Linux @ CERN

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Red Hat Enterprise Linux @ CERN

For offical usage in the context of Oracle production databases and eventually other applications requiring commercial support CERN purchased a limited number of Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server licenses. For all other tasks standard CERN Linux distribution: Scientific Linux CERN shall be used.

Licenses

Almost all Red Hat Enterprise Linux licenses are available only for IT managed systems in CERN Computer Center. A small number of licenses has been attributed to collaborating CERN groups on the base of individual agreements.

For more information and registration requests please contact linux.support@cern.ch.

Installation

Registered systems holding valid Red Hat Enterprise Linux license can be installed using same methods as Scientific Linux CERN distributions. Please see Linux Installation at CERN.

Available versions/products

Additional information

Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (RHEL)

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 Server

Update 1

Installation target: RHEL_8_1_X86_64
Installation path:   http://linuxsoft.cern.ch/enterprise/rhel/server/8/8.1/x86_64/
Release notes:       RELEASE-NOTES-8.1-x86_64

RHEL 8.0

Installation target: RHEL_8_0_X86_64
Installation path:   http://linuxsoft.cern.ch/enterprise/rhel/server/8/8.0/x86_64/
Release notes:       RELEASE-NOTES-8.0-x86_64

Software repositories

Install software repository definitions on your system, by running as root: 
# wget http://cern.ch/linux/rhel/repofiles/rhel8.repo -O /etc/yum.repos.d/rhel.repo
Direct download: rhel8.repo
To update your system run as root: 
# /usr/bin/yum update

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Server

Update 8

Installation target: RHEL_7_8_X86_64
Installation path:   http://linuxsoft.cern.ch/enterprise/rhel/server/7/7.8/x86_64/
Release notes:       RELEASE-NOTES-7.8-x86_64

Update 7

Installation target: RHEL_7_7_X86_64
Installation path:   http://linuxsoft.cern.ch/enterprise/rhel/server/7/7.7/x86_64/
Release notes:       RELEASE-NOTES-7.7-x86_64

Update 6

Installation target: RHEL_7_6_X86_64
Installation path:   http://linuxsoft.cern.ch/enterprise/rhel/server/7/7.6/x86_64/
Release notes:       RELEASE-NOTES-7.6-x86_64

Update 5

Installation target: RHEL_7_5_X86_64
Installation path:   http://linuxsoft.cern.ch/enterprise/rhel/server/7/7.5/x86_64/
Release notes:       RELEASE-NOTES-7.5-x86_64

Update 4

Installation target: RHEL_7_4_X86_64
Installation path:   http://linuxsoft.cern.ch/enterprise/rhel/server/7/7.4/x86_64/
Release notes:       RELEASE-NOTES-7.4-x86_64

Software repositories

Install software repository definitions on your system, by running as root: 
# wget http://cern.ch/linux/rhel/repofiles/rhel7.repo -O /etc/yum.repos.d/rhel.repo
Direct download: rhel7.repo
To update your system run as root: 
# /usr/bin/yum update

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 Server

Update 10

Installation targets: RHEL_6_10_X86_64
                      RHEL_6_10_I386
Installation paths:   http://linuxsoft.cern.ch/enterprise/rhel/server/6/6.10/x86_64/
                      http://linuxsoft.cern.ch/enterprise/rhel/server/6/6.10/i386/
Release notes:        Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 - 6.10 Release Notes

Update 9

Installation targets: RHEL_6_9_X86_64
                      RHEL_6_9_I386
Installation paths:   http://linuxsoft.cern.ch/enterprise/rhel/server/6/6.9/x86_64/
                      http://linuxsoft.cern.ch/enterprise/rhel/server/6/6.9/i386/
Release notes:        Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 - 6.9 Release Notes

Software repositories

Install software repository definitions on your system, by running as root: 
# wget http://cern.ch/linux/rhel/repofiles/rhel6.repo -O /etc/yum.repos.d/rhel.repo
Direct download: rhel6.repo
To update your system run as root: 
# /usr/bin/yum update

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 Server

Update 11

Installation targets: RHEL_5_11_X86_64
                      RHEL_5_11_I386
Installation paths:   http://linuxsoft.cern.ch/enterprise/rhel/server/5/5.11/x86_64/
                      http://linuxsoft.cern.ch/enterprise/rhel/server/5/5.11/i386/
Release notes:        RELEASE-NOTES-5.11-x86_64
                      RELEASE-NOTES-5.11-i386

Update 10

Installation targets: RHEL_5_10_X86_64
                      RHEL_5_10_I386
Installation paths:   http://linuxsoft.cern.ch/enterprise/rhel/server/5/5.10/x86_64/
                      http://linuxsoft.cern.ch/enterprise/rhel/server/5/5.10/i386/
Release notes:        RELEASE-NOTES-5.10-x86_64
                      RELEASE-NOTES-5.10-i386

Software repositories

Install software repository definitions on your system, by running as root: 
# wget http://cern.ch/linux/rhel/repofiles/rhel5.repo -O /etc/yum.repos.d/rhel.repo
Direct download: rhel5.repo
To update your system run as root: 
# /usr/bin/yum update

JBoss Enterprise Application Platform (JB-EAP)

Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Application Platform is a 'layered product': repositories listed below are to be installed in addition to base system (RHEL) repositories.

Software repositories for RHEL 7 (version 7)

Install software repository definitions on your system, by running as root: 
# wget http://cern.ch/linux/rhel/repofiles/rhel7-jp-eap.repo -O /etc/yum.repos.d/rhel-jb-eap.repo
Direct download: rhel7-jb-eap.repo

Software repositories for RHEL 7 (version 7.1)

Install software repository definitions on your system, by running as root: 
# wget http://cern.ch/linux/rhel/repofiles/rhel7-jp-eap-7.1.repo -O /etc/yum.repos.d/rhel-jb-eap-7.1.repo
Direct download: rhel7-jb-eap-7.1.repo

Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization (RHEV)

Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization is a 'layered product': repositories listed below are to be installed in addition to base system (RHEL) repositories.

Available versions

RHEV 3.6
Installation ISOs and appliance images available at: http://linuxsoft.cern.ch/enterprise/rhel/rhev/3.6/
RHEV 4.0.6
Installation ISOs and appliance images available at: http://linuxsoft.cern.ch/enterprise/rhel/rhev/4.0.6/
RHEV 4.1
Installation ISOs and appliance images available at: http://linuxsoft.cern.ch/enterprise/rhel/rhev/4.1/
RHEV 4.1.2
Installation ISOs and appliance images available at: http://linuxsoft.cern.ch/enterprise/rhel/rhev/4.1.2/
RHEV 4.2
Installation ISOs and appliance images available at: http://linuxsoft.cern.ch/enterprise/rhel/rhev/4.2/
RHEV 4.3
Installation ISOs and appliance images available at: http://linuxsoft.cern.ch/enterprise/rhel/rhev/4.3/

Note: access to RHEV requires additional (separate) license for the system.

Software repositories for RHEL 7

Install software repository definitions on your system, by running as root: 
# wget http://cern.ch/linux/rhel/repofiles/rhel7-ev.repo -O /etc/yum.repos.d/rhel-ev.repo
Direct download: rhel7-ev.repo

Red Hat Messaging Realtime Grid - Realtime (RHMRG)

Red Hat Messaging Realtime Grid is a 'layered product': repositories listed below are to be installed in addition to base system (RHEL) repositories.

Note: access to RHMRG requires additional (separate) license for the system.

Only 'Realtime' component is available (no 'Grid' / no 'Messaging').

Software repositories for RHEL 8

Install software repository definitions on your system, by running as root: 
# wget http://cern.ch/linux/rhel/repofiles/rhel8-rt.repo -O /etc/yum.repos.d/rhel-rt.repo
Direct download: rhel-rt.repo

Software repositories for RHEL 7

Install software repository definitions on your system, by running as root: 
# wget http://cern.ch/linux/rhel/repofiles/rhel7-rt.repo -O /etc/yum.repos.d/rhel-rt.repo
Direct download: rhel-rt.repo

Software repositories for RHEL 6

Install software repository definitions on your system, by running as root: 
# wget http://cern.ch/linux/rhel/repofiles/rhel6-realtime.repo -O /etc/yum.repos.d/rhel-realtime.repo
Direct download: rhel6-realtime.repo Note: Available only for x86_64

Red Hat Enterprise Linux Extended Update Support (RHEUS)

Red Hat Enterprise Linux Extended Support is a product allowing extension of standard Red Hat Enteprise Linux Life Cycle for specific minor releases. Repositories listed below replace base system (RHEL) repositories.

Note: access to RHEUS requires additional (separate) license for the system.

Software repositories for RHEL 6.7

Install software repository definitions on your system, by running as root: 
# wget http://cern.ch/linux/rhel/repofiles/rhel6-eus-6.7.repo -O /etc/yum.repos.d/rhel.repo
Direct download: rhel6-eus-6.7.repo

Note: Only for x86_64 architecture.

Software repositories for RHEL 6.6

Install software repository definitions on your system, by running as root: 
# wget http://cern.ch/linux/rhel/repofiles/rhel6-eus-6.6.repo -O /etc/yum.repos.d/rhel.repo
Direct download: rhel6-eus-6.6.repo

Red Hat Enterprise Linux BETA (pre)releases

Nothing available at this time

Software installation and updates

We maintain a local mirror (updated 4 times per day) of Red Hat Enterprise Linux software repositories, and all RHEL systems at CERN are installing/updating from this mirror only.

Red Hat 'Subscription Manager' and 'Red Hat Network' are not used.

In order to update a RHEL system installed at CERN please run as root: 

# /usr/bin/yum update
Or if only security updates are to be applied: install yum-plugin-security (RHEL7,RHEL6) or yum-security (RHEL5): 
# /usr/bin/yum install yum-plugin-security
and apply security errata by running: 
# /usr/bin/yum --security update
Note: above command will install latest versions of package providing at least one security errata: non-security errata will be installed if more recent than a security one.

In order to install ONLY security errata, please run: 

yum --security update-minimal

Repository snapshots

We maintain daily snaphots of RHEL software repositories. These snapshots can be used in order to reinstall system to a known past state and provide greater rollback flexibility than yum rollback can.

Please note that this degree of flexibility is only needed in specific cases: for most systems standard yum update (with security plugin) should be sufficient. RHEL is a stable enterprise class Linux distribution evolving slowly.

In order to use yum repository snapshots please edit yum repository definition files in /etc/yum.repos.d/ and change baseurl in each repository definition.

Example (/etc/yum.repos.d/rhel.repo) - change: 

[rhel-7-server-rpms]
name     = Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Server (RPMs)
baseurl  = http://linuxsoft.cern.ch/cdn.redhat.com/content/dist/rhel/server/7/7Server/$basearch/os
enabled  = 1
gpgcheck = 1
gpgkey   = file:///etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-redhat-release
to: 
[rhel-7-server-rpms]
name     = Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Server (RPMs)
baseurl  = http://linuxsoft.cern.ch/internal/yumsnapshot/YYYYMMDD/cdn.redhat.com/content/dist/rhel/server/7/7Server/$basearch/os
enabled  = 1
gpgcheck = 1
gpgkey   = file:///etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-redhat-release
where YYYYMMDD corresponds to snapshot date, for example: 20150408

Note: Daily snapshots of yum repositories are kept for 12 months.

Note: Snapshots are by design immutable: if you discover a problem with a snapshot (corrupted repository metadata, conflicting packages .. etc) - that problem can not be fixed: you will need to use snapshot made at different date. Note: At present (April 2015) yum snapshots are not being backed-up due to TSM client problems: while these are stored on an high-availability redundant file system we cannot guarantee that snapshots will not be lost in an unlikely event of catastrophic failure ...

Documentation

RHEL related documentation can be found on Red Hat site: