I work on SAP HANA, which is on Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
Senior Associate - Projects at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
We see immediate benefits; it is stable and has a sound support system
Pros and Cons
- "From an administrative perspective, the cloud platform is the best because we don't have to wait long."
- "Using Red Hat Enterprise Linux on the cloud can become costly over the long term."
What is our primary use case?
How has it helped my organization?
Red Hat Enterprise Linux has a good support portal that I rely on.
The system rules are helpful for segregation of duties, as they provide us with more feasible access to the system, allowing us to register it accordingly.
We immediately see the benefits of Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
What is most valuable?
From an administrative perspective, the cloud platform is the best because we don't have to wait long. It's a portal, so we can access whatever we want through it, whether the Azure portal or the AWS portal; we click, and it'll purchase it for us. Some deployments take 30 to 40 minutes. But in most cases, especially for small services, it's just a few seconds to three minutes. From a business perspective, the pay-as-you-go concept is where we only pay for what we use. So those are the two things I like most about the cloud version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
What needs improvement?
Using Red Hat Enterprise Linux on the cloud can become costly over the long term.
Buyer's Guide
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
November 2024
Learn what your peers think about Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: November 2024.
824,052 professionals have used our research since 2012.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Red Hat Enterprise Linux for six years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Red Hat Enterprise Linux on the cloud is stable with a 99.9 percent uptime. Regional redundancies are used to ensure data accessibility.
How was the initial setup?
The initial deployment was a little challenging until I became familiar with the solution through the portal. We did encounter a handshaking issue with Azure that required submitting a ticket to Microsoft, but otherwise, the process went smoothly. A team of four were involved in the deployment.
What about the implementation team?
The implementation was completed in-house.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate Red Hat Enterprise Linux eight out of ten.
We have to apply patches weekly, monthly, or quarterly, depending on their purpose.
We had no concerns about using Red Hat Enterprise Linux in the cloud because both AWS and Azure supported it, and they provided support if needed.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public 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.
Last updated: Oct 7, 2024
Flag as inappropriateIT Engineer / Admin at cwgiprc
We have experienced high performance, improved security, and easier system management
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable aspect of Red Hat Enterprise Linux is its ease of management."
- "Red Hat Enterprise Linux training and certification opportunities for engineers and administrators could be improved."
What is our primary use case?
The primary software utilized across our business units is S4HANA, which runs on our SAP server hosted on Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Consequently, most Red Hat systems in our environment support SAP-related services. We operate approximately 105 Red Hat Enterprise servers dedicated to running these SAP services.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux was implemented due to its robust infrastructure, which allows us to efficiently manage our enterprise servers on a large scale using tools like Red Hat Satellite, Insight, and Ansible. This centralized management simplifies the orchestration and control of our extensive RHEL environment. Red Hat Identity Manager also ensures secure authentication and authorization for our remote systems. Beyond infrastructure, Red Hat's robust support is invaluable, providing timely solutions to complex issues. The operating system's strong security posture, including rapid patch deployment for vulnerabilities, further solidifies our decision to implement RHEL.
How has it helped my organization?
Red Hat Enterprise Linux simplifies risk reduction by integrating Red Hat Insights. This provides a comprehensive security posture assessment of our Red Hat systems, offering easy-to-understand best practice recommendations and applicable actionable remediation steps.
The knowledge base offered by Red Hat Enterprise Linux is detailed and contains numerous articles that can help resolve our issues.
Red Hat Satellite simplifies our patch process by helping us meet audit and compliance needs. We've set up a lifecycle environment within Satellite to test patches on development and quality systems before deploying them to the operating system. This allows us to roll out patches based on the environment, ensuring thorough testing before reaching production. Additionally, we leverage Ansible automation to streamline provisioning and manage patches effectively. While automation is ongoing, we have successfully implemented Ansible and Red Hat Satellite for provisioning, and we continue to identify areas for further automation within our environment.
Red Hat Insights provides best practice recommendations based on regular system assessments. Like other security tools like Microsoft Azure Defender, it can access a system to offer security improvement suggestions. I have a Red Hat Insights certification and find the tool valuable. It generates actionable recommendations that can be easily implemented through automated processes like FastScript, making it an efficient way to leverage data insights for enhanced system security.
Since implementing Red Hat Enterprise Linux, we have experienced high performance, improved security, excellent support service, and easier system management.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux has enhanced our security posture through timely security patch releases and best practice recommendations, which collectively have increased the protection of our data systems.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux allows me to manage all my Cloud and on-premise systems from one console.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable aspect of Red Hat Enterprise Linux is its ease of management. A robust suite of tools, including the user-friendly GUI and the powerful Red Hat Cockpit web portal, simplifies system administration. Cockpit provides a centralized platform for managing hosts, while Red Hat Satellite or automation servers excel at overseeing large fleets of radar systems.
What needs improvement?
Red Hat Enterprise Linux training and certification opportunities for engineers and administrators could be improved. While I have benefited from free training offered by other companies like Microsoft, I have not had similar opportunities with Red Hat. Despite holding a Red Hat certification, I incurred significant costs to achieve it. The training required for these certifications is expensive, and it would be advantageous if Red Hat provided more affordable training courses.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Red Hat Enterprise Linux for seven months.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Red Hat Enterprise Linux is highly stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Red Hat Enterprise Linux is scalable.
How are customer service and support?
The support is good.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I have used Ubuntu Linux, Windows Server, and other solutions. Compared to these alternatives, Red Hat Enterprise Linux stands out as superior in terms of ease of management, security, and support.
How was the initial setup?
The initial deployment is straightforward. Deploying it manually takes about fifteen to twenty minutes from start to finish using it manually.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate Red Hat Enterprise Linux nine out of ten.
We have 15,000 users all across Africa that use our systems.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux requires periodic maintenance to apply security patches and updates.
I recommend Red Hat Enterprise Linux and conducting a proof of concept to ensure it aligns with our requirements.
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: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
Last updated: Aug 11, 2024
Flag as inappropriateBuyer's Guide
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
November 2024
Learn what your peers think about Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: November 2024.
824,052 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Research Cloud Tech Lead for HPC at a university with 10,001+ employees
Consistent, scalable, and geared toward security
Pros and Cons
- "It is consistent. It is geared toward security."
- "I do not have anything to improve for Red Hat Enterprise Linux, but CentOS could be open-source again."
What is our primary use case?
We have extensive contracts with Red Hat. We have it for the operating system. I manage the cloud deployment for GCP, and we have got Red Hat Satellite running in GCP. All of our VMs run on Red Hat Enterprise Linux in the cloud. On-prem, we are running Red Hat Enterprise Linux on our OpenShift cluster, and we have a supercomputer that has got 753 nodes with 50,000 cores running on Red Hat Enterprise Linux. We use a lot of the other products too.
How has it helped my organization?
There is consistency across the deployment. Generally, when you are looking to hire people, if you hire people who know Red Hat Enterprise Linux, they have a certain level of understanding that goes along with using the operating system.
It is easy to secure. It has a lot of built-in security features, and it is very stable, which is a big deal.
It makes it easier to have one team that deals with both on-prem and cloud because there is a uniform operating system and tooling. You do not have to have a set of admins where one knows one thing and the other one knows another.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux has enabled us to centralize development. We are using the same platform everywhere. It is the same tooling, and everyone is working in the same system.
We are using Red Hat Enterprise Linux for containerization projects. We are building out OpenShift on-prem right now on bare metal. We are running the hub cluster from GCP to spin up the bare metal cluster on-prem. We will hopefully be moving more and more things towards containerized workflows. We are running OpenShift, so it all runs on top of Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
For security, SELinux is built in. It is out of the box. It is built towards building a secure system. We are in the process of working on compliance and getting this 800-171 certified. That is in process. They have regular security updates and lots of tools for rolling out updates. In that sense, there is a continuous upgrade path that is well-worn and fairly easy to maintain.
In terms of portability of applications and containers built on Red Hat Enterprise Linux for keeping our organization agile, when it is in a container, it does not matter if you are running a UBI container or some other sort of container. If you have an environment that will run a container, you can throw a container in it, and it will run, so the portability does not belong to the OS at that point. It belongs to the containerization system.
What is most valuable?
It is consistent. It is geared toward security. I am used to it. I know only Red Hat Enterprise Linux. I do not know Ubuntu or any of the other flavors of Linux.
What needs improvement?
It is good. I do not have anything to improve for Red Hat Enterprise Linux, but CentOS could be open-source again.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Red Hat Enterprise Linux since 2014. I have been using Red Hat since 1.2. It was probably 1998.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is very stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We have a cluster with 50,000 cores. It is pretty scalable.
How are customer service and support?
Their customer service is good. We have a TAM. Our TAM is great. Without a TAM, it is hard to get new tickets through.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I have used many solutions. I have used many that predate Linux. For Linux, I have run Slackware, but that is just for fun. Professionally, it has all been Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
How was the initial setup?
Our deployment experience is good. For the things in the cloud, I use Satellite. I build images and deploy from images to the cloud. It is a mutable deployment chain rather than a standard upgrade path.
What about the implementation team?
We deploy it in-house.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The vendor management takes care of that.
We have an enterprise agreement. From our department's standpoint, everything gets rolled into the enterprise agreement, which is great because we never see it.
What other advice do I have?
To a colleague who is looking at open-source, cloud-based operating systems for Linux instead of Red Hat Enterprise Linux, I would say, "Why would you look at something other than that?" I have built things on Fedora and Red Hat Enterprise Linux. I was out of the industry for a while, and I came back, and I focused on Red Hat Enterprise Linux because it pays better. There are more standardized jobs in the area if you know Red Hat Enterprise Linux. The certification that you get from Red Hat means something quite specific.
I would rate Red Hat Enterprise Linux a nine out of ten.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Last updated: Jun 4, 2024
Flag as inappropriateSenior Linux Administrator at a retailer with 501-1,000 employees
A rock-solid, scalable OS that allows you to do things that you want
Pros and Cons
- "Why I like it in general is that I know what it is doing. I can figure out what it is doing, and I can make it do what I want. I am not delving into arcane registry things."
- "I am still trying to figure out the features it has. There is so much that it can do."
What is our primary use case?
We are using Red Hat Enterprise Linux for running various things. We have a lot of virtual machines. The applications that are running on it are a bunch of shell scripts for processing orders, marketing campaigns, generating reports, or running some Java applications.
How has it helped my organization?
We have the customization capability. We can easily customize it, and we can also automate and deploy it. I have a command line interface. I am a command line junkie, and I am able to use that, config files, and Ansible to be able to easily figure out what I need to do to automate things. It feels like I know what it is doing and how to make it do what I want. I do not have to weave some magical arcane hack the way I have to do in Windows.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux has enabled us to centralize development in a lot of ways. We have it hooked in through our GitHub. We are trying to combine where we are storing things and then have a standard way of how we are deploying things and have some standard configurations. With every single server, we do not have to worry about how to set this up because we are doing the same thing the same way. We can just do it across the board, and then we only have to worry about the interesting parts.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux's built-in security features are great for risk reduction, business continuity, and maintaining compliance. There are published CVEs, and there is SELinux, which I do not use and I always turn it off. Firewalls and tooling around that make it easy to use. The automation on top of that makes it easy to configure. With a push of a button, it is done.
We do not have to worry too much about portability. We are coming from Oracle Linux. We were primarily an Oracle Linux shop, and because that is based on it, it just works. We have not had any issues.
What is most valuable?
The fact that it is Linux is valuable. Why I like it in general is that I know what it is doing. I can figure out what it is doing, and I can make it do what I want. I am not delving into arcane registry things.
What needs improvement?
I am still trying to figure out the features it has. There is so much that it can do. What it does really well is that it allows you to do things.
For how long have I used the solution?
It was probably 2008 when I first started using it. The company was using Red Hat Enterprise Linux, and I was with the internal help desk supporting the Linux side.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Its stability is great. It is stable and rock-solid.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Its scalability is also great. It does not matter if the host is beefy or not. It is just going to run on it, and it is going to handle the work. Whether you have a couple of cores or 64 cores, it is just going to do it.
How are customer service and support?
Their support is good. There is good responsiveness. They quickly get me to the person who knows the answer, but I have not used them much.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We were using Oracle Linux. We are switching because of some of the things. Oracle licensing has been a point of frustration. Their support is comparably difficult to work with, and the support documentation is a mess.
Red Hat is so much easier to navigate. It has been overall a much more pleasant experience to work with Red Hat.
How was the initial setup?
We are using it on-prem, and then our cloud is a Kubernetes cluster on AWS, so it is basically on-prem.
Our deployment model is a manual kickstart with Ansible for configuration. My experience with deployment is good. I kickstart it and then hit it with Ansible, and it is done. It is very easy.
What about the implementation team?
I did the deployment on my own.
What was our ROI?
We have not yet seen an ROI. It has not been in for long enough. There are no savings in terms of manhours because the actual day-to-day usage remains the same with Oracle Linux or Red Hat Enterprise Linux. However, getting some of the metrics with Red Hat Insights is going to be helpful as we get into a better patching cycle. I am anticipating an easier life.
We are expecting an overall decline in the costs because of the differences between the Red Hat licensing and Oracle licensing. We are expecting a net decrease in overall cost. For using it, other than the license, there is no cost.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The setup cost is non-existent. With licensing, there was a little snafu because I misread something. There was a slight learning curve because we use virtual data center licensing. We had to understand how it all maps. We had to understand how that mapping works when the hypervisors are Red Hat or VMware. There is a slight learning curve, but it worked out. It ends up being easy.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I did not evaluate other options mainly because I have had experience with it before. From my prior experience, I already knew what I wanted.
What other advice do I have?
We are trying to use Red Hat Insights. I need to finish updating the playbooks to hook our host. We are in the midst of transitioning from Oracle Linux to Red Hat Enterprise Linux. I have not fully hooked everything in, but we will be using Red Hat Insights.
We just started using Red Hat Enterprise Linux for containerization projects. We have not yet seen any impact of Red Hat Enterprise Linux on containerization projects.
If a colleague is looking at open-source, cloud-based operating systems for Linux instead of Red Hat Enterprise Linux, a lot of it would depend on their use case, what they are going to need for it, and whether they have an enterprise environment. There is a cost associated with it which can be a downside. I am an open-source lover. I do not like paying for stuff, but I get it. They need to look at the cost, and if the cost is prohibitive, they need to look at something that is compatible and as similar as possible.
Overall, I would rate Red Hat Enterprise Linux a nine out of ten. I generally do not give out a ten. There needs to be something spectacular for a ten, so that is my personal bias against the top of the scale.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Last updated: May 28, 2024
Flag as inappropriateSenior Database Administrator at Awash International Bank
Helps improve security, reduces risks, and is easy to upgrade
Pros and Cons
- "The security of the OS is the most valuable feature."
- "The labor required to maintain the on-premises storage systems has room for improvement."
What is our primary use case?
We use Red Hat Enterprise Linux to manage our database.
How has it helped my organization?
Red Hat Enterprise Linux helps reduce our risk.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux helps to maintain compliance by making the data required easily accessible to us.
The knowledge base offered by Red Hat Enterprise Linux is good and they provide good training.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux System Roles help manage our database.
I use the Red Hat Enterprise Linux Web Console and Command Manager. The Web Console helps monitor our database and run queries in Command Manager.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux enhances our security.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux helps us meet security standards certification requirements, which is advantageous.
What is most valuable?
The security of the OS is the most valuable feature.
What needs improvement?
The labor required to maintain the on-premises storage systems has room for improvement.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux can benefit from more promotions and demos.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Red Hat Enterprise Linux for one year.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Red Hat Enterprise Linux is stable.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We run Red Hat Enterprise Linux in parallel with other OS systems. We are satisfied with how well Red Hat Enterprise Linux works with our other products.
How was the initial setup?
Upgrading the versions is straightforward. All the stakeholders from the system side, database side, and consultants are involved in the updates.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The cost of Red Hat Enterprise Linux is reasonable.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate Red Hat Enterprise Linux a nine out of ten.
We have ten people that are using the solution in our organization.
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.
CTO at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Exceptional support, helpful for compliance, and fantastic for containers
Pros and Cons
- "The Red Hat support is most valuable. My team and I are really good at Linux, and we can do almost everything in any kind of Linux solution, but sometimes, we have a really nasty problem, and the Red Hat engineering support at the third level has been fantastic. They know how to fix almost everything. The reason why I pay so much money to them is to have this kind of service and assurance."
- "Network virtualization resources could be better. When you have any kind of trouble with network virtualization, such as with OVS, which is like a switch in a virtual environment, it takes many hours to find what is happening. Other vendors, such as VMware, and even other Linux implementations for network virtualization have better resources. It is much easier to escalate, and there is better documentation."
What is our primary use case?
I use it for almost everything. I run a company in South Texas and Mexico. We are a cloud service provider, and we have implementations for almost everything. We are using it for websites, virtualization, orchestration, and containers, and we are also using it a lot for telecommunications. We use almost all of its features.
We have many versions. We have versions 8, 9, 9, 9.1, 9.2, etc.
How has it helped my organization?
When we implemented all the security frameworks with RHEL three years ago, that was the first time we had a non-issue audit. It was a great implementation.
It helps with the headcount. With the kind of orchestration and automation that we have, we don't need a lot of engineers. We can have fewer engineers on site.
There is reliability. We can rely not only on their operating system but also on their server. Red Hat not only has operating systems; it also has many different servers.
It helps to achieve security standards certification. It is one of the most important things that I do every single day. We need to comply with a lot of frameworks of security, such as ISO2701, ISO2717, ISO2721, PCI compliance, and HIPAA for the health sector. We also have some local compliance requirements. For example, in Texas, there is one for financial entities, and in Mexico, there are several based on GDPR. It is very important for us.
It is helpful when it comes to building with confidence and ensuring availability across physical, virtual, and cloud infrastructures. There are many features to ensure or enforce high availability.
It helps us to centralize development with OpenShift. We don't do a lot of DevOps, but we have a supply chain where everything goes to the on-premises cloud, and then it is pulled to the public cloud.
What is most valuable?
The Red Hat support is most valuable. My team and I are really good at Linux, and we can do almost everything in any kind of Linux solution, but sometimes, we have a really nasty problem, and the Red Hat engineering support at the third level has been fantastic. They know how to fix almost everything. The reason why I pay so much money to them is to have this kind of service and assurance.
Containers are the strongest feature that they have. In terms of the quality, between VMs and containers, Red Hat with OpenShift is fantastic. I have more than a million containers right now in my cloud, and it works fantastically.
What needs improvement?
Network virtualization resources could be better. When you have any kind of trouble with network virtualization, such as with OVS, which is like a switch in a virtual environment, it takes many hours to find what is happening. Other vendors, such as VMware, and even other Linux implementations for network virtualization have better resources. It is much easier to escalate, and there is better documentation.
I don't use Ceph, which is their software-defined storage, because they don't have the best price. It doesn't make sense when you compare it in terms of the hardware cost, better performance, and better capabilities. That's my main complaint at any meeting with Red Hat. I want to use Red Hat Ceph, but it costs so much money.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using it for about 20 years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
If you have the correct hardware, it is stable, but if you do not, you will have a problem any time soon.
It is reliable. If you don't know how to secure your Linux implementation, Red Hat can do it for you with two or three simple clicks, and you will be very secure without any kind of knowledge.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is scalable. It is not the most scalable in the Linux area, but for 99% of the companies, it is scalable enough for any kind of workload.
We have plenty of clusters, and we probably have more than 400 servers. We are a private cloud solution provider. We don't have anything in the hyper-scale, such as AWS, Azure, etc. We own everything: the data center servers, racks, networking, and storage. That's our competency, and this way, we can provide a better solution to the kind of customers we are focused on.
We have three different locations: one in the states and two in Mexico. At each location, we have at least three different clusters for three different market verticals. We have one for the financial, one for the healthcare system, which has a lot of compliance requirements, and one for the general public, which doesn't have too much sophistication.
We plan to increase its usage, but it is not my decision. If I sell more, I will buy more.
How are customer service and support?
They are exceptional. We have a lot of experience in these matters. Usually, when we have any kind of issue, it is a really difficult one, and I need to talk to somebody at level two or three in the support area. They skip the line for us because we send everything perfectly documented to open the PR. They put us in touch with the best engineer to solve the issue. If the engineer isn't able to understand what is happening, usually, he calls the RHEL developer or engineer that handles that part of the code. They are usually able to fix a complex problem in less than eight hours.
Their support is fantastic. I have dealt with many different vendors, but Red Hat is the only one that does it in this way. They do it in a simple and fast way. They understand you, and they are willing to help you and fix everything. If you have a problem or situation that is causing downtime for the customer, they understand that it has an impact on your business, and they are affecting the revenue of the company. They are really committed to fixing it as soon as possible. I would rate them a 10 out of 10.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We use RHEL and Canonical. We have some SUSE implementation in the Linux area. In hypervisors, we use VMware and Hyper-V. So, we are in many different technologies, and we are not always on RHEL. RHEL has almost 45% of all our hardware. It is the biggest one, but we use almost all the solutions. In terms of security, Red Hat and Canonical have almost the same level of security.
How was the initial setup?
I am no longer involved in its deployment. I last deployed it about four years ago.
In terms of maintenance, every server requires some kind of maintenance, but we have everything automated. We don't put any effort into it.
What about the implementation team?
We have 8 to 12 people for deployment and maintenance. They handle the deployment and change of the environment in the data center. For DevOps, I have another team of probably 30 people. They develop solutions for customers.
What was our ROI?
We have definitely seen an ROI. The return on investments comes in the 14th or 15th month.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
For the basic operating system, its price is fair. It is not cheap, and it is also not expensive. For the OpenShift or OpenStack implementation, the cost is a little higher than what I would expect, but it is doable. For a storage solution, it is almost impossible to pay.
In comparison to open-source competitors, RHEL has the most cost-effective open-source subscription model. The way I pay for everything, such as Ubuntu or RHEL, is very similar. When you compare how much money I put in for a customer, in terms of licensing, or even support, my margins with RHEL are really good. If I compare it with VMware or Hyper-V, which are not open source, the difference is totally insane.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I am a vendor-agnostic solution provider. If my customer needs something with RHEL or something that's specifically with another vendor, I use that. If they don't know, or there is a new implementation, I surely send everything to the RHEL implementation. In the end, this is not my decision. It is a market decision. If my customer is telling me that they should be on RHEL, I will bring in RHEL for them.
What other advice do I have?
I would advise paying for the enterprise-level support at least for the first year.
For sure, it is expensive, but it would be helpful. With experience, you can downgrade to the second level.
We have had some issues with container compression that broke everything. So, I don't recommend using it if you don't know how to fix everything.
The biggest lesson that I've learned from using this solution is to read before starting the implementation.
I would rate it a 9 out of 10 because there is nothing perfect.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Reseller
Cloud Infrastructure Architect at a healthcare company with 10,001+ employees
Improved our compliance by working with third-party security providers, like CIS Enterprise Internet Security
Pros and Cons
- "The most significant advantage is that it is more stable and secure than other operating systems."
- "Red Hat Enterprise Linux licensing is a bit complex. The solution operates on a subscription-based model, which may not provide immediate return on investment for small to medium-sized organizations."
- "It also has a steep learning curve for employees unfamiliar with Linux, and it demands a skilled team or a dedicated service center to operate effectively."
What is our primary use case?
The solution is used for on-premises data centers. Multiple private data centers run workloads on VMware Cloud solutions, and Red Hat Enterprise Linux is deployed on critical systems. We use KVM virtualization technology to host various virtual machines on Red Hat Enterprise Linux that run workloads and applications.
How has it helped my organization?
Red Hat Enterprise Linux improved our compliance by working with third-party security providers, like CIS Enterprise Internet Security. It's a nonprofit organization that provides many security solutions and benchmarking for each operating system. CIS and Red Hat jointly developed a CIS-approved operating system. They work with various public cloud providers like App Engine, Google, and AWS to provide comprehensive CIS-approved images in Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
The US federal government has already certified the OS for FIPS compliance. FIPS is the organization that designs cryptography algorithms for federal agencies, and they approved Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
It takes some time to realize the benefits. Some customers cannot see a direct benefit because the licensing is a bit complex. In a huge enterprise environment, you could see an immediate effect, but a smaller or medium-sized organization may take a while to yield a return on investment.
What is most valuable?
The most significant advantage is that it is more stable and secure than other operating systems. Years ago, we worked on Windows-based systems with more challenges regarding patch management and vulnerabilities than Unix operating systems. We get more frequent patch releases from the vendor weekly, monthly, and quarterly. It also has strong security features, is OIS and FIPS certified, and has built-in Linux security configurations.
In addition to Linux's built-in security tools, it has Red Hat Enterprise Linux configuration features that provide robust security controls. We also have third-party solutions that provide more in-depth solutions for our cloud and on-premises infrastructure. We have to provide security at each layer of the OSI models. For example, on the application layer, we have to provide web solutions or application gateways, but it provides good security features for the OS layer.
We use another Red Hat product called Ansible to automate patching tasks and infrastructure deployment. We don't have a large number of servers, so we manage patching and configuration through Ansible. For bigger deployments, they have solutions like Satellite, but we use Ansible.
We use Image Builder to create a Golden Image for our CICD pipelines. We have a CIS-approved image that integrates their security controls for our automation tools and some of the ones specific to our organization. We added some of the controls from the Red Hat management framework that govern how an image should be created and what controls must be integrated into this base image.
The web console is useful for people without Linux backgrounds who lack experience working with the command prompt. The web console helps them manage the system better without knowing all the commands.
What needs improvement?
Red Hat Enterprise Linux licensing is a bit complex. The solution operates on a subscription-based model, which may not provide immediate return on investment for small to medium-sized organizations. It also has a steep learning curve for employees unfamiliar with Linux, and it demands a skilled team or a dedicated service center to operate effectively.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have used Red Hat Enterprise Linux for about four to six years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Red Hat Enterprise Linux offers great stability and performance compared to other operating systems. It does not have issues with crashing or substantial downtime.
How are customer service and support?
I rate Red Hat support seven out of 10. We have only opened one or two cases with technical support, but we've had good experiences. They respond immediately based on the SLA level. In the future, we plan to use Red Hat's OpenShift and Kubernetes solutions, so we expect to work with the support team more because we're new to those products.
Red Hat's Knowledgebase is an excellent support resource. It stays updated about new things coming to our region and provides lots of articles about the products. It's a good starting point for troubleshooting without the need to call the support team. We use the knowledgebase to resolve issues as often as we can, but we contact support if we get stuck and can't find the solution.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Neutral
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We have physical systems running SUSE Linux and Windows, but we're gradually migrating them to Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Some systems are running Solaris, and we haven't decided whether we'll migrate to Red Hat Enterprise Linux or other operating systems.
How was the initial setup?
Our operations team takes care of migrations and installations. We're primarily responsible for business impact assessments and helping the operations team do a POC to determine the effect on the application environment. We consider the licensing and give the operations team approval to do the migrations and install the new operating system.
The team consists of two or three people. We cannot migrate directly from one system to another. We simulate everything in the POC environment and perform migrations in the development environment using our in-house tools. They will check the source machines and find out what applications are running. It will assess them and look into the destination systems. Using some replication technology, it will do a direct synchronous verification between one storage to the other.
We need some downtime to complete the migration, and most of the data is stored in SAN storage. That is called a long migration. Once the operating systems and associated patches and applications have been migrated, we have to migrate them manually for the storage side.
What about the implementation team?
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The subscription-based pricing can be costly, particularly for smaller deployments. The more subscriptions you have, the easier it is to see a return on investment because it helps larger organizations more. It may be considered expensive compared to other solutions like CentOS or Ubuntu, which offer some of the same features without additional costs.
What other advice do I have?
I rate Red Hat Enterprise Linux eight out of 10. I recommend new users get some training on the platform because installations and migrations can be complex. Setting up clusters can be challenging for new users who don't have hands-on Linux experience without vendor assistance.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
Last updated: Nov 10, 2024
Flag as inappropriateTeam lead infrastructure architecture at EUIPO - European Union Intellectual Property Office
Enables us to configure a cluster for high availability and protect our data
Pros and Cons
- "The support for OpenShift and CoreOS is valuable, as we frequently use support services and rely heavily on Red Hat support for assistance."
- "When we started using RHEL, it was a struggle to install CoreOS because we were used to using a Satellite server with Red Hat. The people in charge of setting up OpenShift and installing RHEL on the nodes had a hard time. I don't know why, but I think it was because the OpenShift cluster included VMs and bare metal machines."
What is our primary use case?
We use Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) to run applications and databases related to the European Parliament's business. For example, we use SAP for financial operations. It's not my domain, but I know the leadership plans to implement AI workloads. We translate every document into 27 languages manually, but we plan to use AI and machine language translation.
How has it helped my organization?
Using a Red Hat Enterprise Linux Cluster in the SAP environments gives us high availability and disaster recovery, so our data is safe. I think it's a geo-cluster for the whole SAP environment. Whenever something happens, it almost automatically shifts to the other.
What is most valuable?
The support for OpenShift and CoreOS is valuable, as we frequently use support services and rely heavily on Red Hat support for assistance.
What needs improvement?
When we started using Red Hat Enterprise Linux, it was a struggle to install CoreOS because we were used to using a Satellite server with Red Hat. The people in charge of setting up OpenShift and installing Red Hat Enterprise Linux on the nodes had a hard time. I don't know why, but I think it was because the OpenShift cluster included VMs and bare metal machines.
For how long have I used the solution?
I joined the European Parliament in 2012, and we have been using Red Hat Enterprise Linux for 12 years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
We do not have any issues with its performance. The system functions well.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Scaling the operating system is transparent. We work with VMware, so whenever there is a need for more RAM and memory, the process is seamless to the customer.
How are customer service and support?
I rate Red Hat support eight out of 10. Customer service and support are excellent. Support is available depending on the priority and the support package. I am happy with the service. However, navigating through documentation can be challenging.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We started with Mini Solaris and gradually migrated to Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
How was the initial setup?
Initially, setting up OpenShift and the installation was somewhat complicated, especially when dealing with bare metal machines.
What was our ROI?
As a nonprofit business, we do not focus on return on investment in monetary terms. However, a big community makes it easy to gather opinions and help from outside sources, which is a return on investment.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We compared Red Hat Enterprise Linux and SUSE. While SUSE is generally the preferred Linux distro for SAP, we chose Red Hat Enterprise Linux because we had more in-house knowledge of the platform and better support.
What other advice do I have?
I rate Red Hat Enterprise Linux eight out of 10. I used to be an AIX system admin, and I still prefer that operating system. I would recommend considering Red Hat's benefits, such as support. I used to work in IBM support, and Red Hat has a significant advantage in this realm. Also, many corporations merge firms and combine workforces, and RHEL can adapt to these changes.
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.
Last updated: Oct 30, 2024
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Updated: November 2024
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