Slashdot Mirror
Red Hat Advanced Server Gets DoD COE Certification
DaveAtFraud writes "CNET is reporting that Red Hat Advanced server has been certified as a 'Common Operating Environment' (COE) when running on an IBM server by the U.S. Department of Defense. Red Hat Advanced Server is the first version of Linux to receive this certification. The certification clears the way for broader use of Linux in governement computer systems. Its interesting to note that the certification effort was made for the more proprietary (and costlier) Red Hat Advanced Server and not the basic Red Hat distribution." This despite the best efforts of certain lobbyists.
It is near impossible to use most open-source in a cost effective way under those regulations. Give it a read and and then move onto their understanding of software verification.
The whole open-source model just don't fly.
Read the RH press release here.
I want to drag this out as long as possible. Bring me my protractor.
... isn't that the same certification than the one we scoffed at when Windows 2000 got it?
I can find only one relevant page on DISA that pertains to Linux/COE. This page has a link to a draft of COE Compliance Critera for Linux. The information on this page hasn't changed in several months, AFAICT.
So, what's new here? Can anyone point me to a place on DISA that substantiates the claims made by the news.com article? Where is the "real", final COE Compiance Critera for Linux?
In the course of every project, it will become necessary to shoot the scientists and begin production.
Nonsense.
Anyone can download it for free from Red Hat.
You just don't get the support for free.
Mirrors: http://www.redhat.com/download/mirror.html
Check the "enterprise" directory.
However if you want support for it, it will cost you about $1200 per machine per year. This is cheaper than most other OS's.
Personally, I think you would be better served developing in house resourcs for the support, but that's just me.
I'm also not necessarily happy with RH's choices on some packages to include in AS. The one that jumps out at me is choosing to use a beta version of an ntp4 release as opposed to simply using whatever was the stable version at the time.
And yes, I work somewhere that is probably going to implement hundreds of copies of RH AS, and pay for the support.
Not to mention that the certification is only valid for a specific version of the OS (what Microsoft neglected to say back when they were selling NT 4.0 was that it's NT 3.5 that is C2-certified).
The Advanced Server is released every one and a half year or so - the desktop OS every six months. Personally I find it a very agreeable deal - the free users get faster releases and contribute towards bug testing, the paying customers get what they want, slower but longer-supported (and now certified too) releases.
Michel
Fedora Project Contribut
Have you actually tried this? There's nothing but source RPMs.
Disclaimer - I work for the DoD but i don't speak for them.
:)
"Segments" are basically customized software installs for COE. This includes Government produced software (Government Off the Shelf, GOTS) and commercial software (Commercial Off the Shelf, COTS). For instance there is a "segment" that installs Netscape.
These segment installs basically install the software such that it conforms to the COE environment. For example, applications must live in a certain path, follow a certain naming scheme, use certain environment variables to find things, only put user data in a certain place, etc, etc. Think "rpms" or FreeBSD packages - segments are just big tar balls with a standardized format and install scripts
The segments are available via DISA to those programs that are developing COE software - you have to show proof of need and sponsorship (i.e. somebody has to pay somewhere along the way for you to have access). Basically if you are developing applications for the DoD, you can get them - we have to get them through a certain chain of command. I think vendors can get access, but you have to talk to the DISA folks about how that works.
/* ICBM Coordinates 32.78N, 79.93W */
--
I haven't seen a COE Linux environment, but based on my experience with COE Solaris, I can tell you that the answer is a bit more complicated.
Starting from a bare system, you first install the COTS (Common Off The Shelf) OS (RHAS, in this case). This will likely be a "custom" install since it will likely have some strange partition requirements.
On top of this, you would then install the COE "kernel". This is a core set of COE services, scripts, utilities, etc. Part of this process is the creation of several user accounts (sysadmin, etc) as well as a general lockdown of the box (no root logins allowed, lots of permission changes, etc.) This step will also likely involve installation of package updates to close various security holes.
From there, one would install the various "segments" (COE name for packages) needed to set the box up for a specific usage.
Personally, I'm curious to see if the COE kernel will load on top of a regular RH 8.0. I can see having RHAS for target systems, but it would be nice to be able to use the regular version as a development platform.
Corporate Gadfly
Jonathan Archer: the most beaten up Enterprise captain in Star Trek history
If you want to save money to evaluate this product, you need to build it yourself.
RedHat is under no obligation to provide free binaries, just free source files.
Hey, they even helped you a bit by providing SRPMS instead of Tar files.
"Can of worms? The can is open... the worms are everywhere."
IANAL, so take your own read of the EULA:
http://www.redhat.com/licenses/rhlas_us.html
It looks like each copy of RHAS installs with proprietary client to the RedHat network. This client is not GPL. It is "RedHat Intellectual Property". That's apparently what's licensed.
What Red Hat calls 2.4.9 has hundreds of patches compared to what Linus called 2.4.9.
Comparing that to Solaris, I have no idea where you pulled out the 11.5 year life cycle. According to Sun's web page, it's 5 years from last ship date. Reference this page: http://wwws.sun.com/software/solaris/fcc/lifecycle .html
I will admit that 5 years from last ship is greater than 5 years from initial ship, but there's no way in hell it's an 8.5 year delta like you're trying to claim.
Ya know, "gobs of system management tools" and "a kernel many tricks up it's[sic] sleeve" don't exactly add to much of a review :-). I believe I can honestly claim that Red Hat Linux Advanced Server has "gobs of system management tools" and "a kernel with many tricks up its sleeve". Of course, this claim holds true for Windows too.
How you got moderated to 2 on your post is beyond me...
The GPL requires that we make GPL and GPL derivative source code available to recipients of the binaries. We do that, AND post the source on ftp for anyone to use, which we don't have to do for this or any other of our products which are posted on ftp. We feel we should adhere to the spirit of the GPL as much as to the letter.
,services, RHN, and in some cases ISV/IHV support.
AS has a stack of support and services that require a fee for use, reality is that no one will stop you from building your own or installing on multiple machines. But you won't get full support,
Only part of the value of AS lay in the bits.
I compiled the SRPMS myself and installed. Not easy, but it worked.
- Download
- rebuild all the SRPMS on Red Hat Linux 7.2 (seemed to be the closest)
- look at the errors from missing devel packages
- install *-devel rpms
- rebuild again
- rpm -Fvh *.i386.rpm
- rpm -ivh the redhat-release package
No installer seemed to be included.
Then repeat every time a patch SRPM is released!
Maybe it's worth the $800.