DxEnterprise for high availability now certified for RHEL 9.6

We’re excited to share that DxEnterprise high-availability (HA) software is now officially Red Hat-certified for Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 9.6. View the certification in the Red Hat Ecosystem Catalog. 

The certification is further testimony that DxEnterprise is the ultimate HA solution across SQL Server instances and containers running on Windows, Linux, and Kubernetes, with infrastructure-agnostic resilience and zero trust network integration.

What is DxEnterprise?

DxEnterprise simplifies and unifies SQL Server HA deployments across platforms. Whether you’re running SQL Server on virtual machines (VMs), on bare metal, or in Kubernetes, DxEnterprise provides a flexible, automated, and secure clustering solution.

Key features:

• Unified HA management and automated failover for SQL Server on Windows, Linux, and Kubernetes
• Mix and match SQL Server versions, HA instances, containers, and Availability Groups
• DxOperator (Microsoft’s preferred SQL Server operator for Kubernetes)
• Sidecar container deployment to eliminate custom image and support headaches
• Zero trust networking with software-defined perimeter (SDP) tunneling, connecting any server, container, or Internet of Things (IoT) device without relying on VPNs

Learn more in the DxEnterprise Quick Start Guide.

Certified confidence with DH2i

DH2i delivers “always-secure, always-on” SQL Server availability across Windows, Linux, and Kubernetes that organizations trust. Now, with RHEL 9.6 certification, organizations can have even more confidence. This certification proves that DxEnterprise meets the most stringent enterprise standards, ensuring customers can rely on a fully validated, dependable foundation for critical workloads. Combined with zero trust perimeter security, automated failover, and performance monitoring, DH2i provides the freedom to scale across infrastructures without compromise.

Fixing your downtime challenges

SQL Server downtime and clustering complexity are notorious pain points. DH2i’s DxEnterprise, now certified for RHEL 9.6, eliminates these problems with near-zero downtime, simplified management, and the only fully automated failover for Availability Groups in Kubernetes. By replacing fragile, outdated tools like Pacemaker or WSFC, DxEnterprise gives IT teams a unified solution ready for the future. Businesses can mix and match any SQL Server versions, containers, or OS platforms, knowing that their HA environment is enterprise-tested and Red Hat-approved.

The operator backed by Microsoft and Red Hat

DH2i’s DxOperator is the preferred choice for customers because it’s Microsoft’s preferred SQL Server operator for Kubernetes and is also certified up to OpenShift 4.19  —combining the trust of 2 major names in 1 powerful solution. Unlike alternatives, DxOperator makes container deployments streamlined, secure, and scalable. Its smart clustering and zero trust tunnels empower organizations to stretch clusters across clouds, regions, and sites without VPN limitations. With Red Hat certification, DxOperator gives decision makers the confidence to modernize SQL Server with unmatched resilience, security, and reliability.

Quick start on RHEL 9.6

Getting started with DxEnterprise on RHEL 9.6 is straightforward:

1. Update your server

 yum update

2. Ensure the hostname is unique:

 hostnamectl set-hostname <name>

3. Install dependencies:

.NET 6.0 Runtime for RHEL

yum install zip gdisk

4. Install DxEnterprise

yum install https://repos.dh2i.com/rhel8/retail/repo.rpm

yum install dxenterprise

Once you’ve completed the steps above, you should be ready to deploy highly available SQL Server clusters with DxEnterprise.

What’s new in RHEL 9.6?

RHEL 9.6 continues to raise the bar for enterprise workloads, with features that pair perfectly with DxEnterprise’s HA capabilities:

• Improved security and compliance
  • Expanded support for FIPS 140-3 validated cryptography
  • Enhanced SELinux performance and policy tools
• Cloud and container innovation
  • Updated Podman for OCI-compliant container management
  • Better integration with Kubernetes and cloud-native tooling
• Data management and performance
  • Optimized NVMe storage performance
  • Updates to SQL and database ecosystem support
• Automation and manageability
  • Ansible-core 2.16 for expanded automation
  • Enhanced system roles for streamlined configuration

Learn more about what’s new in RHEL 9.6.

With these improvements, RHEL 9.6 provides the security-focused, high-performance foundation that DxEnterprise takes advantage of to deliver “always-on” SQL Server workloads.

Expanded compatibility with OpenShift Virtualization

An additional benefit of this certification is that partner products certified on RHEL 7 or higher are considered compatible with Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization. This means DxEnterprise, now certified on RHEL 9.6, can extend its HA and clustering capabilities to workloads running inside OpenShift Virtualization environments. Customers taking advantage of OpenShift Virtualization can deploy DxEnterprise to achieve consistent HA for SQL Server, whether on physical, virtual, or cloud-native infrastructures.

Conclusion

With Red Hat certification for RHEL 9.6, DxEnterprise further strengthens its position as the preferred HA and clustering solution for SQL Server in hybrid, multicloud, and Kubernetes environments. Organizations can now confidently run critical SQL Server workloads on RHEL 9.6 with certified security, performance, and reliability.

Explore DxEnterprise in the Red Hat Ecosystem Catalog, and get started with the installation guide.