Linux support

[Sorrel G. Jakins]

Everybody wants to be my buddy, and support my Linux systems. My Linux administrator tells me we need to buy our RHAS directly in order to get dinkum RH support. HP sells RHAS, and offers support. Now Novell wants to offer me support on RHAS as well.

What have the rest of you chosen? What criteria did you use in making a selection?

Sorrel Jakins. Points given for all replies.

[Huc_1 · Accepted solution]

I now have RedHat 9.0 with my update from rhn to keep system to latest patch/kernel security, but now tink are changing and fedora is comming into the picture, I am thinging of migrating to redhat for entreprise 3.0 have a look at following link for more info

http://www.redhat.com/solutions/migration/rhl/rhn/

Then there is the novel buy Suse new have a look at

http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=7234

I think I will go redhat for entrepise 3.0 for real production work and fedora for laptop just to keep on the bleeding edge

J-P

[Steven E. Protter]

Hi Sorrel,

I've chosen a different option. Its called free itrc support. If I have a problem, I post a question and I get an answer.

This is because I'm starting a web hosting business and simply can not afford anything else. Its a three machine ship, two of them Linux.

I might be smart enough and lucky enough to bring it off, but sales suffer because I'm tweaking and working on the OS.

If I decided to stop relying on myself, I'd consider HP support first. The resaon is that HP more than any other vendor I've dealt with takes ownership of problems and doesn't keep pushing the call back into my face.

My experience is with HP-UX support which I have through work.

I have no experience with Red Hat Support but have had generally guarded but postitive reports from my colleagues who have used it.

SEP

[Alexander Chuzhoy]

it depends (of course) on your needs and budget.
If you can afford purchasing RHEL AS + premium support -that's nice.
It includes
Easy ISOs: OS, Source, and Documentation ISO Images
Red Hat Network Update Module Service 1-year
Quarterly OS Updates
Optional Installation and Documentation Media (CDs) available at no charge
Optional Printed Installation Guide available at no charge
24/7 Web Support

Phone Support:
24/7 (Severity 1)

Web Response Time/SLA:
1 business day

Phone Response Time/SLA:
1 hour (Severity 1)

Scope of Coverage:
1 year of Premium Coverage
I advised to my boss to buy the ES version -with basic support-that's suits all our needs in the meantime.
regards

[Andy Beal]

I can't recommend RedHat support due to some issues I had in the past with their support. I had some grave issues with the RHAS Kernel and could not get them addressed, only acknowledged. I have dropped RH support on 3 servers, and probably won't get it back until I upgrade to Enterprise Server (currently own 3 Advanced server). I would trust HP, but be careful that the support they are selling isn't just the redhat subscription. I haven't heard about Novell supporting RHAS, but given Novell tech support from the netware angle, I'd definately trust them.

[Ragu_1]

My bet is on that you should get Debian GNU/Linux installed on the server and pay guys like HP for support. Recently I saw first-hand, the excellent hand-holding of the HP-UX support team to get a problem on the AX .25 networking of the main Stock Exchange here in Kochi fixed. Their support is costly but they escalate issues properly and get it fixed by their experts. You can drop in here and get answers too! Debian is getting to be the real NOS and with `sarge' things would scale-up. This GNU/Linux distro is the network adminstrator's favourite. At a remote location, I have got an uptime of more than 400 days.

[Martin P.J. Zinser]

Hello Sorrel,

usually the best is to get support from the vendor who does the product. I.e. if you do want support for Redhat, check out the Redhat offering. If you want SuSE, check out their (i.e. nowadays Novell). If you are using a third party and do not have a very very close relation to them there is just too much chance for fingerpointing between the supporter and the producer.

Greetings, Martin

[John Payne_2]

How about rewording:

We want to talk to customers about their experiences using Red Hat Advanced Server. (We would prefer to talk to those who have a support contract with someone for RHAS, and are running on Proliant equipment...) We want to talk to some people in person.

We have a major application here keeping us on RH AS 2.1, and we do not want 2 different versions of Linux sitting here, we do not want production apps sitting on an OS without offical support.

Thanks

John

(BTW. Sorrel has a new hat. Isn't it nice?)

[James Specht]

We just purchased our ES support for RHEL V.3. We have always used RHN for our support on RedHat and have never had a problem with it. We have had problems with "third party" support in the past (read before my time) that has caused managment to only purchase support from the original support owners. In some cases this is costing us too much money in my opinion.

--Jim

[Madhu Sudhan_1]

If you are planning to host Oracle applications, Oracle has support for Redhat and supplies kernel upgrade patches as well.

Thank you,
Madhu

[Jerome Henry]

Hi,

We are turning to fedora too. Question of money.
Had we decided to invest that we wouldn't have turned to direct RHAS, for Redhat does seem to be turning to a policy where they just support products they do produce. Meaning they don't support Mysql and more and more other tools as they are not designing them.
Result is : what they support, I can handle it myself or, as Stevens says, ask here for tips from other users.
What they can't (or don't want to) support, I pay for nothing, and stil can ask here !
So I do not clearly see what is the purpose of the support offer (OK, I know they claim for value added service and so on, but this is not how we see the reality of it).
So fedora, rpm -Uvh on cron basis to keep up to date.

Hope it helps you choose.

J

[Michele_20]

I'm using Debian on production machines and Slackware on testing/development machines. Debian uses quite obsolete software, but everything has been tested very well and only security/reliability bugs have been patched (no added features with added bugs), so you can expect very few problems by using it. Slackware is quite simple (I mean: does nothing for you automatically, it doesn't help and it doesn't hurt you) and you can easily keep it current with "bleeding edge" software, but I wouldn't use it on a production server due to lack of testing. Both of them are free and well known, so you could ask for support by someone near you, which might be better than asking for a phone support...
As for commercial distributions, we are evaluating Suse, but we haven't tested it enough.