Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.5 Beta has been released for testing.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.5 Beta is now available
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 8.5 Beta is full of improvements, new features and is easier for RHEL users to access and test out. This release brings live kernel patching to the web console, a number of system roles and management enhancements, and removes the requirement to explicitly ask for beta access.
RHEL 8.5 Beta: Even easier to manage and deploy
With each RHEL release we work to make RHEL easier to manage, easier to deploy and a better foundation for your workloads, applications and services.
RHEL 8.5 Beta continues this tradition with a number of management features and system roles to help deploy services, manage systems and assess security risks.
System roles
RHEL system roles use Ansible roles and modules to configure, automate and manage services on RHEL. Several new or enhanced system roles for popular workloads on RHEL are being released or updated alongside RHEL 8.5 Beta, including:
RHEL system role for Microsoft SQL Server: Allows IT administrators and DBAs to more quickly install, configure and tune SQL Server in an automated fashion.
RHEL system role for VPN: Reduces the time to configure VPN tunnels and reduces risk of misconfiguration or use of non-recommended settings. Also supports host-to-host and mesh VPN configurations.
RHEL system role for Postfix: In tech preview for some time, the RHEL system role for Postfix is fully supported with RHEL 8.5. It enables administrators to skip manual configuration of Postfix, automating how you install, configure, and start the server, as well as specify custom settings to better control how Postfix works in your environment.
RHEL system role for timesync: Uses a new Network Time Security (NTS) option as part of the existing timesync system role.
RHEL system role for Storage: Adds support for LVM (Logical Volume Manager) VDO (Virtual Data Optimizer) volumes and volume sizes that can be expressed as a percentage of the pool's total size.
See the RHEL system roles overview on the Red Hat Customer Portal to learn more about installing and using system roles on RHEL.
Web console
RHEL's web console, based on the upstream Cockpit project, is a web-based interface for managing and monitoring your systems. RHEL 8.5 Beta brings a few new tricks to an already useful and convenient RHEL utility.
Enhanced web console performance metrics: The enhanced performance metrics page can help identify potential causes of high CPU, memory, disk, and network resource usage spikes. In addition, customers can more easily export metrics to a Grafana server.
Kernel live patching management via web console: This new web console capability provides a simplified interface for applying live kernel updates without having to use command line tooling.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.5 Beta is now available
