Red Hat has announced the availability of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 8.1, the first point release since RHEL 8 launched back in May. While point releases in the Linux world don’t tend to bring big changes, RHEL 8.1 does. One of the key highlights with this update is the availability of live kernel patching, allowing systems to be updated without having to go offline for a reboot.
Unlike some other operating systems, Linux rarely has to reboot for patches to be applied which is great for businesses that use Linux to run servers that need to be online for as much time as possible. One of the exceptions to this rule is kernel patches, they tend to require a whole system reboot to be applied but live kernel patching resolves this issue without a restart; this will help businesses to keep their services running around the clock.
Another feature that will help businesses is Red Hat Insights. In its announcement, the firm said that all supported RHEL subscriptions now give customers access to this analytics tool. Explaining Red Hat Insights in more detail, the firm said:
“Intended to help address configuration and other system issues before they impact production, Red Hat Insights has more than 1,000 rules for operating Red Hat Enterprise Linux on-premises or on public clouds such as AWS and Microsoft Azure. These rules support analytics for workloads such as SAP HANA and Microsoft SQL Server and help IT administrators to more quickly address performance, security, availability and stability risks to keep operations running smoothly.”
Aside from the aforementioned additions, RHEL 8.1 also brings new RHEL Roles to streamline the setup of subsystems, container-centric SELinux profiles to allow for the creation of more specific security policies, and updated developer tools and services. If you’d like to download the new update, head on over to the Red Hat Customer Portal to download a copy.