Red Hat as an example of Open Source stability

Introduction

On October 13, 2011, a conference was held in Moscow on the topic of opening a Red Hat representative office in Russia. Since the opening of the representative office, the company has already gained a large enough number of partners in Russia, including the basic status of Red Hat Ready Partner.

The decision to enter into a partnership with Red Hat was made by us because of growing customer interest in the company's products (RHEL, JBoss, RHEV ...). After obtaining a partnership, we were issued several licenses for our own use, testing, and review. Having worked a couple of months under RHEL 6.3 in a test environment, we had a positive impression of the stability of this distribution, and frequent updates and bug fixes did not leave indifferent even the biggest skeptics.

Despite the fact that everything is so good and rosy, looking on the network for reviews on building solutions based on Red Hat in Russia (not in corporate environments), we were confused, since there are practically none. Most likely this is due to the fact that nowhere is there really information on the topic "how much does a red hat cost and what does it include?", Everyone is used to the fact that Red Hat is RHEL, and RHEL is just a paid distribution. Let's look at this issue based on RHEL.

Licensing policy

Since Red Hat solutions are based on Open Source products, it cannot sell software licenses in the standard sense. But then what does Red Hat charge for? And he takes money for a software support service. In other words, he takes responsibility for ensuring that your system always receives timely, stable updates and bug fixes.

Below is a table with summary information for each type of subscription:

		Without support		Standard		Premium
Working hours		Not available		Working time		Working hours (24x7 for level 1 and 2)
Support channel		Not available		Website and Phone		Website and Phone
Number of Inquiries		Not		Not limited		Not limited
Response time		Primary and subsequent		Primary and subsequent		Primary	Subsequent
Level 1		Not available		1 working hour		1 hour	1 hour
Level 2		Not available		4 working hours		2 hours	4 hours
Level 3		Not available		1 business day		4 working hours	8 working hours
Level 4		Not available		2 business days		8 working hours	2 business days

Support

In addition to the subscription, there is also support, more precisely, by purchasing a subscription you also get support, and not just updates for the system.
Support determines the complete support of the product. At the moment, RHEL has the longest release support, namely it can reach 13 years (10 years of release support + you can get 3 more years of additional support).

The main release support cycle now consists of 3 phases, namely:

Phase 1

This phase lasts about five and a half years and includes:

• minor release;
• correction of critical errors;
• security updates;
• adding support for new equipment;
• Updated images for installation.

Phase 2

This phase lasts about a year and includes:

• correction of critical errors;
• security updates;
• improving support for existing equipment, adding support for new equipment is not made;
• minor releases are a collection of released updates for the release version.

Phase 3

This final phase lasts about three and a half years and includes only:

• correction of critical errors;
• custom security updates.

Additional support

This phase can be extended for an additional three years, but in addition to maintaining access to the already released software and knowledge base, it does not include anything.

Summary table

	Phase 1	Phase 2	Phase 3	EL
RHN Access	there is	there is	there is	there is
Knowledge Base Access	there is	there is	there is	there is
Technical support	Not limited	Not limited	Not limited	Is absent
Security updates	there is	there is	there is	Not
Bug fixes	there is	there is	there is	Not
Minor releases	there is	there is	Not	Not
New Hardware Support	there is	Limited	Not	Not
New features and improvements	there is	Limited	Not	Not
Updated Installation Images	there is	Not	Not	Not

Conclusion

At the moment, Red Hat, and in particular RHEL, is seen as a promising product. Are you ready to pay for a stable open source? Are you interested in RHEL rental service on your servers?

Link to a post on our blog