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reviewer2298894 - PeerSpot reviewer
Software Development Engineer at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Oct 31, 2023
A rich ecosystem regarded for its exceptional stability and robust security features
Pros and Cons
  • "The knowledge base they offer has proven to be quite efficient and we haven't encountered any significant challenges."
  • "I believe it would be beneficial to notify the customer in advance of any planned maintenance so that we can better coordinate and plan our customer interactions accordingly."

What is our primary use case?

We use containers to create RPM packages for graphics drivers.

How has it helped my organization?

The main reason to use Red Hat Enterprise Linux is to maintain support for creating images for various purposes, including what we use for gaming. We rely on a range of supported tools and resources, and this enables us to build images tailored for specific target devices.

What is most valuable?

The RPM manager is paramount for us, as we need to generate these packages for our customers, enabling them to install the packages on their systems at a later time. The knowledge base they offer has proven to be quite efficient and we haven't encountered any significant challenges.

What needs improvement?

The technical support should be improved. I believe it would be beneficial to notify the customer in advance of any planned maintenance so that we can better coordinate and plan our customer interactions accordingly.

Buyer's Guide
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
December 2025
Learn what your peers think about Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: December 2025.
879,310 professionals have used our research since 2012.

For how long have I used the solution?

We have been using it for six years.

How are customer service and support?

Recently, we encountered issues when the Red Hat server was in maintenance mode, and we attempted to capture images directly from another server for our builds. Although I set up alerts for planned downtime on the Red Hat server, I didn't consistently receive these alerts. I would rate it seven out of ten.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Neutral

What about the implementation team?

We follow a weekly patching schedule to fetch the latest updates. Our process involves applying these patches to the image and then generating containers, which we subsequently upload to our registry. We accomplish this using Ansible.

What other advice do I have?

The only inconsistency we've noticed so far is with the server, which might be the only aspect we could potentially raise concerns about. Overall, I would rate it eight out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
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reviewer2021034 - PeerSpot reviewer
Program Analyst at a government with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Nov 28, 2022
Platform used for four years for disaster assistance that has increased the speed of systems and offered consistent stability
Pros and Cons
  • "It has improved our organization's management and efficiency."
  • "The cost of this solution could be improved."

What is our primary use case?

We use this solution for disaster assistance. 

How has it helped my organization?

This solution has increased the speed of our technology. It is easy to troubleshoot using RHEL. RHEL's built-in security features and security profiles for helping to reduce risk and maintain compliance are good. It has also improved our organization's management and efficiency.

What needs improvement?

The cost of this solution could be improved. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using this solution for four years. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

This is a stable solution and we have not had any major issues when using it. 

How are customer service and support?

The customer support team are very responsive and always provide the help we need. I would rate the support a nine out of ten. 

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

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

We used to use JBoss at my previous company.

What other advice do I have?

I would rate this solution a nine out of ten. 

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
December 2025
Learn what your peers think about Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: December 2025.
879,310 professionals have used our research since 2012.
reviewer2020998 - PeerSpot reviewer
Cybersecurity Engineer at a computer software company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Nov 16, 2022
Linux distribution software that offers system security and ROI
Pros and Cons
  • "RHEL's effect on our organization's management and efficiency is noticeable because we check all the compliance boxes when we run STIG machines."
  • "The DNF package manager could be improved."

What is our primary use case?

Typically, we use this solution as a base to create and secure container images. Sometimes we use SELinux through RHEL and sometimes we only use RHEL. It is easier to apply STIG baselines to a RHEL system than other systems. We mainly use it for building and securing containers.

How has it helped my organization?

RHEL is different than any other Linux distribution folder. Folder locations are different and using this solution makes us more secure.

We are assured of added security because of the STIGs, automation and all the repositories that exist for securing Red Hat and SELinux. We have scripts that can automate the STIGing out of an RHEL machine, RHEL container or an RHEL BM.

It is also easy to troubleshoot using RHEL and follow the same process as other solutions such as Ubuntu, Debian, or Arch.

RHEL's effect on our organization's management and efficiency is noticeable because we check all the compliance boxes when we run STIG machines. It helps us because Red Hat is trusted in the governmental space. It also helps management save people's time by just having use of templated containers.

What is most valuable?

There's a lot more automation for STIGing out a Red Hat machine than there is in a Ubuntu or a Debian machine and this is one of the most valuable features. 

What needs improvement?

Since it's based off Fedora, I don't like the DNF package manager. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using this solution for six months. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It's very stable. I've never had any breaking issues when upgrading packages or versions. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We run this solution on a really small scale. We are a development group so we're not working on large-scale systems. We generate proof of concepts and then show that to the company for them to use so I can't really speak to how it scales.

How are customer service and support?

Red Hat's tech support and customer service are really good. The Red Hat team are my favorite people to work with. They are easy to work with and genuinely care. I would rate them a nine out of ten. 

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is mostly straightforward depending on the specific setup. We build our own containers and that is more complex but there are simplex supported setups. In both scenarios, maintenance only involves a few commands and is simple. It is maintained by two security engineers. 

What was our ROI?

From an ROI perspective, this solution helps us win contracts. Contract values are negligible to what the RHEL licensing cost is. It has a really large effect on our contract deals because it gives our work and service credibility.

What other advice do I have?

I would advise others to read up on the solution first. Try Fedora first before you get into Red Hat. There are some similarities and a lot of what you know about Linux transfers over. 

I would rate this solution a nine out of ten. 

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Hybrid Cloud
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
PeerSpot user
Growth Incubation Leader, Poland and Baltics at a tech company with 10,001+ employees
Vendor
Top 20
Apr 15, 2018
Open architecture allows for accelerated growth while secure repositories guarantee stability
Pros and Cons
  • "Open architecture allows for accelerated growth while secure repositories guarantee stability."
  • "Workstations: More applications for graphics."
  • "Servers: More applications for monitoring (e.g., nmon)."

What is our primary use case?

Business: workstation and server.

How has it helped my organization?

Open architecture allows for accelerated growth while secure repositories guarantee stability.

What is most valuable?

  • Multipath
  • Yum 
  • LVM
  • Selinux

What needs improvement?

Workstations: More applications for graphics.

Servers: More applications for monitoring (e.g., nmon).

For how long have I used the solution?

More than five years.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
Software Engineer at a security firm with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Mar 11, 2018
GUI for network adapters, and built-in tools such as Mozilla browser, are key for us
Pros and Cons
  • "The GUI for network adapters and built-in tools provided by RHEL, such as the Mozilla browser, have been valuable. Since they come built-in, it saves the time of having to install them, and you have everything necessary with the installation itself."
  • "Until now, RHEL has been the most stable OS I have ever seen. Nothing seems to break, with frequent updates. I have been running it 24/7 for the past 18 months and it runs flawlessly."
  • "I really think that the upgrade policies between the major versions, like from from RHEL 5 to RHEL 6, should be much easier, similar to what is in place for upgrading from RHEL 6 to RHEL 6.8."

What is most valuable?

The GUI for network adapters and built-in tools provided by RHEL, such as the Mozilla browser, have been valuable. Since they come built-in, it saves the time of having to install them, and you have everything necessary with the installation itself.

There are several tools which Red Hat provides as add-ons such as ReaR (Relax and Recover) which can be used for disaster recovery.

What needs improvement?

Improvements are necessary to stay in the market and face the competition. I really think that the upgrade policies between the major versions, like from from RHEL 5 to RHEL 6, should be much easier, similar to what is in place for upgrading from RHEL 6 to RHEL 6.8.

For how long have I used the solution?

One to three years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Until now, RHEL has been the most stable OS I have ever seen. Nothing seems to break, with frequent updates. I have been running it 24/7 for the past 18 months and it runs flawlessly.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

No issues so far. You can always scale the hard disk as much as you want, add NFS, CIFS disks and still the enterprise solution would run seamlessly.

How are customer service and technical support?

I would rate technical support at eight out of ten. Though they have some excellent engineers available, the case mostly goes through level-3 support staff and then it moves forward. This can sometimes be a time consuming process and lethal for a company.

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

No, we did not use a previous solution. We knew about Red Hat from our inception. It was a pretty well-known enterprise platform.

How was the initial setup?

The setup of RHEL is straightforward, there is nothing complex about it. Everything is well documented on their website.

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

The pricing is a bit on the expensive side, mainly because of the support they provide. However, it is quite affordable if you are an organization. If, as a small company or individual, this is an expensive option, I would recommend CentOS, which is an exact replica of RHEL, minus the customer support.

What other advice do I have?

I have worked on a few Linux platforms, but Red Hat is a different experience. Due to its stability, it makes an excellent choice. It’s so-called invincible security makes sure that your data remains safe. The excellent customer service support agents are ready to get your problem resolved almost within an hour of opening a case (as long as you have the premium license for your servers). Taking all this into consideration, I would say this solution is a nine out of 10.

I have been working on Red-hat for two years and I must say I enjoy working with it. No day is like another, since there will always be something which will enhance your learning curve.

I would say if you are managing high-end servers running complex programs, Red Hat would never do you wrong. It has a lot of built-in tools if you choose the maximalist installation. If you are running a low-end server, you can even go with the minimalist installation which would only cramp a few megabytes of your processor power.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
it_user806466 - PeerSpot reviewer
Sales Engineer at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Real User
Mar 4, 2018
Provides a stable version of Linux with enterprise support
Pros and Cons
  • "Enterprise support is available for our customers."

    How has it helped my organization?

    The company that I worked for that employed RHEL was a PACS (Picture Archiving and Communication System - think of an image repository for x-ray, CAT scan, MRI, etc., that allowed radiologists to read the images and report on their findings). Our software was a FDA-certified medical "device," based on an open-source DICOM toolkit. We had a custom repository that served up our packages. We needed a stable, supported version of Linux since we would have to get FDA certification for each major version upgrade.

    What is most valuable?

    Enterprise support is available for our customers. Pre-RHEL, I used Red Hat desktop for personal PC.

    What needs improvement?

    Support.

    What do I think about the stability of the solution?

    Rarely were there stability issues. We regularly had servers running for three years without reboot.

    What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

    Yes, there were scalability issues, but I blame that more on my employer than on Red Hat.

    How are customer service and technical support?

    Support seemed to be great for day-to-day issues that our customers would experience (the customer would engage Red Hat support and escalate to me if there was no resolution). I only had to engage support once for an escalated issue and their support team tried to pass the blame onto our Hypervisor vendor, when it was indeed an issue with a Red Hat package.

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

    I have used lots of flavors of Linux going back to 1995. Enterprise support was the reason Red Hat was selected.

    How was the initial setup?

    Easy. Used Kickstart to automate installation and post install config.

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

     I was an engineer, never discussed pricing.

    Which other solutions did I evaluate?

    CentOS, Slack, Ubuntu, Arch, LFS.

    What other advice do I have?

    My advice: Kickstart is your friend.

    Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
    PeerSpot user
    PeerSpot user
    Storage and VMware Expert at a comms service provider with 1,001-5,000 employees
    Real User
    Aug 24, 2017
    It's improved our company's system environments that run Oracle databases.

    What is most valuable?

    Red Hat is mission critical to our environment.

    How has it helped my organization?

    Red Hat has improved the mission critical environments running Oracle databases, while CentOS has improved our web environment and MySQL.

    What needs improvement?

    Oracle and SAP Environment and all HPC environments.

    For how long have I used the solution?

    10 years

    What was my experience with deployment of the solution?

    No issues

    What do I think about the stability of the solution?

    Very stable i don´t find any problem we have many environment using redhat since first version.

    What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

    Not encountered problem with scalability

    How are customer service and technical support?

    Customer Service:

    The customer service is good and all problem was solved, i dont have any problem

    Technical Support:

    Very good

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

    We have many kinds of the linux version on the all environment but to HPC environment we use Redhat but all another versions work very well

    What about the implementation team?

    I work with the two scenario

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

    The licensing valor is too high and must be improved

    What other advice do I have?

    Red Hat is similar to CentOS, except that CentOS doesn't offer to support certain solutions, such as Oracle.

    Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
    PeerSpot user
    it_user715155 - PeerSpot reviewer
    Works at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
    Consultant
    Aug 13, 2017
    Open source stable Linux OS

    What is most valuable?

    Stable Linux OS. The stability of the OS is very important for the computer system. Unstable means you never know when it will crash or fail while your valuable data and business applications are running.

    How has it helped my organization?

    It's an open source solution.

    What needs improvement?

    Many areas in version 5 are obsolete such as filesystem ext2, ext3, while the new versions (v.6, 7) support ext4, Btrfs, ZFS, etc.

    For how long have I used the solution?

    10 years.

    What do I think about the stability of the solution?

    No.

    What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

    No.

    How are customer service and technical support?

    No technical support.

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

    No.

    How was the initial setup?

    No.

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

    No more support and licensing.

    Which other solutions did I evaluate?

    No.

    Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
    PeerSpot user
    Buyer's Guide
    Download our free Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
    Updated: December 2025
    Buyer's Guide
    Download our free Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.