Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) Reviews

I am the backend support for RHEL. We develop the stage for the application user.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) has benefited my company greatly because it is open source, making it very helpful to adopt.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) helps us solve pain points because every script and everything in RHEL is very human-friendly. We can automate processes, make changes according to our needs, edit files, add directories, and implement any modifications. Even in the RPMs, we can make changes according to our application needs, which is very helpful for us.

One of the features I appreciate most about Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is its user-friendly interface. We have been using it continuously for this reason. As they are automating processes and introducing new methods, especially in RHEL 9, I thoroughly enjoy using the platform.

The GUI mode of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) needs to be improved compared to the CLI mode.

I started using Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) at the beginning of my career. I have worked with RHEL versions 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 9. We will begin using RHEL 10 very soon.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) has not helped me to mitigate downtime and lower risks.

I have experience with customer service and technical support from Red Hat. When we encounter issues, we open a ticket with Red Hat, and they provide very good solutions.

When it comes to provisioning and patching Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) systems in our environment, we use Red Hat Satellite to carve out the image. We build our own image from Red Hat Satellite.

I have been involved in Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) upgrades and migrations from on-premises to the cloud. The migration process was straightforward without any difficulties. We performed both hot migration and cold migration successfully.

Reliability is key with Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), and the backend support from Red Hat is awesome. It is much easier to develop our own environment through Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) compared to other platforms such as Windows or Ubuntu. It is very human-friendly and easy to manage.

My assessment of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)'s built-in security for simplifying risk reduction and maintaining compliance is that, compared to other vendors such as Ubuntu and Debian, Red Hat is more familiar with these aspects. We love to use RHEL.

Overall, I would rate Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) a ten.

I use Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) to manage applications and for system administration. The latest version is Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 10, which has AI with Red Hat Lightspeed inside the operating system, where you can write natural language in the terminal. I am using artificial intelligence inside Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). I am working with Ansible, which is an automation tool from Red Hat. I install Ansible inside Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) and make many automations.

Red Hat Insights helps in monitoring Linux servers, providing CVEs that need updating in the operating system, and giving information about server security.

In the latest release, there are three important new features: Red Hat Lightspeed with AI integration, image mode capability allowing Red Hat Enterprise Linux to be imaged and transferred to another VM, and Quench-key cryptography for enhanced security. The AI integration through Red Hat Lightspeed is particularly significant as it differentiates it from other operating systems.

SELinux is valuable for security purposes. SELinux is very good because we can give the correct permissions to the employees. 

Red Hat Lightspeed, added in the latest version, and image mode features are also significant features.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is already good and perfect. They can continue to improve the AI features.

I have 10 years of experience working with Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). I worked as an operating system specialist for five years, performing administration tasks such as managing LVMs, users, groups, disks, and performing troubleshooting inside the operating system.

Their support is very good.

Positive

I worked with SUSE and changed to Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) because I worked at IBM for five years, and IBM bought Red Hat. All systems were integrated into Red Hat solutions. 

SUSE is very similar to Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), but I prefer Red Hat solutions because their support is much better. I believe that the support and updates from Red Hat are superior. For example, Red Hat has a feature called Red Hat Insights, which allows me to proactively manage incidents and identify vulnerabilities. SUSE does not offer these features.

The deployment is easy.

Red Hat saves time with integration with tools such as Ansible for automation. 

I am not involved in the pricing, but it is not very expensive.

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

Red Hat Enterprise Linux positively impacts my organization with its various capabilities. We use the orchestration processes with cloud services using Ansible.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux has a vast set of features. I can use the setup features and many other features. Red Hat Enterprise Linux is a whole world.

To become more competitive, they might consider changing their licensing model, for instance, by offering an instance-based payment for cloud computing services. In the future, I expect features regarding changes to the subscription model.

I would prefer Red Hat Enterprise Linux to allow easier cancellation of instances unless they are needed.

I started with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.5 and 7.6, and now, I have Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.0.

The product has been stable since installation.

It is scalable. I have not experienced significant issues with scaling it.

The technical support by Red Hat is great. I would rate them a 10 out of 10.

The knowledge base offered by Red Hat is accessible. As you log in with your Red Hat account credentials, you can find the knowledge platform on your dashboard.

Positive

The initial setup of Red Hat Enterprise Linux is not complex. We just need a Red Hat Enterprise Linux image to install on any operating system and use the console. Since I have worked with Linux for around 10 years, installing it is straightforward for me.

I just need to upgrade the operating system with the latest update, and after that, I log in to my Red Hat account from the CLI to connect to the Red Hat Enterprise Linux service.

We have seen a return on investment with Red Hat Enterprise Linux. If you are using the service properly, especially in cloud computing, understanding the services you are using and what technology and applications are required can help manage your ROI very efficiently. Excessive services that are not compatible with your applications can impact your ROI negatively.

When I started using it, Red Hat Enterprise Linux was free for all and open-source. It is now paid with access to many features to upgrade and use their services.

Due to multiple organizations and corporate systems in Pakistan relying on it, it continued to be used, especially in corporate and banking systems even after becoming a paid service.

The pricing is not always reasonable, but it also depends on your requirements.

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

We are using the solution for automation. Mainly, we're doing a lot of automation with it. One of the projects, for example, is for ensuring payments processes on forms. We streamline and optimize the insurance claims process using OpenShift. This has enabled us to do faster claims processes and make resource utilization more efficient than it was. Everything can be done online. There are no papers involved. 

It is mainly just cutting out redundant tasks. The focus was mainly driven by driving costs down and efficient resource utilization. We wanted a solution that could make deployment easy and ensure scalability.

The biggest benefit has been the automation. It affected our delivery schedule. Instead of doing something in two weeks, we do it faster. We've cut down our production time. And people are able to focus on other tasks since they're automating a lot of things. Even with our clients, when they have issues, we have created a system where they can send out a ticket. And from that ticket, we can diagnose, and it's easier to solve the issue at hand. 

In terms of cost per head, we've seen a drastic drawdown from that. It is mainly optimizing a lot of our systems and resources.

The high availability is great. It's available most of the time - even when we're doing upgrades, provisioning, configuration, and patching. It made things easier for us. 

The automation is great. I'm a big fan of offering convenience to people and making systems easier for people to understand and use. 

There are good features, such as proactive monitoring as well. It offers predictive analytics, which helps you identify issues before they impact operations. We can foresee several problems. On top of that, this is how we can combat those problems. These types of features are really valuable when considering a company's strategy and when it comes to the impact of operations. 

We are able to move workloads between different clouds or our data center using Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

The knowledge base on offer is quite extensive. We started learning from a third-party provider since we've had a lot of use cases. Maybe you are installing something, or maybe during virtualization, you have to do something, and you need more information. The Red Hat OpenShift community is quite huge. Even a resource such as YouTube has people releasing videos on common problems. Even outside of Red Hat itself, the Red Hat community is very good. The information is extensive. The knowledge base is there. There's a lot of information sharing. People do not try to gatekeep information. 

When it comes to provisioning and patching, so far, we have not had a lot of issues. We currently are using a subscription model. In terms of getting security patches and updates, they support us quite well. There's a 24-hour support base and they're quite good. 

I've tried the Leapp and Red Hat Insights features. It helps with proactive monitoring. It did analyze the system configurations and compares those against databases of known problems and fixes. Basically, there's a pool of data that has common issues and it analyzes how you've configured your system and then compares them. It can come back to you and say, "Hey, this is your problem. Why don't you try the solution?" It's like a good AI tool. It gives us a lot of help. It's quick. Thanks to this feature, we sometimes find that we don't really need to open a ticket for support.

We realized the benefits of using RHEL in months. We were told when we were doing the onboarding, we'd see benefits in six months. For us, it took a little over eight months. That was due to some of our internal processes that we had to do, some sign-offs, et cetera. Still, it took us less than a year. Over time, we are down 20% to 30%.

In the beginning, we didn't start on the cloud. Only now are we fully transitioning to going off-site. There are still some clients who are a little resistant to going to the cloud. It's nice to be hybrid, to accommodate both. We've done a lot of virtualization and server consolidation. So far, everything is running smoothly. 

When moving workloads between different clouds or data centers, it's not that simple. There are a lot of things that you need to consider, including prerequisites and things like hardware, network, operating systems, et cetera. Once you get the hang of it, it becomes easier. However, in the beginning, it was very, very challenging. Coming from a development background, I found it easier to use command lines.

I've hit some snags doing updates or changing things for clients. 

It would be nice if they improved vulnerability management. They could add more security tools and tools for provisioning. 

I've used the solution for two years. 

The stability is good. We don't really have any downtime. I'd rate stability nine out of ten. 

We've had no issues with scalability. It's quite user-friendly. 

During the implementation, we did have to open a support ticket. They assisted us effectively.

Positive

I've never tried other solutions. I know of other solutions, such as Ubuntu. However, my interactions with that solution have been minimal. 

The initial setup was a little bit complex. The instructions, however, were very clear, and our deployment strategy was clear. Still, for the technicians doing it, it was complex.

The setup took about a week and a half.  

I've been involved with two upgrades so far. They were challenging. There were a lot of teams involved. There needed to be a lot of migration planning. We had to use the Link Utility and we did a lot of testing first. We spent a long time verifying the applications and checking dependencies. It was quite a learning curve.

There is some maintenance needed in the form of system updates. 

We did get a lot of help from RHEL. We had senior engineers guide us through the setup.

We've seen an ROI of around 30%.

When we went through IBM, it was quite expensive. Now, we are going through AWS, which is less pricey. 

We started off as a partner to IBM, and IBM opened up the opportunity for us to build certifications for Red Hat through the certification program. Then we became support specialists, taking on RHEL projects. We are in the process of becoming a reseller. 

I'd rate the solution eight out of ten. We're doing a lot of big data infrastructure and they are giving us good stability and performance.

My main use case for Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is when I was working with another company, where we used the Ansible Automation Platform provided by Red Hat and OpenShift, primarily for any code automations and server productions.

I have additional insights about my main use case for Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL); we've used it as a standalone server for different products, more specifically as an Ansible server and key servers, just provided by virtual machines.

The best features that Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) offers include how comprehensive the enterprise packages are, as you can get stuff included with it and the documentation that follows, which I think is good even though it is a Linux distribution that you have to pay for.

I also appreciate Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)'s built-in security features, as they require less configuration and include compliance associated with it. More specifically, regarding the documentation, if I had any specific questions about Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), I could go directly to the website and find the answers there.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) has positively impacted my organization by providing a lot of security to run all of the systems we had in a particular environment, especially since I worked with more government operations, where security was the top priority, which Red Hat prioritized. We didn't have to worry about security configurations within the infrastructure, saving us time, and it was easy to navigate if you had a great background in Linux, plus Red Hat support was very helpful with any specific questions on the product.

I wish that Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) had more free options available; there are similar Linux distributions, but in terms of training and certification, I think it would be beneficial if there were a better free trial, allowing users to gain better experience with the platform itself.

That's the main improvement needed for Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL).

I have been using Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) for about two years.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is stable and handles growth and changes efficiently, specifically with new AI platforms being integrated.

I have not experienced customer support for Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL).

Positive

I did not use a different solution before Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL); it was strictly Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL).

I cannot share any return on investment from using Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL).

I never dealt directly with the pricing, setup cost, and licensing for Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) since that was managed by someone above me; it was more about day-to-day use cases for me.

My advice for others looking into using Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is to be sure to look into the documentation and review the products because it is very customizable, and I would recommend using it for an enterprise.

I choose a rating of seven for Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) because it is not a solution I use every single day. I rate it higher because it is applicable across multiple infrastructures Azure and AWS Cloud, but it is not universally used in particular environments, especially the one where I currently work, which is not really code-dependent.

I was offered a gift card to do this interview regarding Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), but that's the only business relationship my company has with this vendor.

We primarily use Red Hat Enterprise Linux to host applications with our virtual machines.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux offers an excellent and comprehensive knowledge base for Linux. It is among the most thorough available.

Our Red Hat Enterprise Linux environment utilizes a patch management system for updates. However, provisioning remains a manual process, with virtual machines being installed individually. We currently don't use automated provisioning solutions like Ansible, Vagrant, or Terraform.

Red Hat Insights is helpful for deep dives into OS-level issues and remediation, as it links directly to the Red Hat knowledge base.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux enables compliance with regulatory requirements by providing customized images that meet various security standards. This streamlines our process as every virtual machine image is deployed with hardening by default, reducing the need for manual application per virtual machine.

The Red Hat Enterprise Linux knowledge base is a valuable resource.

In terms of improvement, Red Hat could consider offering cheaper licensing. The licensing model is good, but we would all appreciate a lower price.

To ensure compliance and security on our Red Hat Enterprise Linux systems, we had to install additional software, such as endpoint detection and response or antivirus solutions. The built-in security features of Red Hat Enterprise Linux were insufficient for our needs, necessitating the implementation of supplementary security measures.

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

Red Hat Enterprise Linux has not affected our systems negatively regarding stability, experiencing no issues so far.

Customer service by Red Hat is very good. I haven't noticed any shortcomings in response time or overall competence.

Positive

The upgrade from version seven to eight was done with Red Hat's assistance, as we manage hundreds of virtual machines.

The licensing model of Red Hat Enterprise Linux is good, but lower prices are always preferable.

We evaluated several alternatives, including CentOS and Rocky Linux, but the support question kept coming up with community distributions. We chose Red Hat Enterprise Linux for its enterprise support, which is crucial for maintaining production systems.

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

I would recommend Red Hat Enterprise Linux to others, especially in the enterprise space. However, for startups or companies that do things themselves, alternatives like Ubuntu or CentOS Stream might be more suitable.

We use Red Hat Enterprise Linux as our server operating system to install and configure various applications. Its uses include system troubleshooting, DNS configuration, and many other tasks, especially in a mixed environment with Ubuntu.

Patching Red Hat Enterprise Linux in our environment is a straightforward process that utilizes Red Hat Satellite. We identify necessary patches for production servers in the content view and notify customers two days in advance via email. Before patching, we verify the Nagios servers for identification purposes. We then execute a pre-configured Ansible playbook to efficiently patch our 300 servers. This playbook was already established, and our only interaction with it is to run it.

The web console is handy, especially for tasks like command line operations. Its secure environment allows for the safe execution of queries.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux is most valued for its reliability, as evidenced by my daily use.

The documentation needs improvement. Providing more detailed explanations would make it easier to work on projects.

I have been using Red Hat Enterprise Linux for my entire career, which spans over eight years.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux is stable. There has been no significant issue regarding lagging or downtime.

Red Hat is highly scalable and essential in the industry. I would rate scalability nine out of ten.

The customer support from Red Hat is good. They are always there to help when needed.

Positive

I have used Ubuntu, and Kali Linux alongside Red Hat.

I have been involved with migrations to Red Hat Enterprise Linux, which are not complex. For example, migrating to Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 or 8 is easy, requiring only the installation of necessary dependencies and the creation of a file to sync files to the new system.

I typically work as part of a team rather than implementing integrations on my own.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux is quite expensive, particularly its technical support, which can cost $500 per hour.

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

Realizing the benefits of Red Hat Enterprise Linux took time, as post-deployment troubleshooting was often necessary. This included tasks like opening ports and verifying functionality, which were sometimes prerequisites for the system to operate. These requirements varied depending on the specific application used and its security needs.

We perform maintenance on Red Hat Enterprise Linux every weekend, including backups. Incremental backups are done daily, while full backups are completed every weekend.

A lot of our Red Hat operating systems run middle-tier applications. We are mostly a JBoss shop, so they are homegrown applications. They are Java-based. We have several types of applications. We have identity, security, Oracle database, etc.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux helps with standardization. A lot of middle-tier applications hosted in the data center or in the cloud are unified in one standard operating system, which is Red Hat Enterprise Linux. On the data center side, we only have Red Hat Enterprise Linux. We have one unified operating system.

For our containerization projects, we are looking into OpenShift. Our Ansible Automation Platform executioner uses container-based Red Hat Enterprise Linux. We use Podman. We have moved to the Red Hat Podman container. It is a lot easier. We can scale up easily and manage it. It reduces the security risk. We do not have to worry about patching. We can just image a new container that is up to date. That is great.

We had a situation where we had to create an image for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9, and there were built-in playbooks for hardening the system. We were able to run that and create the image. It made the work much easier than it used to be in the past.

Red Hat Insights provides vulnerability alerts and targeted guidance. It has that capability. It has a lot of features built in that not only help with security but also with misconfigurations. If a system is misconfigured, it detects that. It gives you the solution for the problem it captured. It is a great tool, but we have been focusing on the security perspective. We have not been focusing on operating system configurations. I have not yet looked at the new version, but in my opinion, it would be better if Red Hat puts a lot of focus on Insights and take it to the next level where the company could use it for its OS compliance.

We have all types of different versions running in our environment except the obsolete ones. We are moving towards versions 8 and 9. We have had version 7, and it has been very stable until now. It is ending this year around June 30, so we are in the process of moving to version 8, and we have just released an image for version 9. So far, version 8 has also been very stable.

It is a Linux-based operating system. It integrates with our automation base. We have Red Hat Satellite and Red Hat Ansible. All the engineers who are a part of our infrastructure or operation on the Unix side are Red Hat Enterprise Linux certified, so it is a lot easier for us to manage and integrate with the tools that we have. It makes much more sense from the middleware perspective and management too.

The bootup time for Red Hat Enterprise Linux running on physical hardware in the data center can be improved. We have seen cloud-based Red Hat Enterprise Linux, and it is instantaneous. You wait for a few seconds, and the operating system is up and running. It is a lot faster, whereas it takes a very long time when running Red Hat Enterprise Linux on physical hardware.

We used Red Hat Insights, but we are more focused on compliance, patching of operating systems, and things like that. In the past, when we looked at Red Hat Insights, it was its own platform, and then it migrated to Satellite. Companies are struggling to be compliant from the security side. Everyone is focused on how to patch the systems, what the environment looks like, whether they are under 90-day CVE, how their environment is compliant, and where they can see it as a dashboard. I wish Red Hat Insights was focused on that. From the Red Hat perspective, I am not seeing any sessions. I do not see anyone talking about that, which is a huge deal for us. I would like Red Hat Insights to go to the next level where it is focused on patching and compliance.

I do not have any other areas of improvement. It has been stable for us. There is a lot we do in terms of automation and integration. I know Red Hat 8 now has Podman for containers. Cockpit has a UI, so that is good now. That helps with certain things.

We have been using Red Hat Enterprise Linux for close to 20 years.

We have not run into something that caused a huge problem to our environment. If something is happening, such as it is running an Oracle database and that system has kernel panic or something like that, it is usually the database or application software running on the operating system. It is not the operating system itself.

We have not run into any major infrastructure incident costing us because of the operating system. They have it integrated with all other products such as OpenShift, OpenStack, etc.

We have three data centers at different geographical locations. Two are in the state of Georgia and one is in Las Vegas. In all three data centers that we manage, the compute-based are all Red Hat-based. 

We have a Red Hat TAM, and that helps a lot in terms of the problems and things that we run into. He is the interface with Red Hat. He escalates our service tickets and things like that. That is a huge help from our perspective.

The support that we get directly from putting tickets in has always been great. Red Hat Enterprise Linux is probably the best and most stable product that Red Hat has especially in regards to getting support and getting things fixed. They are on top of that. It has been a great experience. I would rate them a ten out of ten.

Positive

We used to run Sun Solaris. We were a Sun Solaris shop in the beginning. This was 15 or 20 years ago. We moved because of the Intel-based hardware, licensing, and cost reduction. Moving away from Sun SPARC hardware to Red Hat was a lot of saving. It saved a lot for the company. We can now run Linux-based systems on Intel commodity hardware using Dell.

Its usage is growing. Our team is working with other business units within the enterprise to get them onboarded to the Red Hat-based operating system. We have multiple entities that are running CentOS and Ubuntu. We have to have a standard operating system, and that is Red Hat. Our portfolio is increasing. We are growing and migrating a lot of nonstandard ones to Red Hat.

We have an enterprise technology group that utilizes Oracle Linux. We have worked with OEM. Our team is managing that too.

We are using Red Hat Enterprise Linux on-prem. We also have a cloud environment, but other teams are using it on the cloud. The cloud provider is AWS. The database team also uses Red Hat Enterprise Linux in AWS.

We use Red Hat Satellite and Ansible for Red Hat Enterprise Linux deployment across all three data centers.

My first deployment experience was almost 30 years ago. I started with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 or something like that back in 1993 or 1994. There has been a tremendous change in the way you install it and utilize it now. It is night and day. It has come a long way.

We implement it on our own.

Our costs are reduced. We can allocate that OpEx and focus on some other project. We do not have to struggle and say that this is how much we are going to pay licensing just on the operating system cost. We now have a model that works for us.

We are a huge VMware shop. Our licensing cost works well with Red Hat. We license based on the data center. The way our license works is that we can run as many Red Hat VMs as we want and pay for a single license. On the VMware side, we gain a lot, and it makes much more sense.

We did not evaluate other operating systems and compared them with Red Hat Enterprise Linux. We just went from Solaris to Red Hat.

We are an agile environment. We practice agile methodology. Anything we manage and deploy has to go through a sprint phase. We do not have a fully containerized environment. In the future, once we adopt OpenShift, it is going to increase our productivity because of how we manage things through agile. It is going to help us a lot.

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 it all comes down to the company and how a company foresees security. Anything we support and manage has to have a support base. If something gets impacted from the security side, we know that we have Red Hat support, and it is reliable. We can get the patch we want. If you install an application that needs a bug fix, you can reach out to Red Hat and open a ticket. If you want to have a stable environment, then I would highly recommend getting the support and running Red Hat.

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