7.1 or 7.2

[lastgreatone]

we are looking at purchasing an x4000 with pre-installed RedHat 7.1. Is RedHat 7.2 more secure, and how is the support from HP for RedHat 7.1/7.2?

[Mike Hassell]

Frankie,

I wouldn't say that RH7.2 is anymore secure than RH7.1, because they both are based off the 2.4 linux kernel. Since RH7.1 has been released longer than RH7.2, chances are it's a bit more secure as RedHat has had some time to work the exploits out and provide updated patches. Be sure to check RedHat's website fairly often for updated patches to underlying applications to ensure you're as secure as possible.

On the other hand there are some nice features added in RH7.2 that 7.1 doesn't have. Things such as "ext3" filesystem which supports journaling. This can decrease the amount of time it takes to boot a server with large amounts of disk space almost in half as file systems don't need to be fsck'ed upon boot up. Also "grub" has been added as a new boot loader in place of lilo. Lilo is still available if you're used to using it, however grub has a nice new look and is easily updated (no need to re-run 'lilo' after making a configuration change). Be sure to read up on it a bit, here's a good article:

http://www.linuxworld.com/site-stories/2001/1128.redhat.html

I can't speak for HP's support for linux as I'm not using HP products for my linux servers, however I'm sure it's solid as ITRC itself provides wonderful support. I can say that RH support is decent as I've only had to contact them a few times on the phone and they've worked throughly through all my problems.

We are just now starting to roll out RH7.2 servers, which I feel are ready for production, but either RH7.1 or RH7.2 is the way to go as they are both using the 2.4 linux kernel which is a must. Hope that helps.

-Mike

[Marco Paganini]

Hello Frankie

I've used both 7.1 and 7.2.

I would go for 7.2 for one simple reason: Ext3. Ext3 reduces dramatically the fsck time on large filesystems. Also, it is way more 'reliable' than ext2 in case of a system crash with mounted filesystems.

Regards,
Paga

[Eugen Cocalea]

Hi,

I would stay with 7.1 since it has served longer and with no problems. Usually, people keeps upgrading, I am not. I like what I trust and I trust 7.1. Anyway, there are other flavours more stable and more secure than RedHat, like Debian for an example, which is the less commercial distro of Linux and its aim is security and stability. RedHat turned to be commercial.

7.2 didn't cause big problems to configure and maintain, but it did. And the newer the packages, the less tested they are so they may have bugs and/or security holes.

As I said before, I stick with older packages. Anyway, you can have ext3 on 7.1 as well, I have it on 7.1 for more than 6 months now, so there is no need to have 7.2 for ext3. And grub? Heh, what's wrong with lilo? G'ol text lilo?

E.

[Santosh Nair_1 · Accepted solution]

I've used RH 7.1 for quite some time now. Its very stable and so I would be comfortable recommending it. 7.2 offers newer versions of various packages, most of which you can download. As far as security goes, I would still stick with 7.1 (remember to go through RedHat's errata pages for updates http://www.redhat.com/apps/support/errata/index.html) and install Bastille (http://www.bastille-linux.org) on top.


-Santosh

[Bernie Vande Griend]

This is a very good question, one that I've been meaning to ask the forums as well. Linux updates, especially Redhat are very frequent compared to unix vendors such as HP or SUN. Should one continually try to stay up on the current release or go with one that has been around longer?
IMO, it is not wise to continually upgrade to the latest release immediately as it often takes several months to find and fix all the bugs. I would stick with 7.1 for awhile since it is based on the same kernel as 7.2 and you can get ext3 and other packages that 7.2 has on 7.1 if you wish. I tend to focus on the kernel and when the kernel has a major improvement, then I go for the upgrades. Also, 7.2 has not been out too long yet, so I'm sure there will be some bugs to work out as well.