Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) Reviews

We run IT and telco workloads and applications on Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL).

Red Hat Enterprise Linux helped us centralize development. We use a complete ecosystem of Red Hat for end-to-end development, deployment, and operations. 

Centralizing development is achieved as we have clearly defined platforms to host applications, like OpenShift. 

Additionally, the ACS on top of containers scans to ensure they are compliant, reducing vulnerabilities within our software.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux provides a standardized environment with Kubernetes and good support behind it. The end-to-end delivery for developing, testing, and deploying containers in the same ecosystem is a very valuable feature. 

The built-in security features are fine, we don't receive complaints about them.

One area for improvement is dealing with specifics developed by Red Hat Enterprise Linux that are now end of life. We have to remediate these changes, which is a disadvantage. 

Additionally, better comparisons between different stack providers in pricing and functionalities could help, especially since public clouds often appear less expensive during planning but are more costly in practice.

I have used Red Hat Enterprise Linux personally since joining my company ten years ago. Within the company, it has been used for more than 20 years.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux performs quite well for business-critical applications. Although we have some outages, it's not unusual, and I cannot blame RHEL entirely for it.

Scaling Red Hat Enterprise Linux OS is smooth and without complaints. We are planning to widen its use by moving from OpenStack to bare metal according to Red Hat's roadmap.

The customer service rating varies at around an eight or nine out of ten.

Positive

They conducted tests with Ubuntu. That said, it was less expensive and not as stable or developed as Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

There is a return on investment since we can host our applications on top of Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux is quite expensive, yet the technical support, available roadmaps, and services justify the cost. We receive value for the price we pay, including technical support, which enables business continuity and compliance.

We evaluated Ubuntu, but it was less stable.

I would advise trying it out to see for yourself. Red Hat provides great technical support. That said, the pricing may need careful evaluation, especially when comparing with public cloud offerings.

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

We use Red Hat Enterprise Linux for our infrastructure, and in recent years, we have also been using it for Ansible, primarily for appliance deployment on the customer side.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux is deployed on-premises on our virtual machines.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux provided our organization with increased stability over the past decade.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux has allowed us to centralize development and focus on our projects by providing a consolidated platform for our enterprise distribution.

We are satisfied with Red Hat's built-in security features, which effectively reduce risk, ensure business continuity, and maintain compliance. Red Hat Enterprise Linux provides a more secure operating system than other Linux solutions due to its robust security features and a supported kernel that receives regular security updates.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux, when used with Ansible, has significantly automated various tasks, leading to a reduction in the total cost of ownership.

It has helped save the organization costs.

I find the most valuable aspect of Red Hat Enterprise Linux to be its comprehensive support, encompassing both technical and security issues.

Red Hat's comprehensive documentation eliminates the need to contact technical support for any issues encountered.

The deployment learning curve for Red Hat Enterprise Linux could be more user-friendly.

I have been using Red Hat Enterprise Linux for 14 years.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux offers exceptional stability, with downtime limited to scheduled maintenance periods.

Although Red Hat Enterprise Linux is designed for scalability, our current deployments are not large.

Our organization has always used Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

Deploying Red Hat Enterprise Linux can be challenging, but the documentation provides valuable assistance.

The implementation was completed in-house.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux offers a significant return on investment through Ansible, a powerful tool that enables the automation of our environment.

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

Red Hat Enterprise Linux distinguishes itself from other vendors by offering exceptional support and ensuring that organizations have readily available assistance when needed.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux is the industry standard compared to other Linux vendors.

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.

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. 

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. 

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.

I have used Red Hat for five years.

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

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. 

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

Positive

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

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.

I rate Red Hat Enterprise Linux eight out of 10. 

We use Red Hat Enterprise Linux to run Oracle Databases for CC&B and JDM. All the RHEL stuff is on-prem. The CC&B team manages the customer care and billing stuff, but we take care of the operating systems, and the application users manage the applications. We have 200 to 300 users on RHEL. 

We are missing random devices for patching and everything, and we don't have the Linux data license for that. If we had that, life would be much easier. Right now, we patch using Yum updates and we manually do configuration changes from our end.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux improves our security. On our end, we only use the console to reboot the server and apply security. We patch it completely if we have any security updates. Every quarter, we run a report using quality and whatever it was pulling. That's what we are patching. 

Red Hat Enterprise Linux makes patching and scripting much easier, and it provides all the features I need for patching and VM updates. It's easy to apply Red Hat Enterprise Linux's built-in security features when it comes to simplifying risk reduction or maintaining compliance.

For phone support, we had to buy a license for all our servers, and it was a bit pricey for us. 

I have used RHEL for 21 years.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux is highly stable. We've never had any problems or crashes. It's very smooth from our end.

It's easy to scale Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Right now, we're discussing what will happen a year from now, when we plan to increase our usage. 

I rate Red Hat customer service eight out of 10. Their knowledge base is fantastic. You can easily find whatever you need. Their support responds immediately, whereas we struggled with support from Oracle. 

We were using Oracle Linux, and I don't see much difference except the support. We were not getting good support from Oracle because it took too long whenever we opened a ticket. Oracle was also too expensive, and patching is much easier with Red Hat Enterprise Linux. We were not looking for more features. Oracle Linux has a lot more packages than we need.

Setting up Red Hat Enterprise Linux was straightforward. You need at least two system admins to do so. Migrations and upgrades are also easy. Our main products are CC&B and JDM, with an Oracle database on the back end. We were highly satisfied with Red Hat Enterprise Linux for migrating all of those. We also have other solutions like SQL Server, which is on the Windows operating system.

Performance-wise, this Linux is better because you can ignore some packages if you don't need them. 

Oracle Linux is free, but we were having many other issues with it.

I rate Red Hat Enterprise Linux nine out of 10. Red Hat Enterprise Linux is very easy to install and manage. 

We are doing image building. Our team focuses on the image of the platform and presenting it in a secure way for everybody to consume.

My organization had already been using it before I started, so I am not sure what benefits they got from Red Hat Enterprise Linux. They were already a Red Hat shop when I started.

We do not utilize Red Hat Insights as much as we would like, but we know that it is there. It provides the data, and we can act on that data, but we do not use Red Hat Insights the way we should. However, it does tell us when things are critical and need to be patched. If something is on there and it is critical, we can at least see that it is patched. The alerts and targeted guidance from Red Hat Insights have not affected our uptime so far.

It is open source. Most of the features are already there for you. They make solutions for challenges that we do not even think about sometimes, but we may consume them later.

I have not put in many feature requests. They have mainly been around small things such as monitoring with Ceph. I cannot remember the name, but monitoring was needed for a specific function. It was a pretty important function, but there was no monitoring set up. It took some extra effort. That was the only feature I asked for. I asked them if they could set up a monitor to make sure that the system was healthy or working correctly.

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

Its stability is fine. I have not seen too many issues with stability.

Its scalability is great. We can scale up or down.

I do not have any issues with the customer service or tech support. It is good. I would rate them a ten out of ten because they can usually resolve anything.

Positive

The deployment of Red Hat Enterprise Linux is pretty simple. There are not so many issues.

We are using it on the cloud and on-prem. We are trying to get to Azure. We are not using it in a hybrid cloud environment. I know we are setting up OpenShift in Azure and on-prem.

We have been using TerraForm to create images and Ansible to make sure everything is fine. We have some things on Azure, but we are trying to make it easier for people to consume Azure. We are trying to get that automation together so that it is a lot easier if anybody wants to spin anything up in Azure. They have a container to use that is secure. All of our business tools are on it.

We just use Red Hat. We do not use any integrator or consultant.

Our team does not use a lot of containerization, but we probably will be doing that soon with VMware changes. We are trying to get more of the monolithic stuff down to containerized workloads. We will hopefully see some return on investment after we get our VMware stuff out and get more things containerized. We are working with the OpenShift team, and we will be able to see some ROI.

That has been mostly handled by Red Hat. As we are a Red Hat shop, we have a lot of people around that already.

We do not use the security features of Red Hat Enterprise Linux. There are so many scanners out there. We do not use what is on Red Hat Enterprise Linux, but we do set it up. They are at least available to consume. We do not use them because we have so many security compliance tools. As a bank, we have to use those for auditing and other things like that.

To a colleague who is looking at open-source, cloud-based operating systems for Linux instead of Red Hat Enterprise Linux, I would say to get something that is close to Red Hat. Red Hat is killing a lot of the downstream stuff. All my Linux is Rocky Linux because it is based on Red Hat Enterprise Linux. I would suggest getting something that is close to Red Hat Enterprise Linux so that if they or their company does not want to go for Red Hat, they would still have the same tooling and the same infrastructure.

I would rate Red Hat Enterprise Linux a ten out of ten. I have not seen a lot of issues with Red Hat Enterprise Linux. I am overall satisfied with it.

We use Red Hat for everything or we have a Red Hat derivative.

We use it on-prem and on the cloud. We use it in a hybrid cloud environment. We see it everywhere. We have a more consistent view. We do not have the same churn that we have with other operating systems. The longevity of Red Hat Enterprise Linux is pretty cool.

We see it being used a lot for containerization projects. A lot of the things that I am involved in involve Red Hat Enterprise Linux. It is a great experience. It is something that we know we can come into and have a good outcome. It is very reliable.

They are at the forefront in terms of built-in security features. I have seen a lot of things that they are doing. We would like to see more of that because security is something that is impacting everyone. 

The portability of applications and containers built on Red Hat Enterprise Linux is great for keeping our organization agile. It is consistent. When I build an image with Red Hat Enterprise Linux, I know what is in it. I know it is trusted. I do not have the same churn that I would have with others. The way they support it and the way they communicate are well-known.

It is the number one Linux operating system that we've run in to, and the way it does things is the way I prefer. I do not know if it is because they did it first, or they just read my mind.

The number one feature we like is that it is a very reliable platform. It is a very consistent platform. There is very little that we cannot do with Red Hat Enterprise Linux, and there is very little that we worry about when we are running a Red Hat distribution.

Red Hat started as a very open and outwardly focused release, but recently, some of the changes that were made have affected that reputation. From the standpoint of what they can add to the product, the product is pretty stable. 

They continue to push the ecosystem forward, but as a consumer, what was most important for me was the reputation of openness that Red Hat has fostered. I would like that back. I wish they did not care about CentOS and things like that. I have seen my customers push away from Red Hat as a result of that perception, which is weird because it does not change anything. I wish they would value that. Because of new owners too, the perception has changed suddenly.

I started with Red Hat before Enterprise Linux. I started in the nineties when Red Hat first went on floppy disks. They had a bunch of floppy disks. That was my first release, and then they started doing it via CD-ROMs. The first Red Hat Enterprise Linux release that I used was 2 or 2.1 in early 2000. I remember the Red Hat person coming to where I was working at the time and saying that they are going to start this enterprise distribution. We were really skeptical. We were like, "We have Red Hat. We love Red Hat. Why are you messing with a good thing?" It is kind of funny.

It is stable.

It is scalable.

It has always been solid. It is getting a little worse than it was before. When you get to the right people, you always get amazing support. It is just a bit harder to get to the right people. I would rate their support a ten out of ten. I love it when we get there.

Positive

It has been very long since I started working with these types of solutions. I have used them all.

We use it in the cloud. We use it on-prem. We use it in a hybrid situation. We use all cloud providers.

Its deployment has always been simple.

I am a consultant and integrator.

For us, our ROI is the predictability of Red Hat. We know what is coming. It is well-communicated. We could see the upstreams. We know how it is supported. We know how they communicate about CVEs and things like that. We know how to iterate the ecosystems. We know how to deal with RPMs. Very rarely, you are like, "This is brand new." It always usually works into a construct. There is always a utility that you can use to wrap complex things, such as SELinux or containers. There is always something.

We have done bake-offs before with the big three that everybody talks about. There is Red Hat. There is SUSE, and there is Ubuntu. Personally, I am not a fan of Ubuntu. I do not run a desktop, which is probably why. The ones that I run into all the time are SUSE or Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

If I were not going with Red Hat Enterprise Linux, I would go with a Red Hat Enterprise Linux clone. In business, I would always use Red Hat. Personally, I would use CentOS just because I prefer the way Red Hat organizes everything, so it has always been Red Hat or a Red Hat clone.

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

We are a brokerage firm. We use Red Hat Enterprise Linux for trading purposes. We develop our applications on it.

By implementing Red Hat Enterprise Linux, we wanted a stable server and OS.

There is an in-built feature for shell scripting, so we can automate things that have to run on time in production. We created a script for the setup and configuration of certain things, such as disabling the firewall, network manager, and other things.

I am able to handle some of the daily issues automatically by using batch scripting and cron scheduler. I have also been able to debug some of the issues with the help of logs.

It is open source. We can customize it as per our requirements. We can change or optimize it as per our requirements.

Their support needs improvement. It should be faster for priority tickets.

Some of the tools can be improved and made user-friendly. The OpenStack and OpenShift tools can be better.

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

It is stable. I would rate it a 9 out of 10 for stability.

It is scalable. I would rate it a 9 out of 10 for scalability.

We have about 100 servers, and we have about four people working in the IT department.

Their support needs to improve. If we create a priority ticket for Red Hat, they revert within four hours. They should respond within half an hour so that the issue can be resolved as soon as possible in the real or live environment, and the company has less downtime.

We are using Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Windows operating systems.

Upgrades and migrations are easy with Red Hat Enterprise Linux. We are currently working on upgrades from RHEL 7 to RHEL 9.

We use open source. We only have a subscription for support.

For security purposes, we use the SSH key algorithm, MD5, and SHA256. We have set up a firewall in our network, and all servers are password-based. We also block some common ports that are open when we install the OS. We also have monitoring tools to ensure uptime.

Overall, I would rate Red Hat Enterprise Linux a 9 out of 10.

We have RHEL deployed on the Cloud and also on-premises. We purchased it from a Red Hat representative.

We have several use cases, one of which is in the manufacturing field. In this case, we leverage manufacturing data for R&D engineering workflow purposes. Specifically, we use the HPC workload to visualize the utilization of all compute nodes as a percentage. RHEL also finds application in the automotive industry for specific engineering workloads, including drivetrain simulations, design processes, crash simulations, and driving simulations. Additionally, RHEL is used in the healthcare industry, particularly by highly regulated pharmaceutical organizations, to manage healthcare licenses.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux has provided significant value to our organization through its robust support, extended lifecycle, and valuable insights through the analytics tool that helps to identify and remediate potential issues before they impact the organization. We haven't encountered any Windows operating system that offers a comparable lifecycle length. By analyzing incidents in our management tracker, we were able to realize the benefits of implementing RHEL. For example, we conduct monthly reviews where we examine reports to identify any incidents that have occurred. Following the implementation, we utilized the ticketing tool to analyze incident data and observed a 15 percent reduction in incidents.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux offers several valuable features, including robust security, a subscription-based model that offers comprehensive support for development and distribution, and an extended lifecycle for stable operation.

One area for improvement in RHEL is compatibility with some third-party tools, like those offered by Intel.

I have been using Red Hat Enterprise Linux for over 15 years.

RHEL is a stable solution. The maturity of the OS helps with the stability.

RHEL is a scalable solution.

The technical support team is knowledgeable and meets their SLAs. If the first level cannot resolve our issue, they will escalate the ticket to the next level until it is resolved. They take ownership of the ticket until it is resolved.

Positive

In addition to Windows and Linux, we also utilize Ubuntu depending on the specific product and industry. While any operating system may be suitable for the manufacturing and automotive sectors, regulatory environments like banking, finance, and healthcare require heightened security, encompassing the operating system itself.

Deploying RHEL directly is straightforward, but integrating it with third-party tools requires expertise in both the OS and the specific tools being integrated.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux can be deployed quickly on individual machines.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux provides a golden image builder. This tool allows us to deploy the same image across all compute nodes in the cluster, ensuring uniformity. While we may encounter occasional compatibility issues with specific hardware, we have workarounds in place to address them.

The implementation was completed in-house.

The operating system serves as the foundation for our hardware interaction, contributing to a strong return on investment.

While purchasing a small number of Red Hat Enterprise Linux licenses can be expensive, acquiring licenses for our entire ecosystem or environment often leads to better pricing.

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

Organizations seeking to reduce costs associated with RHEL support or those with internal teams capable of managing and supporting the operating system can leverage the open-source version.

Our system administrators handle maintenance, and we additionally cover annual maintenance costs.

I recommend adhering to best practices and maintaining the system regularly for optimal stability.