Advantages And Disadvantages Of Red Hat Enterprise Linux

Essential LINUX Server Management Commands

The graphical user interface has always won the race over the command line interface for the novice or regular work purpose computer users. However, the command line interface has tremendous advantages over the GUI counterpart, when it comes to discussing matters with respect to the LINUX Server management operating system. These necessities are as follows:

1. Better system control: The commands available in LINUX CLI provides better control over the system. These involves the managing of access permissions on files and directories, navigating to directories that are primarily hidden from view. Also, the Linux commands allow administrator control local server setups like Apache/MySQL and so on [8].
2. Error handling: There are commands that allow I/O requests and error streams to be transmitted or received to or from various files and/or server ports, depending on the system requirements. It also provides a simple but efficient error return mechanism.
3. Server management: Server monitoring is one of the major features of the LINUX OS. The command line tools available are widely accumulated in this area. Linux provides a wide variety of command line utility tools that provide details about the IP ports and network usage statistics of the servers. Commands like ‘iostat’ helps to spot the storage subsystem’s performance or the usability of the I/O ports of the system. ‘netstat’ on the other hand is another strong tool that guides the administrator to gain details about the routing, interface, port or socket usage, network statistics, and so on [7].

There are several such commands and uses that enrich the CLI of LINUX and gives it the edge over its GUI counterpart.

 Description: The ipconfig command is a crucial network interface command from LINUX server management. It is used to configure the network interfaces. This command is generally used to configure the kernel-resident network interfaces. It provides the list of currently active network interfaces.

Syntax: ifconfig

Fig 1. The output for the ifconfig command

Description: The netstat command is one of the most important TCP/IPnetworking utility commands available for LINUX. It delivers detailed statistics and state information about the ports or protocols that are in use by the various applications within the system.

Syntax: netstat

Fig 2. The output for the netstat command

Description: The lsof command is a file management utility that is widely used by LINUX system administrators. This command helps to prepare an on-screen report of all the details of files that are currently open in the system and also the programs that have opened and accessed them.

Syntax: lsof

Red Hat Enterprise Linux or RHEL is a Linux-based operating system that has been designed by Red Hat in order to commit to the various aspects of commercial business. This operating system is so designed that it can work on various platforms that includes desktops, clouds and also on servers. It is one of the most sold Linux operating systems in the market [1]. In this report, the history and background details of this Operating system will be discussed in details. Further, the technical details of the Red Hat Enterprise Linux system will be described alongside the mentioning of its noteworthy advantages and disadvantages.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux’s first version came out under the name of “Red Hat Linux Advanced Server”. However in the year 2003, Red Hat re-embarked the OS under a new brand “Red Hat Enterprise Linux”.

RHEL is a Linux distribution that is targeted specifically toward the business market. Red Hat Enterprise Linux has been released in server versions for x86, x86-64, PowerPC , Itanium and IBM System z. Desktop versions include x86 and x86-64 [5].

The RHEL OS is filled with tons of lucrative features that is helpful in building high performing infrastructure for server or desktop management. The most recommendable features or enhancements of this OS are as follows:

• Virtualization: Virtualization of guest operating systems is supported by Red Hat Network.
• Kernel Optimization and performance: The kernel is optimized to run efficiently on multi-core processors. It also provides high-end performance and development tools including SystemTap. I/O schedulers are dynamically switchable with improved buffering abilities [3].
• Packaging: Server packages include Red Hat Enterprise Linux Advanced Platform and Red Hat Enterprise Linux. The Desktop packages have Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop package [4].
• Security: Multi-level security is provided which is targeted towards the protection of all services. More details on security will be highlighted in a later section of the report.
• Networking: Network storage enhancements include iSCSI , Autofs and FS-Cache support.

Apart from the above mentioned features, a lot more other features have been enhanced through the release of this version of the Linux OS.

The advantages of using the RHEL are as follows:

• Red Hat Enterprise Linux is one of the open source editions of Linux. It is easily available and free for download as it is based on the GNU licensing criteria.
• Red Hat also sells support to the millions of RHEL users around the globe [10].
• CentOS repositories are addable into the system.
• Numerous security measures have been adapted by Linux into its RHEL version of the OS. This enhances the quality and safety of server management by a massive margin. Secure Sockets Layer or SSL, which is a networking protocol that secures the client-server connections on any insecure networks like the internet, is a crucial feature of RHEL. SSH or Secure Shell is one of the other cryptography mechanisms that is used by this OS in order to secure user data over the unsecured networks [9]. IPSec ensures the private and secured communications over the IP networks by implementing all other above mentioned security mechanisms. These security protocols are in-turn unified using the RHEL SSO [6].
• RHEL 7 has an improved platform for the hosting of Windows products too.
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux command line tools help to resolve any server management issues in real time. The wide range of commands that are available are useful for understand and report the system details regarding networking or system resource usage. An administrator will find it extremely important to spot out the defects in a system, or make quick and necessary changes.

Even though RHEL is highly recommendable for most server administrators, however, there are quite a few back draws of the system that takes it off the race in certain cases. They are as follows:

• Even though the OS is primarily free and open source, the support and service packages are considered to be extremely costly in comparison to others. This is a challenge for small business organizations who wish to
• Due to the loads of features and command line tools that it supports and provides to the users, it is way a bit more complex than the other versions. Hence, it is difficult for a fresher or amateur to operate.
• Even though experts are expected to work on the CLI of the OS, however, for non-technical purposes, the use of GUI on this system can overload the system and it is seemed to be heavily resource intensive at times.
• Installing this OS on VMware’s virtual server brings up certain issues as it does not automatically detect the drivers needed for the installation. Manual configuration may get complex at times [2].

Conclusion

From the above report it can hence be concluded, that the Red Hat Enterprise Linux OS has mostly proved to be a boon to the server administrators, owing to the various technical facilities that it provides in the field of virtualization, kernel optimization, network packaging and most importantly in the field of maintaining server security. However, even though the OS is licensed under GNU, yet unlike other distributions of LINUX, RHEL requires to purchase paid packages for support and service. This puts it in a back-foot when competing with the other free versions like FEDORA, UBUNTU or others.

References

[1] Hat, Red. “Red hat enterprise linux.” RED 1 (2014).

[2] Rosen, Rami. “Linux containers and the future cloud.” Linux J240, no. 4 (2014): 86-95.

[3] Leong, David, Vikram Bahl, Guo Jiayan, Jonathan Siang, and Tay Mei Lan. “Secure data sanitization for archaic storage devices.” Global Science and Technology Journal 1, no. 1 (2013): 41-52.

[4] van Vugt, Sander. Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 Administration: Real World Skills for Red Hat Administrators. John Wiley & Sons, 2013.

[5] Petersen, Richard. Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7: Desktops and Administration. Surfing Turtle Press, 2017.

[6] Pantid, Zoran, and M. Ali Babar. “Troubleshooting during Installing Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud.” IT University of Copenhagen, Denmark TR-2012-156 (2012).

[7] Parziale, Lydia, Ben Louie, Eric Marins, Tiago Nunes dos Santos, and Srivatsan Venkatesan. Advanced Networking Concepts Applied Using Linux on IBM System z. IBM Redbooks, 2012.

[8] Shotts Jr, William E. The Linux command line: a complete introduction. No Starch Press, 2012.

[9] Valli, Craig. “Ssh–somewhat secure host.” In Cyberspace Safety and Security, pp. 227-235. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, 2012.

[10] Valli, Craig. “Ssh–somewhat secure host.” In Cyberspace Safety and Security, pp. 227-235. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, 2012.