[rhelv6-announce] Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.8 Announcement

Tue Feb 21 14:53:55 UTC 2012

We’re pleased to announce the general availability of the Red Hat 
Enterprise Linux 5.8 operating system with new and improved 
functionality for enhanced performance, flexibility, and security.  Our 
commitment to continuous innovation enables Red Hat Enterprise Linux to 
remain a scalable and trusted data center platform accommodating 
mission-critical enterprise workloads in physical, virtual, and cloud IT 
environments.  And, the extension of the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 and 
6 life cycle to 10 years means that our customers can plan IT 
deployments and migrations according to their business needs, not ours.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.8 supports new hardware platforms and 
includes the following enhancements:

Hardware Support and Streamlined Installation
---------------------------------------------
* Support for Power Management Quality of Service (QoS) provides 
automatic power management policy at the device level for managing 
latency and throughput based on QoS needs.  During critical production 
windows, system administrators can enforce a high-performance, 
low-latency mode.

* New iotop support enables the monitoring of I/O resources, such as 
storage devices, at the process level, providing insight into potential 
performance issues.

* PCI-e 3.0 enablement provides support for new and emerging PCI-e 3.0 
adapters.

* Network, storage, and graphic driver enhancements are provided for new 
hardware support.

* The configuration of IP over Infiniband (IPoIB) adapters is now 
supported by the system installer, making installation of Infiniband 
adapters easier.

Virtualization
--------------
* KVM scalability enhancements have increased the maximum supported 
virtual guest size from 128 to 256 virtual CPUs, extending the reach of 
virtualization deployments to large-scale workloads.

* The spice-client package now adds support for Red Hat Enterprise 
Virtualization 3.0 and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.2 hosts.  These 
improvements also allow users to access their desktop virtual machines 
over a WAN connection in addition to the local network.

* KVM enhancements include improved guest boot times and improved clock 
and timer support. The KVM hypervisor has updated real time clock (RTC) 
support to improve the performance of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 guests 
on Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization or Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 KVM 
hosts.

* Additional KVM improvements increase the manageability and stability 
of KVM hosts and Red Hat Enterprise Linux guests. Many of these 
enhancements are in support of Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization 3.0.

* Xen enhancements provide improved guest performance, improved logging 
for debug, and virtual disk re-sizing while a guest is running.

Security Management
-------------------
* OpenSCAP (Open Security Content Automation Protocol) support is now 
compliant with the SCAP 1.1 (Security Content Automation Protocol) 
specification, the most recent standard framework defined by National 
Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) for creating a standardized 
approach for maintaining secure systems.

* Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 has been tested to the United States 
Government Configuration Board (USGCB) baseline and now meets the USGCB 
recommendations for government agencies following USGCB guidance for 
secure configuration policies.

Subscription Asset Manager (SAM) Beta Availability
--------------------------------------------------
We continue to invest in applications and functionality that provide our 
customers more flexibility and control over their Red Hat Enterprise 
Linux deployments.  Accordingly, we are pleased to announce the Beta 
availability of the Red Hat Subscription Asset Manager (SAM). SAM is an 
asset tracking and inventory management application designed for 
on-premise deployment.  SAM is the newest component in the Red Hat 
Entitlement offerings and will be included as part of your Red Hat 
Enterprise Linux subscription.

For more information about Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.8, the expanded 
Red Hat Enterprise Linux life cycle, and the Subscription Asset Manager, 
please visit:

* Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.x release notes:
   http://docs.redhat.com/docs/en-US/Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux/5/

* Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 year life cycle: 
http://www.redhat.com/rhel/lifecycle

* SAM Get Started Guide and beta download:
   https://access.redhat.com/knowledge/solutions/70584