Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.0 features and security

09:00:57 from: online world

When Red Hat launched Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.0 (RHEL 4.0), Network World first-hand testing of such operating system software packages (testing RHEL 4.0 Advanced Server, that is, the most robust Linux version of Red Hat ). The test showed that the new version 4.0 had a significant performance improvement compared with the previous version, enhanced the security options, and greatly improved the hardware detection mechanism.

The RHEL 4.0 speed improvement benefits from the new Linux 2.6.9 kernel. RHEL 4.0 is 3.0 faster than RHEL 23% running on the same hardware in Web transaction processing testing.

Security improvement is achieved through the optional Security Enhanced Linux (SELinux) kernel modification. These SELinux modifications (which are compiled into the Linux kernel by default during installation) eliminate the root user and hierarchical permission security vulnerabilities. This is the first time that these features are included in the Enterprise Edition. They are designed to improve security by directly controlling application access to operating system services. SELinux provides configuration control for each permission service running in the environment. These settings prevent root users from accessing the attacked server.

Strict execution of permissions may prevent applications from running (especially older applications), but SELinux log files can be used to change services or modify applications, make them run in a safer environment. Some old Unix/Linux/BSD applications may attempt to call the Print Service or the old device program running on the server without approval, if you want these applications to run in the SELinux environment, you must modify the Linux configuration file. For example, a tester tried to use an old printing application in the test. By adding a column to The SELinux configuration file, the tester can run the application in The SELinux parameter environment.

RHEL 4.0 hardware detection is implemented through Anaconda. Anaconda is the hardware installer/detection program of Red Hat. This program has no errors in compatibility tests on different server platforms.

In addition, Red Hat greatly increases the number of devices that can be detected, especially when detecting troublesome devices such as embedded SCSI controllers and uncommon NICs. Hardware changes, such as modifying or adding devices such as host bus adapters and USB devices, are handled very well.

RHEL 4.0 supports Sun's NFS Version 4. The tester's support for the new file system shows that the loading and uninstallation operations are faster than those seen during previous Linux tests. The tester also noticed faster file system access from within the application. NFS Version 4 is compatible with NFS Version 3 and can easily load and detach file systems across platforms.

In general, the performance of RHEL 4.0 is between excellent and excellent, which is significantly improved compared with RHEL 3.0. Testers perform tests on multiple platforms to evaluate improvements between different RHEL versions and compare 32-bit and 64-bit versions.

These tests measure the ability of the operating system to process Web connections and Web-based transactions. Apache 2.0.3 is run on RHEL 4.0 on each machine. This is the same as what I saw when I tested Novell's SuSe Linux Enterprise Server 9.0 with the Linux 2.6.9 kernel for the first time, linux 2.6.9 has also made Red Hat faster in 32-bit testing.

In addition, it is the same as running Novell's Linux system on a 64-bit server, the performance of RHEL 4.0 running on 64-bit platforms easily exceeds the same Code Compiled and run on 32-bit machines. The dual-circuit AMD64 Polywell 2200S server used in this test supports the non-uniform memory access technology, which may help improve the 64-Bit performance.

Users and service management in the new Red Hat operating system software package can be manually configured, or a simple drop-down box configuration can be used in Gnome from the default open source user interface. Red Hat's disk management is improved using the new Linux Volume Manager (LVM2. The tester tested LVM2 by using RAID configuration running on HP hardware and loading and uninstalling the storage area network resources. The LVM2 application supports dynamic partitioning and does not stop hard disk/volume/partition resources during partition modification. It is easier to format new partitions and display more organized information.

Red Hat has been striving to improve its Linux performance by focusing on security and speed. On the surface, the new system is no different from the old one, but inside it, the new system has a powerful kernel with enhanced security.