Tech News

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.3 Available

If the cloud (especially of the hybrid nature) is a big part of your business strategy, the latest version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux should probably be on your radar. The latest iteration of one of the most popular server platforms in enterprise computing enjoys a few new features that should make your cloud-centric job much easier.

New features include new system roles for identity management configuration, certificate management, Network-Bound Disk Encryption (NBDE), kernel settings, log settings, SAP HANA, SAP NetWeaver, and management. There have also been a number of updates to Tuned, which is a collection of preconfigured performance profiles which enable you (with the help of Red Hat's extensive knowledge) maximize performance across all types of hardware architecture.

As for your cloud-native needs, version 8.3 includes updated container images for Buildah and Skopeo, as well as Podman 2.0. With the Podman 2.0 release, developers can work with a new REST API, which was designed with two layers: libpod and compatibility. The libpod layer makes it possible to interact directly with the libpod libraries and the compatibility layer is designed to emulate the Docker RESTful API (to aid in migration). Podman 2.0 also includes a much improved integration with systemd.

Of this new release, Stefanie Chiras, senior vice president and general manager, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, says, "Innovation and enterprise-grade stability aren't mutually exclusive; Red Hat Enterprise Linux has shown this to be the case for decades, and continues this trend with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.3. From delivering the latest supported developer tools via Application Streams to making the world's leading enterprise Linux platform even more accessible to systems administrators, we continue to reinforce Linux as the bedrock for enterprise digital transformation."

For more information about Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.3, read the official release notes (https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-us/red_hat_enterprise_linux/8-beta/html-single/8.3_release_notes/index).

It's Official – Linux 5.10 is the Next LTS Kernel

At the 2020 Open Source Summit Europe, Greg Kroah-Hartman announced (https://twitter.com/gregkh/status/1320745076566433793) the upcoming 5.10 kernel release will be the latest Long Term Support (LTS) kernel. The current LTS kernel was 5.4, released in 2019, and will receive updates until 2025. This means the 5.10 kernel should receive updates all the way into 2026.

The first RC (Release Candidate) for the 5.10 kernel was released in October 2020, which will be followed by numerous other release candidates. The stable version of the 5.10 kernel should be officially available in December 2020.

Some of the more important features to be found in the 5.10 kernel include support for AMD Zen 3 CPU, the new Ryzen 5000 line of CPUs, and Intel Rocket Lake, as well as an open source driver for Radeon RX 6000 GPUs and numerous filesystem and storage optimizations. An old memory feature that dated back to 286 processes has finally been removed as well.

Other than 5.10 being an LTS release, this kernel won't be considered anything remarkably special. However, it is important to note that LTS kernels include back-ported bug fixes for older kernel trees. So when an LTS kernel is released, chances are very good your distribution of choice will be using it for some time.

System76 Unleashes World's Smallest Quad-GPU Workstation

System76 is one of the most innovative open source hardware companies on the market, and their Thelio desktop has been turning heads since it was first released back in 2018. But recently, the Colorado company announced a new iteration of the Thelio desktop, geared specifically for deep learning and scientific computing.

That new beast of a workstation is the Thelio Mega, which includes an 3rd generation AMD Ryzen Threadripper CPU and can handle up to:

• 4 NVidia GPUs
• 256GB quad-channel DDR4 at 3200MHz
• 88TB, 4xM.2 PCIe Gen 4 NVMe, and 2.5" SATA drives

The Thelio Mega also includes seven USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A ports, one USB 3.2 Type-C, two RJ-45 LAN ports, five audio jacks, built-in Intel® Wireless-AC (a/b/g/n/ac/ax), and Bluetooth 5.0.

To accommodate such power, System76 had to put serious work into the cooling system. According to their PR team, "The advanced thermal system alone took countless iterations to perfect, ensuring that Mega's top-line components work at continual peak efficiency."

The Thelio Mega ships with Pop!_OS 20.04 and starts at $7,499. For more information on the Thelio Mega, visit the System76 Thelio page (https://system76.com/desktops).

Canonical Releases Autonomous Clustering with MicroK8s

In the latest release of MicroK8s, Canonical has introduced autonomous high availability (HA) to the lightweight clustering tool. This addition, which is automatically enabled once three or more nodes are clustered, adds resilience for production workloads in both cloud and server deployments.

According to Alex Chalkais, product manager at Canonical, "The autonomous HA MicroK8s delivers a zero-ops experience that is perfect for distributed micro clouds and busy administrators."

What makes the automatic autonomous HA possible is the Dqlite data store. This data store is Canonical's raft-enhanced Sqlite, which is embedded inside Kubernetes. Dqlite dramatically reduces a cluster's memory footprint and automates the maintenance of the data store.

With this new feature in place, MicroK8s will automatically choose the best nodes to provide the data store and, in case of a node failure, the next best node is automatically promoted. An HA MicroK8s cluster will be able to withstand the loss of any node and still be able to meet production requirements with minimal cost and oversight.

This new addition will also go a long way to harden industrial Internet of Things (IoT) applications. Industry 4.0 workloads (such as AI inference and Kafka) are a perfect fit for HA MicroK8s on mission-critical control systems. This increased resilience of HA MicroK8s will be a boon to Kubernetes clusters that exist on edge nodes, such as remote branch offices, retail POS, cell towers, and autonomous automobiles.

For more information, read the official announcement from Canonical (https://ubuntu.com/blog/introducing-ha-microk8s-the-ultra-reliable-minimal-kubernetes).