RHEL 7 Extra Features

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Extra Features

Introduction of Docker:

Docker is an Open Source project that automates the deployment of applications inside Linux Containers, and provides  the capability to package an application with its runtime dependencies into a container.

Device Hot plug Removed:

While RHEL 5/6 has device hotplug support (udev rule that runs the ifup script for newly created devices), it has been disabled for RHEL7 since it can result in race conditions when initializing newly found.

No 32 Bit ISO Image:

No 32 Bit ISO for download. RHEL 7 will only provide 64 Bit ISO's. thus allowing only a 64-bit operating environment. RHEL 7 will not natively support 32-bit hardware.

MemAvailable Added to meminfo:

A new entry to the /proc/meminfo file has been introduced to provide the MemAvailable field. MemAvailable provides an estimate of how much memory is available for starting new applications, without  swapping. However, unlike the data provided by the cache or free fields, MemAvailable takes into account page cache and also that not all reclaimable memory slabs will be reclaimable due to items being in use.

 New Ruby and Python Versions:

RHEL 7 provides the latest Ruby version, 2.0.0 and Python 2.7.5

OpenJDK 7 Made default:

RHEL 7 features OpenJDK 7 as the default Java Development Kit (JDK) and Java 7 as the default Java Version.

More Powerful NetworkManager:

NetworkManager has been significantly enhanced to configure and monitor all the networking features for enterprise class servers and for desktop applications.

For the enterprise data centers, NetworkManager can be used for tasks such as basic network configuration, network teaming, configuring virtual LANs, bridges, bonds, IPV6, VPNs, assigning interfaces to firewall zones, and others.

For desktop servers, it can manage wired and wireless networks and VPN's.

Support for 40 Gigabit NICs:

RHEL 7 supports 40 Gigabit network interface controllers (NICs), from multiple hardware partners. This provides support for 40 Gigabit Ethernet link speeds enabling faster network communication for applications and systems.

Note that the ethtool utility will report interface link speeds up to 40gb data rates.

OpenSSH - Multiple Required Authentications:

 RHEL 7 supports multiple required authentications in SSH protocol version 2 using the AuthenticationMethods option. This option lists one or more comma-separated lists of authentication method names.  Successful completion of all the methods in any list is required for authentication to complete.

Minimum Disk Space for Installation RHEL7:

RHEL 7 now requires at least 1GB  of disk space to install. However, Red Hat recommends a minimum of 5 GB of disk space for all supported architecture.

Implementation of tmpfs file system:

RHEL 7 offers the ability to use  /tmp as a mount point  for a temporary file storage system (tmpfs).

When enabled, this temporary storage appears as a mounted file system, but stores its content in volatile memory instead of on a persistent storage device. No files in /tmp are stored on the hard drive expect when memory is low, in which case swap space is used. This means that the contents of /tmp are not persisted across a reboot.

New Logging Framework:

RHEL 7 introduces a new logging daemon, journald, as part of the move to systemd.

Journald captures the following types of messages for all services.

• Syslog messages
• Kernel messages
• Initial RAM disk and early boot messages
• Messages sent to standard output and standard error output.

Changes to mount Options:

Unlike ext3 and ext4, the XFS file system enables the use_xattr and acl mount options by default. Ext3 and ext4 file systems do not enable these attributes by default.