Red Hat has announced Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) version 6.5.
The latest release comes with several improvements to the virtualization toolset. For example, admins can enable or disable dynamic virtual processors (vCPUs) in active guests. KVM now supports configurations of up to 4TB of RAM and offers direct access to GlusterFS volumes.
RHEL 6.5 also offers improvements to the SSD controller interface, as well as support for the NVM Express (NVME) SSD. The admin can configure more than 255 LUNs for a single iSCSI target. Updates to the Kexec/Kdump mechanism allow dump files on systems with very large memory.
Another interesting new feature is the Precision Time Protocol (PTP), which supports application latencies in the microsecond range. The new release also includes network monitoring improvements, including better monitoring of multicast activity through IGMP (Internet Group Management Protocol).
According to Red Hat VP Jim Totton, “The newest version of Red Hat Enterprise 6 forms the building blocks of the entire Red Hat portfolio, including OpenShift and OpenStack, making it a perfect foundation for enterprises looking to explore the open hybrid cloud.”