Red Hat released a series of updates for Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). Version 8.7 has been made generally available while the beta of RHEL 9.1 was introduced.
The introductions of RHEL 8.7 and the beta of RHEL 9.1 should provide a more stable foundation for hybrid cloud innovation on the open-source Linux operating system. The functionality and enhancements promise to accelerate the delivery and efficiency of workloads, applications and services for multiple hybrid environments.
One of the new features allows companies to use identity management within the OS through Ansible tooling. Users can, for instance, configure smart card authentication across their entire topology. Furthermore, users can access RHEL systems that store identity in other sources, such as AWS, Azure and Google Cloud.
Government agencies with sensitive data and ISVs can now better implement multilevel security (MLS) to meet security requirements. In addition, security administrators can remotely verify the integrity of OS boots. These two features are only present in the RHEL 9.1 beta.
DevOps
There are many new features for DevOps, including functionality for installations, coding, selecting and configuring tools, and container orchestration.
Furthermore, Red Hat added support for various new runtime languages, compilers, open-source databases and web and cache servers from Application Streams. Updates include support for Rust, Ruby, Maven, .NET 7, Node.js, PHP and Mercurial.
RHEL 8.7 and the RHEL 9.1 beta also feature new automation and management functionality. According to Red Hat, the updates should help users automate additional manual tasks, perform standard deployment processes at scale and simplify day-to-day system management.
To this end, several system roles have been added in the form of workflows for the HA cluster system, web console, Microsoft SQL, storage, firewall environments and network environments.
Other updates
In additional, the web console various new options and features. Last but not least, Sigstore technology was built into the container tooling of RHEL 8.7 and the RHEL 9.1 beta. Both versions are available immediately.