to spend on it.

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