Top 4 Highlights of RHEL 8
Top 4 Highlights of RedHat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 8
RedHat has something that nobody else has: a fully integrated stack consisting of a Linux operating system (RHEL), an infrastructure orchestration platform (CloudForms), an API-forward cloud management platform (OpenShift), and an easy-to-use automation platform (Ansible). Today, on day one of RedHat Summit 2019, RedHat announced the general availability of RHEL 8.
RHEL 8 — The Intelligent Operating System
Cockpit: Web Administration Console
RedHat is positioning RHEL 8 as the “intelligent operating system” managed through Cockpit, RedHat’s new web interface. Cockpit automatically installs with RHEL and can be instantly started without having to first setup and configure a web server first. Cockpit lets administrators complete storage, networking, firewall, user management, and service management tasks through a browser.
Impact: Very high: RHEL 8 Cockpit lays the foundation for software-defined operating systems that ultimately can be fully managed through one centralized control plane, GUI, CLI, and API. This is so exciting as it completes the transition of RHEL from pets to cattle, where individual operating systems are added, upgraded, or replaced based on a standard golden image and a centralized set of deployment parameters and environmental variables.
Insights Machine Learning-Driven Proactive Management
RHEL 8 will ship with the RedHat Insights health-analytics console that enables proactive management, issue resolution, system optimization, and capacity planning. Insights also enables RedHat support to independently offer offer problem solutions, based on learnings from similar users.
Impact: Very high: Continuously learning from operations data coming from RHEL, CloudForms, and OpenShift is the foundation for fewer defects and faster MTTR. RedHat might be the first full stack vendor with one integrated analytics offering. This becomes even more interesting when we think about the possibilities resulting from connecting Insights with Ansible for automatic playbook optimization or even issue resolution.
RHEL Image Builder
RHEL Image Builder, or Composer, enables customers to configure their RHEL configuration as YAML code so that they can add on consistently configured operating systems without manual intervention and based on a central ‘golden image.’
Impact: Very high: Imagine the possibilities of integrating RHEL Composer into your CI/CD pipeline. This would enable the automatic creation, configuration, and decommissioning of all of the required server hosts. Again, you could call this “software defined operating system.” Separating the operating system configuration and the actual image also enables customers to manage security, encryption, and compliance in general, all through one control plane. At the same time this also gives DevOps teams the ability for fully-consistent and easy-to-roll-back operating system upgrades.
Application Streams: Mass Customization Unleashed
Ginny Rometti used the term ‘mass customization’ during her keynote at IBM Think 2019 to describe the importance of automatic, context-aware software configuration and, potentially even, customization. RHEL 8 Application Streams aim to enable exactly this capability by providing developers with approximately 1.000 curated application packages, including their dependencies. Developers can subscribe to these app streams and receive the exactly same application environment for RHEL and for OpenShift.
Impact: Very high: Application Streams are not tied to any specific version of RHEL, enabling RedHat to continuously deliver value in the form of consistent and secure application streams to their customers.
