Red Hat Enterprise Linux Version 5 (RHEL5)

Red Hat Enterprise Linux Version 5 (RHEL5) was released on 3/14/2007. Red Hat made several significant changes to RHEL5 with respect to what subscriptions they offer. Instead of the WS/AS/ES package sets, we now have Client and Server, with various options in each. See http://www.redhat.com/rhel/ for an overview.

Some frequently asked questions include:

When will the UI be ready to deploy Red Hat v5 for campus?

ITS has upgraded the Satellite so it now supports RHEL5 and populated 32 and 64 bit Client and Server channels.

When will the UI be distributing v5 for home users?

Version 5 will be avialable by 5/16/2007.

What are the differences between v4 and v5?

See the new features here: http://www.redhat.com/rhel/features/.

We have ISO images for 32 and 64 bit X86 versions of both the Client and Server systems. These will be available on the ITS Software Download site soon.

Is there a different licensing scheme?

There are now two offerings, Client or Server.

Client Offerings

  • Red Hat offers 4 flavors of the Client software:
    Basic supports 1 CPU, 4GB of memory, but no virtualization
  • Multi OS supports 1 CPU, 4GB of memory and virtualization (4 guests max)
  • Workstation supports 2 CPU's, Unlimited Memory, but no virtualization
  • Workstation + Multi OS Supports 2 CPU's, Unlimited Memory, and Unlimited Virtualization guests

The first two also exclude server applications such as Apache, Samba, and NFS. More information can be found here: https://www.redhat.com/apps/store/desktop/.

We have not heard from Red Hat what versions we'll be offering to replace the old WS. The implication is the Installation Number will vary depending upon what you're allowed to install, but we're not 100% sure of that. We don't know at this point if you can install Workstation software on a Basic system once you're connected to the Satellite.

Server Offerings

Red Hat offers 2 levels of Server Software, with optional packages on top of them.

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux
    Supports servers with up to 2 processor sockets
    Available for 32/64-bit x86, Itanium2, IBM POWER
    Available with Basic, Standard or Premium support
    Supports 4 virtual guests
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Advanced Platform
    Supports servers of any size
    Available for 32/64-bit x86, Itanium2, IBM POWER
    Available with Standard or Premium support
    Supports unlimited virtual guests and storage virtualization

 

More information can be found here: https://www.redhat.com/rhel/purchasing_guide.html.

Red Hat provides an upgrade matrix: https://www.redhat.com/rhel/upgrade/.

It's our current understanding that if you're running RHEL4 ES or AS, your upgrade will be to the basic RHEL server.  If you are interested in REHL 5 Advanced Platform, please contact the Campus Software Licensing office: http://cs.its.uiowa.edu/software/redhatlinux.shtml. 

At this time academic pricing for the Advanced Platform is not yet available.

Optional Packages include things like the Web Application Stack (Apache/JBoss/PHP).

Software Installation Number

RHEL5 requires an Installation Number as part of the install (Client or Server versions). You can skip entering this number, but you'll be severely limited as to what you can install if you do. This number does not appear to be the same as the Activation Key you use to register your machine with our RHN Satellite.

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