| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 beta 2 arrives |
Nov. 16, 2006
Red Hat Inc. had planned to release RHEL (Red Hat Enterprise Linux) 5 Beta 2 on Nov. 21, but engineering finished the job early and the beta is already being released to the company's partners and customers. The release boasts the latest open-source technologies for improved performance, security, and flexibility, according to the company.
RHEL 5 incorporates new, fully integrated server and storage virtualization functionality. This release enables an integrated virtualization solution, by coupling server virtualization with Red Hat's clustering support. For enhanced availability, failover at either the application or virtual machine level is provided by Red Hat Cluster Suite, Red Hat Global File System, and Cluster Logical Volume Manager. The technology allows application data to be securely accessed and shared by any guest from any system, Red Hat says.
With this version, RHEL moves from Linux kernel version 2.6.9 to 2.6.18. In addition, Red Hat says it has made extensive enhancements to the OS's kernel (including some back-porting from 2.6.19), network, and I/O subsystems, to improve performance and scalability. The beta release also includes security improvements, through the inclusion of comprehensive security profiles and improved compiler and runtime buffer management technologies, according to the company.
The Beta release also contains virtualization support on the x86 and x86-64 architectures, as well as a technology preview of Xen for Itanium 2. In addition, it features a virtualization manager that aims to ease the task of installing and administering Xen virtual machines.
There are only two variants for this beta release: RHEL 5 Server and RHEL 5 Client (aka Desktop). The Client version is only available for the x86 and x86-64 architectures.
More emphasis on the desktop
According to Joel Berman, a RHEL product marketing director, with the release of RHEL 5, Red Hat will be putting more emphasis on the desktop. When the final version is released, Red Hat will make it possible to buy one-off copies of RHEL Client, rather than requiring customers to buy multiple copies of the desktop.
While Red Hat believes the Client would best be deployed in a business environment, where the RHEL desktops can easily be maintained by a local IT-managed RHN (Red Hat Network), it will also be available for individual users and SMBs (small-to-medium businesses).
The last test version, RHEL 5 Beta 1 did not fare well in some evaluations. Nick Carr, a product marketing director for RHEL, said, however, that these problems -- many of which were due to documentation that had not kept up with the first beta -- have been corrected in this latest beta.
RHEL 5 is still in development, and therefore Red Hat is warning users that this release is intended for testing purposes only. In addition, Red Hat will not provide support for upgrading from beta releases to the final distribution.
RHEL 5 Beta 2 is available to existing Red Hat subscribers via RHN. The beta channels should automatically appear in your account. Installable binary and source ISO images are also available for download from the RHN website, here.
Users will be required to login using a valid RHN account with active entitlements to download the beta. If you would like to test Beta 2 but do not have an active RHEL entitlement, Red Hat recommends that you contact your local Red Hat representative.
Red Hat currently expects the full production release of RHEL 5 to occur in early 2007.
-- Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols
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