[rhelv6-announce] Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.1 Beta Now Available for Testing

[Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 (Santiago) announcement mailing-list]

In June, we announced the general availability of Red Hat Enterprise 
Linux 7, effectively raising the bar for enterprise IT infrastructure. 
Today, we are pleased to build on the successful launch of Red Hat 
Enterprise Linux 7 with the beta availability of Red Hat Enterprise 
Linux 7.1.  Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.1 beta delivers a number of 
enhancements and improvements, with an emphasis on ease-of-use, improved 
manageability, security, and performance.

Ease-of-Use and Improved Manageability
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.0 streamlined system administration and 
system configuration through the introduction of OpenLMI. Red Hat 
Enterprise Linux 7.1 beta enhances OpenLMI by adding new capabilities 
for managing storage and introducing support for thin provisioning in 
LVM (Logical Volume Manager). In addition, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.1 
beta makes it easy for system administrators to access Ceph block 
storage devices “out-of-the-box” thanks to the inclusion of Ceph 
userspace components and the Ceph RADOS Block Devices (RBD) kernel 
module. And, for environments where Red Hat Enterprise Linux and 
Microsoft Windows live under the same roof, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.1 
beta also includes improved interoperability through the integration of 
Common Internet File System (CIFS) with SSSD, providing native access to 
Microsoft Windows file and print services without relying on Winbind.

Security
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.1 beta includes additional Identity 
Management (IdM) functionality through the provision of strong one-time 
password (OTP) authentication via LDAP and Kerberos protocols leveraging 
software tokens provided by FreeOTP (an open source alternative to 
Google Authenticator) and various hardware tokens (e.g. Yubico). The 
beta also introduces a new Certificate Authority (CA) management tool 
which makes it easy for customers using IdM to change a CA certificate 
and alter the trust chain.

Additional Application Deployment Options
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.0 enhanced application development, delivery, 
portability and isolation through increased Linux containers 
functionality, including Docker, across physical, virtual and cloud 
deployments as well as development, test, and production environments. 
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.1 beta bolsters these capabilities by 
ensuring that customers have access to the latest Docker package 
(version 1.2) and Red Hat Enterprise Linux platform images available 
through the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Extras channel and Red Hat 
Customer Portal, respectively.

Performance
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.1 beta builds on a host of “out-of-the-box” 
performance management features and capabilities, like tuned and 
performance profiles. In addition, new locking mechanisms have been 
implemented in the kernel that improve processor efficiency for large 
systems with sizable NUMA nodes.

Additional Offerings
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.1 beta provides access to new real-time 
technology for workloads that require very precise and deterministic 
processing times. This capability is delivered via enhancements to the 
Linux kernel and additional userspace packages that can be overlayed on 
top of a stock Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.1 beta installation.

Finally, for customers using the IBM Power Systems platform as part of 
their datacenter infrastructure, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.1 beta now 
includes support for POWER8 on IBM Power Systems (based on little 
endian). Running in little endian mode accelerates innovation on the 
Power platform by removing an application portability barrier and 
allowing customers utilizing the latest IBM Power Systems to leverage 
the existing ecosystem of Linux applications as developed for the x86 
architecture.

For access to the documentation for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.1 Beta, 
including the release notes, please visit: 
https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-US/Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux/

RED HAT ENTERPRISE LINUX 7.1 BETA AVAILABILITY
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.1 beta is now available in the Red Hat 
Customer Portal to all customers with an active Red Hat Enterprise Linux 
subscription. To access and download Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.1 beta, 
please visit: 
https://access.redhat.com/downloads/content/69/ver=/rhel---7/7.1%20Beta/x86_64/product-downloads

Sincerely,

The Red Hat Enterprise Linux Team