What's new with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 and Red Hat Virtualization

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8

Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 8 is based upon the principles of "operational consistency, security, and cloud foundation." Utilizing kernel 4.18x, RHEL 8 is based on Fedora 28 and will run on Intel/AMD 64-bit processors as well as IBM Power LE, IBM z Systems, and ARM 64-bit.

Improvements in operational consistency

• Red Hat has sought to reduce complexity in RHEL 8, which comes with ten guaranteed years of enterprise support. Their model involves repositories for the base operating system as well as application streams for flexible lifecycle options, which offer multiple versions of databases, languages, various compilers, and other tools to help facilitate the use of RHEL for business models.
• Build-in defaults in RHEL 8 include tuned profiles for database options (ready-to-go options out of the box) and ansible system roles to provide a common configuration interface (ensuring standardization and reliability)
• The RHEL 8 YUM package manager is now based on the Dandified Yum (DNF) technology, which supports modular content, better performance, and a stable API for integration with tooling. User feedback indicated that "yum is a lot faster than it used to be, and all the commands work well."
• Red Hat Insights (tools to provide system administrators with analytics, machine learning, and automation controls) are now included in RHEL 8 along with a session recording feature, which can record and playback user terminal sessions for better security and training capabilities.

Improvements in security

• Secure default compiler flags and static code analysis have been added to RHEL 8 for more secure code writing.
• FIPS ("Federal Information Processing Standards") mode has been made easier to activate for organizations that require federal government security standards.
• Red Hat has also sought to make it easier to work with smart cards and hardware security modules (HSMs) using PKCS#11 centralized configurations. For instance, OpenSSH or Apache Web Server can be better secured using these options.
• RHEL 8 offers strong crypto policies for encryption (to meet an array of security standards)
• Transport Layer Security (TLS) 1.3 is a systemwide standard for data encryption as TLS 1.2 is widely considered too slow for today's applications.
• SELinux has been improved for better controls on files and directories and is enabled by default in RHEL 8.
• Software ID (SWID) tags in RHEL 8 can help perform software inventory management and enforce application whitelisting across the enterprise to permit only trusted programs to execute. Furthermore, Trusted Platform Module (TPM) usage can help ensure the integrity of core software itself to prevent tampering or malicious activity.

Release notes for RHEL 7,2

Cross channel package dependency improvements:

Yum has been enhanced to prompt the end user to search disabled package repositories on the system when a package dependency error occurs. This change will allow users to quickly resolve dependency errors by first checking all known channels for the missing package dependency.

To enable this functionality, execute yum update yum subscription-manager prior to upgrading your machine to Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.2.

Enable virtio network device renaming

This update adds a new persistent naming scheme for the virtio driver, which enables virtio network device renaming. To enable this feature in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.2, add the net.ifnames=1 kernel parameter while booting

openldap rebase to version 2.4.40

The openldap packages have been upgraded to upstream version 2.4.40, which provides a number of bug fixes and one enhancement over the previous version. Notably, the ORDERING matching rules have been added to the ppolicy attribute type descriptions. Among the fixed bugs are: The server no longer terminates unexpectedly when processing SRV records, and missing objectClass information has been added, which enables the user to modify the front-end configuration by standard means.

Dennis Ritchie died

Dennis Ritchie, the father of Unix is no more with the IT world. MAY HIS SOUL REST IN PEACE :-(
we will miss u

Accessing Linux through Windows

Let the Tux enter through the open Windows…


Always we are busy thinking that how easily can we access ‘ntfs’ partitions residing in Linux? And then we talk about ‘fuse’ and ‘ntfs-3g’ packages, but have we ever thought the other way round? Yes, I am talking about accessing Linux (ext2 / ext3) file system from windows. It will just be an awful experience when we are using windows and want to access some files of /root or /home mount point, and we need to reboot our PC for that.

<<<< THE GIVEN IMAGES ARE POSTED ON THE NEXT POST, REGRET FOR INCONVINIENCE >>>>>

INTRODUCTION:

Once, I was surfing net in windows and need to download new ‘wine’ package, but I didn’t remember the previous version I was using :(( and had to disconnect net, reboot my system and then get into the linux to see the version of wine. Then and there I thought of something which should me to see the readme file of wine present in linux and there I found myself very helpless.
This tutorial will show the three different ways, how we can access linux within Windows in a dual boot system.
Explore2fs, Disk Internals Linux Reader, and the Ext2 Installable File System for Windows are those three different tools by help of which we can access ext2/ext3 file system. While the first two provide read-only access, the Ext2 Installable File System is the best among these and can be used for read and write operations.
We can download these softwares from the link given below:


1.Explore2fs - http://www.chrysocome.net/explore2fs
2.Disk Internals Linux Reader - http://www.diskinternals.com/linux-reader
3.Ext2 Installable File System - http://www.fs-driver.org/index.html

We can download and use Explore2fs and Disk Internals Linux Reader tools where we need not to specify both read / write permission. It will work only in read only mode. It is easy to install and work.

WORKING WITH EXT2 INSTALLABLE FILE SYSTEM:

Download the software ‘Ext2IFS_1_11a’ from http://www.fs-driver.org/index.html. The size of the software is only 1,431 KB so it can be downloaded easily from slow speed also.
Now, double click on the downloaded executable file.

The installation window will appear showing about the freeware nature of the software as shown in (fig 1.1)
Read the contents for knowledge and click next


fig 1.1

The second window will appear displaying the same old License Agreement as the exe tradition says (fig 1.2), but here I will suggest you to go through
the agreement because it shows something about the origin of the software and how it works rather not to simply agree by checking, click Next

fig 1.2

After that we will encounter a ‘read only option’ window, unlike the exe tradition (fig 1.3)
If we will check the ‘Enable read only’ option, it will work as the previous two Explore2fs and Disk Internals Linux Reader softwares as in read only mode. We can browse the Linux file system but we don’t have the permission to edit/write them. So, click on next without checking it and gain the 100% access to the Linux mount points.

fig 1.3


The next windows is about the encoding, use the recent Linux encoding for better results and check the ‘enable UTF-8 encoding’ as shown as (fig 1.4) and click next





fig 1.4

The next window will appear asking weather we need to enable large file feature or not, don’t get panic here, just check on ‘Enable large file feature’ for storing and accessing files larger than 2 GB, i.e. we won’t get any problem copying DVDs and watching movies, as shown in (fig 1.5)
Check and click next



fig 1.5

Now, we will encounter the most interesting window for assigning drive letters to linux partitions (fig 1.6), so that windows explorer can easily display the ext2 / ext3 file systems.
It will show all the partitions made on our hard disk.
I choose Y for /boot, Z for / and X for swap.
We can choose letter for swap FS also just for distinguishing it, but it will be only displayed, won’t be accessed.

If you want, check the option given below for automatically assigning letters to pluggable devices. fig 1.6
Click next and go through the README window at least once. Then click on Finish and end the installation process.


After the installation, you can find your Linux partition(s) in the normal Windows Explorer (under the drive letter that you assigned to it during the installation):
We can now browse and use your Linux partition(s) like a normal Windows partition.
Open My Computer and we will see linux partitions as shown in figure below:



As mentioned in the introduction of this article, the Ext2 Installable File System For Windows supports read and write operations on the Linux partitions. In order to test if the write support really works, we can try to create an empty folder on a Linux partition. Right-click on an empty area on the Linux partition and select New > Folder
The work for you is to install the rest of the two tools named Explore2fs and Disk Internals Linux Reader and note the difference. And simultaneously find out whether these tools works correctly on ext4 file system or not.



By: Adarsh
M.C.A and RedHat Certified Engineer
Email: addi_adarsh@yahoo.co.in
Hobby: Experimenting with Linux distros and listening old songs
Address: c/o MR. P.K. Singh,
10/5 Semal Road,
Shipra Suncity,
Indirapuram,
Ghaziabad U.P
Pin: 201014

Dennis M. Ritchie

1941 -- Born in Bronxville, N.Y.
1963 -- Graduates from Harvard University with a B.S. in Physics
1968 -- Receives from Harvard University a Ph.D. in mathematics
1967 -- Joins Bell Labs, following his father, Alistair E. Ritchie, who had a long career there
1968 -- Joins the Bell Labs team working on Multics, a joint effort of Bell Labs, MIT and GE to develop a general computer operating system

1972 -- Creates C language
1989 -- Receives with Ken Thompson the NEC C&C Prize for significant contributions to computer technology
1983 -- Named Bell Labs Fellow
1988 -- Elected to the U.S. National Academy of Engineering
1990 -- Appointed head, System Software Research Department in the Computer Sciences Research Center at Bell Labs, Murray Hill, N.J.
1995 -- Heads the effort to create the Plan 9 operating system
1996 -- Heads the effort to create the Inferno(TM) operating system
1998 -- Awarded with Kenneth Thompson the U.S. National Medal of Technology for the development of the UNIX system

Kenneth Thompson

1943 -- Born in New Orleans, Louisiana
1943-1960 - Navy brat moving every few years
1965-66 -- Graduates with B.S and M.S. degrees in electrical engineering from the University of California at Berkeley
1966 -- Joins Bell Labs Computing Research Department, working on the Multics project

1969 -- Develops UNIX* operating system
1970 -- Writes B language, precursor to Dennis Ritchie's C language
1971 -- Moves UNIX from the PDP-7 to the PDP-11
1973 -- Rewrites UNIX in Dennis Ritchie's C language
1973 -- Rewrites portions of UNIX to include Doug McIlroy's concept of pipes
1975-6 -- Visiting professor at the University of California, Berkeley
1980 -- "Belle," a chess-playing computer he developed with Joe H. Condon, wins the U.S. and World Computing Chess Championships
1980 -- Elected to the U.S. National Academy of Engineering
1983 -- Named Bell Labs Fellow
1983 -- Receives with Dennis Ritchie the ACM Turing Award
1980 -- Elected to the U.S. National Academy of Science
1988 -- Visiting professor at the University of Sydney, Australia
1998 -- Awarded with Dennis Ritchie the National Medal of Technology for the development of the UNIX system
2000 -- Retires from Bell Labs

Dennis Ritchie & Kenn Thompson in thr yr 1972

From the right, the major items of equipment are
•    At the far right, on the table, are what someone discerned was a VT01A storage-tube display (based on Tek 611) and a small keyboard for it. Slightly hard to make out.
•    A main CPU cabinet, partly behind the table. The processor is a PDP-11/20; it must have been our second one, with the Digital Special Systems KS-11 memory management unit. Our very first just said "PDP11," not "11/20." The arrays of distorted rectangles above it and in other cabinets are the labels on DECtape canisters.
•    Another cabinet. Careful examination of the image by Steve Westin detects the top of the bezel of an 11/45 CPU barely peeking above the TTY to the right of the one Ken is typing at. A paper tape reader is above it.
•    The third cabinet sports a dual DECtape drive at the top.
•    A cabinet with another DECtape drive, probably also containing BA-11 extension boxes within.
•    A cabinet with RK03 disk drives. These were made by Diablo (subsumed by Xerox) and OEMed to Digital. Digital later began manufacturing their own version (RK05).
•    A cabinet containing RF11/RS11 controller and fixed-head disks. By this time / and swap space lived there, while /usr was on the RK03s.
•    On top of the machine are what look like magtapes. A probable TU10 transport is barely visible just below Ken's chin, at least if you have the monitor brightness and contrast adjusted favorably.
In front, we have
•    Ken (sitting) and me (standing), both with more luxuriant and darker hair than we have now.
Scientific American March 1999 p. 48 should have checked the IDs; we're interchanged in its caption of this same picture.
•    Two Teletype 33 terminals