Frequently Asked Questions - Oracle Cloud Infrastructure and Red Hat Enterprise Linux

Q: What was announced on January 31, 2023?

A: Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) will be a supported guest operating system on the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) as a Bring Your Own Subscription offering when enablement work is completed.  

Q: Why is Oracle Cloud being added to the list of Red Hat Cloud Partners now?

A: We have always tried to do what’s best for our customers. One aspect of that is helping them run RHEL wherever they choose to, another is providing greater reliability and supportability to their RHEL deployments. That supportability and reliability requires that our cloud partners conform to certain standards which will help us to validate this. 

Red Hat and Oracle have many mutual customers running Red Hat technologies on-premises that have also expressed interest in running RHEL on OCI. Based on this demand, Oracle and Red Hat have been collaborating to make RHEL on OCI a reality and both of us believe that we can now provide the result that our mutual customers require.

Q: When is it available? What RHEL versions are supported?

A: Oracle shapes (instance types) for the latest Intel, AMD and Arm processors are available now.  

• RHEL 7.9 - Intel X9
• RHEL 8.7 - Intel X9, AMD E4, Arm Ampere A1
• RHEL 9.0 - Intel X9, AMD E4, Arm Ampere A1

Bare metal shapes and other versions of RHEL are planned.

Q: How do you deploy Red Hat Enterprise Linux on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure? 

A: A customer should obtain the OCI Cloud Agent from Oracle. The customer can then use Image Builder to build an Oracle Cloud Infrastructure image with RHEL, the OCI Cloud Agent, and any software they choose.  Once the image is built, they can log into their Oracle Cloud Infrastructure account to install and deploy.   For more information, you can read the Oracle blog on this process.

Q: What will the support experience be like and whom can I call?

A:  Red Hat and Oracle will support customers running on OCI Compute, pursuant to running on certified configurations. Red Hat may request that customers recreate a supported and certified configuration to troubleshoot potential issues.  Customers may be running versions of RHEL that have not been certified to date. 

Q: What if I am already using RHEL on OCI today?

A: We are aware that there are some customers using RHEL on OCI today.  With this agreement, customers will have an improved experience on OCI and will receive improved technical support, coordinated with Oracle on the back-end, when running on certified configurations.

Q: Will OpenShift, or other Red Hat products run on Oracle Cloud ?

A: At this point, RHEL is the only Red Hat product that will be certified and fully supported.  Both partners are listening carefully to our mutual customers for their needs and interest in bringing additional Red Hat products and services to OCI.

Q: Are Oracle Database products supported on RHEL on OCI? 

A: There are tested combinations of Oracle database versions on RHEL versions. However, today Oracle Engineering does not explicitly provide a supported configuration of Oracle Database on RHEL on OCI Compute.

Should customers desire to run Oracle Database on RHEL on OCI Compute, customers will need to check the Oracle support documentation for the appropriate version of the Oracle Database and which versions of RHEL are supported together. Customers will also need to run RHEL on a certified OCI Compute configuration. This will allow Oracle Support to provide best-effort support to customers.

Q: Will I be able to manage a RHEL instance on OCI with Red Hat Satellite and/or Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform?

A: A customer can use Red Hat Satellite and Smart Management to manage their RHEL deployments in OCI.  Customers can use Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform to manage their OCI deployments as part of their hybrid cloud, multi-cloud automation strategy.  Customers should be aware that this collaboration with Oracle Cloud is starting with RHEL, meaning we have not collaborated on integrations with the Oracle Cloud or Certified Ansible Playbooks at this point in time. 

Q: Can I be billed for Red Hat subscriptions via Oracle or OCI?

A: We are starting this collaboration with RHEL and BYOS.  Both partners will be listening carefully to our mutual customers for their needs and interest in using additional Red Hat products and services with OCI.

Editor’s note - As of April 1, 2023, Red Hat Smart Management is now called Red Hat Satellite. Product pricing, content and services have not changed. For more information, visit the Red Hat Satellite product page or contact satellite@redhat.com.