Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.3 globally available

• Enhancements in developer tools, virtualization, security, scalability, file systems and storage
• Helps smooth migration to a virtualized environment,

RED HAT Inc has announced the global availability of the next minor release of its Enterprise Linux operating system platform, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.3.
 
The features in the new release originate from many sources including Red Hat engineers, partners and customers, as well as the open source community, the company said in a statement.
 
Red Hat Enterprise Linux creates standard infrastructure patterns across physical, virtual, and cloud environments thanks to features such as secure disk wiping and live volume re-sizing of virtual guests.
 
Enhancements and new capabilities provide rich functionality particularly in the areas of developer tools, virtualization, security, scalability, file systems and storage, the company said.
 
Developer Tools: In addition to OpenJDK6 support in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6, the newly introduced OpenJDK7 allows customers running Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.3 to develop and test with the latest version of open source Java.
 
Virtualization: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.3 helps smooth migration to a virtualized environment, the company claimed. This is achieved with the help of new Virt-P2V tools that can easily convert a Red Hat Enterprise Linux or Microsoft Windows system running on physical hardware to run as KVM guests.
 
Security: Customers can now use two-factor authentication for securely accessing their Red Hat Enterprise Linux environment. Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.3 also includes advanced encryption capabilities so data blocks can be encrypted in parallel by taking advantage of underlying multi-processor capabilities.
 
Scalability: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.3 increases the maximum number of virtual CPUs (vCPUs) per guest to 160 from 64. The maximum supported memory configuration for KVM guests has also been increased from 512GB to 2TB.
 
Storage: The Logical Volume Manager (LVM) now provides support for RAID levels 4, 5, and 6 to simplify overall storage administration by consolidating all management functions, such as creating and re-sizing volumes, deploying RAID, and taking snapshots into a single interface.
 
Subscription Management: With Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.3, by default customers can use Red Hat Subscription Management (SAM), an enhanced subscription management capability using X.509 certificates that allows customers to effectively manage subscriptions locally and report on subscription distribution and utilization.

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