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Datacenter System specialist at a manufacturing company with 201-500 employees
Real User
Enterprise-level support enhances system operations
Pros and Cons
  • "We chose Red Hat Enterprise Linux for its broad distribution, enterprise-level support, and robust stability."
  • "I would like Red Hat to focus on continuous improvement."

What is our primary use case?

We currently use Red Hat Enterprise Linux to support various applications, including web servers and databases. Its functionality spans numerous operational aspects, encompassing a wide range of tasks with the exception of AI applications.

How has it helped my organization?

Red Hat Enterprise Linux has simplified patch management and centralized operations, eliminating the need for multiple distributions across various functions.

It performs well for our business-critical applications. It is a significant improvement over the various unsupported distributions used previously, providing reliable support and standardized update procedures across all deployments.

The built-in security features work well.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux helps reduce risk in our environment by simplifying management, which is critical for maintaining stability and security.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux enhances business continuity and compliance efforts by providing a unified platform for various tasks, simplifying operations and reducing the complexity of managing multiple open-source solutions.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux helps reduce our total cost of ownership through simplified management and comprehensive support resources, ensuring assistance if any issues arise.

What is most valuable?

We chose Red Hat Enterprise Linux for its broad distribution, enterprise-level support, and robust stability. These factors are particularly crucial for our work in government-related IT, where stability and security are paramount.

What needs improvement?

I would like Red Hat to focus on continuous improvement.

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April 2025
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For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Red Hat Enterprise Linux for a year at this point. Although my experience with Linux is extensive, I am relatively new to the Red Hat Enterprise Linux world.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Red Hat Enterprise Linux is stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Scaling is mostly about increasing the resources for specific virtual machines, and it hasn't been a problem.

How are customer service and support?

I have not personally used customer service, but it's reassuring to know that support is available if needed. I often try to resolve issues myself to learn new things.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

What was our ROI?

The return on investment lies in the time saved due to simplified management, allowing me to focus on more important tasks rather than maintenance.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?


What other advice do I have?

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

While not currently using Red Hat Enterprise Linux for containerization, we have a Podman test machine that we use for our clients. We do plan to utilize it in the future.

Red Hat is an excellent choice due to its strong backing and foundation in open source. They have a comprehensive product stack, including not just Enterprise Linux, but also Ansible, OpenShift, and many other offerings. Red Hat also boasts extensive partner integrations with various manufacturers and developers through licensing agreements.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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Mohammad Zain Akbar - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Consultant at a transportation company with 51-200 employees
Consultant
Top 20
It has high availability, built-in disaster recovery, and SSH features
Pros and Cons
  • "I like RHEL's clustering capabilities and high-level architecture. It has high availability, built-in disaster recovery, SSH features, and scripting."
  • "It would be great if Red Hat had its cloud instead of using AWS, Azure, or GCP. RHEL should have a dedicated cloud. I would also like to see more Windows support."

What is our primary use case?

We use Red Hat Enterprise Linux for file transfers and changing file permissions. It is also used to check file spaces and for migration purposes. Our tools are hosted on the Linux environment, and our agent services run on it.

How has it helped my organization?

We use Red Hat Linux to start and stop our agent services during migration, install new agents, and transfer files. The primary benefit is that it's a widely used open-source solution with good support. Now that we've migrated from CentOS to Red Hat Enterprise Linux, we will realize some benefits. Red Hat Enterprise Linux has more features. 

What is most valuable?

I like Red Hat Enterprise Linux's clustering capabilities and high-level architecture. It has high availability, built-in disaster recovery, SSH features, and scripting. 

The documentation is excellent. Since it was acquired by IBM, the open-source tools and technologies hosted on the Linux environment have been updated with many new features. 

What needs improvement?

It would be great if Red Hat had its cloud instead of using AWS, Azure, or GCP. Red Hat Enterprise Linux should have a dedicated cloud. I would also like to see more Windows support. 

Red Hat Enterprise Linux could also be more user-friendly and use AI or machine learning to automate processes. That is the most dynamic feature in the information technology industry.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have used Red Hat for five years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

We have intermittent issues with stability, but we're hoping they will improve in the latest version.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Red Hat Enterprise Linux is quite scalable. We can place a lot of agents on Linux servers, some on the cloud, and a few on-prem. It can handle the workload. 

How are customer service and support?

I rate Red Hat support eight out of 10. We have communicated with Red Hat support via email. 

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

Before Red Hat Enterprise Linux, we used CentOS. Another Linux flavor I've used is Ubuntu. 

How was the initial setup?

The first deployment of Red Hat Enterprise Linux had a learning curve, but I've learned a lot since then. Once you know the process, then it's straightforward. It uses a command-based process, but if it were based on a GUI or a console, like a Windows installer, that would be a significant improvement. 

Red Hat Enterprise Linux requires some housekeeping. We have to restart and patch servers weekly or biweekly and check the CPU, memory size, file size, the database used, and whether the IP network protocols are defined. All this happens monthly, weekly, or fortnightly.

What other advice do I have?

I rate Red Hat Enterprise Linux eight out of 10. 

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
April 2025
Learn what your peers think about Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: April 2025.
848,716 professionals have used our research since 2012.
reviewer2295378 - PeerSpot reviewer
Consultant at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Top 20
Offers efficient performance tuning capabilities, enhancing overall system performance
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable features of RHEL are security, performance tuning, storage management, and OS-level automation."
  • "The GUI has room for improvement. It needs to be managed by many administrators. It has basic command lines. They could improve it with better automation. We'd like to be able to create a script, and then have the ability to deploy it where we don't need to write everything manually. That part can be useful for automating."

What is our primary use case?

My use cases are mainly limited to databases. I'm also involved in other ETL tools; I worked on migrations from older vendors, like Windows, and transitioning to RedHat Linux.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable features are security, performance tuning, storage management, and OS-level automation. If you wanted to automate while adapting with different vendor scripts or your own development because it's Linux, it's not like an operating system itself. It is always going to perform how you expect it to. IAQt's not like other operating systems. It is based on Linux. 

These are the main features. Storage management is another valuable feature that is very critical in an operating system. It works along hardware and software.

The most valuable features are security, performance tuning, storage management, and OS-level automation. If you wanted to automate while adapting with different vendor scripts or your own development because it's Linux, it's not like an operating system itself. It is always going to perform how you expect it to. IAQt's not like other operating systems. It is based on Linux.

Compared to other OS', Red Hat Enterprise Linux is the best from my 20-plus years of experience. It is well-suited for production environments. In 2003 and 2006 I worked with one of the vendors in another country. We were able to run a database instance on Red Hat Enterprise Linux for two years without restarting it. The database was located in a remote location, and the team could not be on-site to provide support. We installed it ourselves and it worked for two years. We restarted the database instance. We didn't need to touch it internally. It works like a charm.

If it works, it works. You don't need to attach anything at all. You just monitor them remotely. Nobody was there on-site. That's the beauty of it. Red Hat Enterprise Linux is great. I love it.

What needs improvement?

The GUI has room for improvement. It needs to be managed by many administrators. It has basic command lines. They could improve it with better automation. We'd like to be able to create a script, and then have the ability to deploy it where we don't need to write everything manually. That part can be useful for automating. 

We'd like it so that a coder wouldn't need to go through it, read it, go to GUI, and then generate a script. If they want to modify it, they could modify it. If Red Hat Enterprise Linux is going to build something, the REST API can be helpful instead of writing their own, starting from scratch. That would make it easier.

For future releases, there could be more integration. Regarding security, we used a different tool for scanning, but having a tool within Red Hat could enhance it. 

Support is essential for open-source software. If they improve aspects like prevention against hacking, it would be beneficial. 

Before, with a surge in hacking incidents, companies lost data, and once lost, it remains lost forever. You never know when it might be used. Improving security, especially in terms of prevention, is crucial. I would like to see ongoing improvement in this aspect.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've worked with different companies. In my over 20 years of experience, in the last five or six companies I've worked for, all of them have been using Red Hat. They use it mostly for databases. 

I'm in the database sector, primarily working as a senior technical architect. End-to-end, we always find that Red Hat is best suited for Linux, especially for Oracle and other NoSQL databases. It's reliable, first and foremost, and it offers stability and performance. Performance tuning is crucial, and once it's set up, you can rely on it. 

With the cloud, it's moving into containerization, and most of them support the cloud. 

How are customer service and support?

The customer service and support are really good. 

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I have worked with many different operating systems in the past, including Windows, Linux, and RedHat Linux.

We switched to Red Hat Enterprise Linux because it is a reliable and well-supported enterprise operating system. It is easy to manage, use, and upgrade.

What was our ROI?

We have seen a return on investment. 

What other advice do I have?

As a consultant, I handle sizing, design, and optimization for new infrastructures and I would recommend Red Hat Enterprise Linux to anybody considering it.  

Overall, I would rate the solution a ten out of ten.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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IT Infrastructure Manager at Linuxfault
Real User
Top 5
We get great support, and stability, and it helps us save costs
Pros and Cons
  • "The support and the stability are Red Hat Enterprise Linux's most valuable areas."
  • "Upgrading between versions needs to be easier."

What is our primary use case?

We use Red Hat Enterprise Linux to run our GS and PSP applications.

How has it helped my organization?

Red Hat Enterprise Linux helps us avoid cloud vendor lock-in.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux helped us save on costs. 

What is most valuable?

The support and the stability are Red Hat Enterprise Linux's most valuable areas.

What needs improvement?

Upgrading between versions needs to be easier. For example, if we have Red Hat Seven running now and a Java exploit is found on Red Hat Seven, we need to be able to upgrade to Red Hat Nine online without any downtime in the environment. This is because it is not possible to reinstall the environment from Red Hat Seven to Red Hat Nine in production without causing downtime to the applications. Red Hat needs to have tools that ensure that we can upgrade from Red Hat Seven to Nine online without any issues.

For how long have I used the solution?

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

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Red Hat Enterprise Linux is extremely stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Red Hat Enterprise Linux is scalable. We have around 1,790 end users.

How are customer service and support?

The technical support is quick to respond.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We previously used Proxmox and switched to Red Hat Enterprise Linux because of the price.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is straightforward because it is well-documented. The deployment time depends on the application. A small application can take around 20 minutes.

What about the implementation team?

The implementation was completed in-house.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The cost is based on each organization's budget and infrastructure.

What other advice do I have?

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

The ease of moving workloads between the cloud and our data center depends on the application architecture. If the application has a monolithic infrastructure, it may be easier to move to the cloud. However, if the application is already running mostly in the data center, it may be more difficult because we would need to recreate all of the infrastructure and topology from scratch. This is because there are so many parts to consider when migrating a microservices-based application to the cloud.

For someone who wants to use an open source Linux operating system, I would recommend Rocky Linux. However, they should be aware that open source solutions do not come with the same level of support as Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

Four network team members are required to maintain Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

The Red Hat knowledge base is good and well-documented.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux is the only Linux solution that is supported for enterprise-level organizations. I recommend this solution for large organizations that want professional support for their Linux systems.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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Senior System Engineer at a comms service provider with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
The built-in security features are excellent
Pros and Cons
  • "I like open source and prefer it over some closed proprietary software. In my early days, I was involved in the open-source community of the Red Hat Directory Server, communicating with developers to ensure password policies were implemented and asking questions. It showed me the power of open source."
  • "I'm happy with the value RHEL delivers, but there's always room to improve."

What is our primary use case?

We are a telco company hosting internal applications on the OpenShift platform. It's for general IT workloads, such as backend systems for billing. We are also using it for containerization projects.

How has it helped my organization?

With an open-source solution, there is no vendor lock-in at the OS layer, so it's more flexible. I am happy with the value Red Hat delivers, so we don't see a reason to change that.

What is most valuable?

I like open source and prefer it over some closed proprietary software. In my early days, I was involved in the open-source community of the Red Hat Directory Server, communicating with developers to ensure password policies were implemented and asking questions. It showed me the power of open source.

While the built-in security features are excellent, we don't use all of them. It has many available capabilities, but it's not always up to the infrastructure people to decide what to use for security. 

What needs improvement?

I'm happy with the value Red Hat Enterprise Linux delivers, but there's always room to improve. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Red Hat Enterprise Linux for almost twenty years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I've never heard of any issues with Red Hat Enterprise Linux's performance on business-critical workloads. If there is a problem, it's mostly on the application layer, not the operating system.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Red Hat Enterprise Linux has native containerization, so it can scale. It uses open-source technology and has Kubernetes underneath, which gives you the scaling you need. .

How are customer service and support?

I rate Red Hat support seven out of 10.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Neutral

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We have been a Red Hat customer for over a year, and we are happy with the value it delivers.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

I don't know the exact pricing. Red Hat's subscription model is cost-effective because you pay as you go, which is better than paying upfront high license costs. 

What other advice do I have?

I rate Red Hat Enterprise Linux eight out of 10. If you plan to implement Red Hat Enterprise Linux, make sure you get a vendor who can deliver and support it correctly. 

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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Victor Mendonca - PeerSpot reviewer
Linux Systems Admin at Fujitsu Canada
Real User
Top 20
Enables organizations to achieve security standards certification
Pros and Cons
  • "The solution's stability is great, and patching it with Ansible is very easy."
  • "The solution's licensing sometimes could be a little bit confusing for someone who's not a full-blown system admin and doesn't have a lot of experience with Red Hat Enterprise Linux."

What is our primary use case?

We are an Azure shop that runs middleware applications like Java and JBoss, running on the Azure back end. We have to redeploy everything via ARM templates. Anytime we do an upgrade of the application itself, it's a redeployment. We have custom images that we set up through Azure pipelines. We use Ansible for code changes and server changes.

What is most valuable?

The solution's stability is great, and patching it with Ansible is very easy.

What needs improvement?

The solution's licensing sometimes could be a little bit confusing for someone who's not a full-blown system admin and doesn't have a lot of experience with Red Hat Enterprise Linux. It took a while for me to understand the licensing.

For how long have I used the solution?

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

What other advice do I have?

Red Hat Enterprise Linux’s built-in security features for simplifying risk reduction and maintaining compliance are pretty good. My only exposure is just packet management, but packet management gives me everything that I need.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux has enabled us to achieve security standards certification. We have to stay on top of things because we work with the Ontario District School Board. There's a big emphasis on keeping everything secure, and the solution has helped us to do that.

Right now, our company is migrating to 8.8, and I think we will stay on 8 for a few years. We're doing everything through the images, and we keep everything updated with Ansible. I don't think we have any plans to use any of the automation tools other than Ansible.

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

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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reviewer2197401 - PeerSpot reviewer
Software Engineer at a energy/utilities company with 5,001-10,000 employees
Real User
A stable solution with good built-in security and a responsive support team
Pros and Cons
  • "Support has a fast response time."
  • "The solution should provide better documentation."

What is our primary use case?

Our use cases are pretty broad. We develop the automation that provisions the VMs, and then anyone in the company can request the VM for whatever intended purposes.

What is most valuable?

Red Hat Support is really good. Support has a fast response time. The product has good security. We deal with very urgent issues. The response time should be optimal if the issue requires Red Hat Support. 

My company is a utility company. Outages are a major issue for us. A faster response time is very important to get the applications back up so we can keep up with our production time. Red Hat's documentation is always really good.

What needs improvement?

As a software developer, documentation is very important to me. The solution should provide better documentation.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution is very stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The product is scalable. We're able to provide as many VMs as we like. We never run into an issue with how many VMs we are provisioning.

How are customer service and support?

Support can always be improved. I rate the product’s support an eight or nine out of ten.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The solution can get pretty pricey depending on how many machines we're licensing but for a good reason.

What other advice do I have?

We purchased the solution from Red Hat. We use Packer by HashiCorp to build our templates. I am a junior developer. I have been employed with my company for about five months. I don't know the initial issues that led to us choosing Red Hat Enterprise Linux as our Linux solution. I speak from a developer’s perspective because I deal with Ansible.

The product has really good built-in security. The product provides good support, which helps us manage downtime and get the service back up and running, thus producing more money.

Overall, I rate the product a ten 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?

Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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reviewer2197287 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Systems/Automation Engineer at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
Top 20
A highly stable solution with a straightforward initial setup
Pros and Cons
  • "The solution’s stability is its most valuable feature."
  • "It is challenging to use the knowledge base and the deployment documentation."

What is our primary use case?

We use Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform. We are using version 8.4, but we started with 8.3.

What is most valuable?

The solution’s stability is its most valuable feature. It has only been two years since I first started using the product. So far, I have seen a subtle comparison of the solution’s stability to other operating systems.

What needs improvement?

It is challenging to use the knowledge base and the deployment documentation. Some of it is all over the place, and it's challenging to piece them together.

For how long have I used the solution?

It has been two years since we put in the first footprint of Red Hat Enterprise Linux in our organization.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We have about 30 to 40 servers.

How are customer service and support?

The support team is pretty good. Whenever I send support requests and ask questions, the team is knowledgeable enough to get me the necessary answers. Sometimes there are delays in the response. However, it has been a positive experience for me.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

How was the initial setup?

I was the main engineer during the initial deployment of the product. The initial setup was straightforward. Whatever was in the documentation was exactly what was meant to be done.

We did not struggle with the documentation because I have been an engineer for years. Someone who is just getting started might have a different perspective on the ease of setup.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

We purchased the solution from a third-party vendor.

What other advice do I have?

I use Ansible Builder to build my containers. However, I do not use Red Hat Enterprise Linux’s image builder tool.

We do not use Red Hat Insights yet, but we're planning to use it in the near future. As soon as we get more servers in our environment, our firm’s directors might decide to start using Red Hat Insights. Right now, we are just using Automation Analytics. The solution’s resiliency is pretty solid.

We implemented the solution because we wanted automation. We cannot install Ansible Automation Platform in operating systems other than Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

Overall, I rate the product an eight 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?

Microsoft Azure
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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Buyer's Guide
Download our free Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
Updated: April 2025
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.