Tech News

CloudLinux Rescues CentOS 8 From Vanishing Support

CentOS 8 users were pretty much cast aside when Red Hat shifted the focus of the operating system into a rolling release structure. This left many users and companies effectively on their own. For instance, cPanel is no longer supporting CentOS, which means admins of that platform have been forced to look elsewhere.

The problem is, there are a lot of CentOS 8 deployments running smoothly in the wild. What are those admins to do when the EOL comes for that server operating system? Clearly, they could migrate over to CloudLinux's own AlmaLinux (https://almalinux.org/) or Rocky Linux (https://rockylinux.org/) (which was created by the original CentOS developer). Both of these options have simple-to-use commands to handle the migration from CentOS 8. But if you don't want to risk that migration, you now have another option. Said option comes via TuxCare Extended Lifecycle Support (https://tuxcare.com/extended-lifecycle-support/), which covers out-of-date Linux distributions, such as Ubuntu 16.04, CentOS 8 and 6, and Oracle 6.

This Extended Lifecycle support will cover updates, including security patches, and general support for CentOS 8 until the close of 2025.

The cost of the TuxCare support for CentOS 6 is $4.25 per instance per month, so you should expect the cost for supporting CentOS 8 to be about the same.

CentOS Replacement, AlmaLinux, Available on Azure

AlmaLinux hit the ground running. As one of the first 1:1 RHEL binary compatible replacements, after CentOS shifted to a rolling release, the Linux distribution from the developers of CloudLinux has gained serious ground over the competition. And now, AlmaLinux has made its way to the Azure Marketplace (https://azuremarketplace.microsoft.com/en-us/marketplace/apps/almalinux.almalinux?tab=Overview), giving it even more credibility as an enterprise-ready operating system. AlmaLinux is one of the first of the new RHEL clones to arrive on Azure, alongside various iterations of Rocky Linux, which were created by third parties (such as Rocky Linux supporter Procomputers.com).

This particular version of AlmaLinux is optimized for 64-bit architecture and is considered a general-purpose release, meaning it is suitable for most use cases. And because of its 1:1 binary compatibility with Red Hat Enterprise Linux, if a task can be handled by RHEL, AlmaLinux is equally suited.

One very important thing of note is that pricing of AlmaLinux on Azure is currently listed as $0.00/hour. You will also find a number of other instances of AlmaLinux on Azure (many of which are purpose-built) that start anywhere from $0.008/hour and go up to $0.034/hour.

AlmaLinux is a 100 percent community-driven distribution with the goal of ensuring it will never follow the same path as CentOS.

Ubuntu Linux Certified for Secure and Regulated Workloads

The world's most widely deployed operating system in the cloud has officially been certified for highly secure and regulated workloads (such as those for US government agencies, prime contractors, service providers, and organizations in healthcare and finance).

According to Nikos Mavrogiannopoulos, Canonical's product manager for security, "With the new FIPS 140-2 validation, we can continue to deliver the security requirements that our government, finance, and healthcare clients trust to implement the most secure open-source software to power their infrastructure."

FIPS 140 is a US and Canadian data-protection standard that defines security requirements for the design and implementation of cryptographic modules. This new standard ensures that only secure cryptographic algorithms are used for data protection and that all algorithms are thoroughly tested by a third party.

The FIPS 140-2 requirements state that any hardware or software cryptographic module implements algorithms from an approved list. The FIPS validated algorithms cover symmetric and asymmetric encryption techniques as well as the use of hash standards and message authentication. For that, Canonical has made available special releases of Ubuntu (Ubuntu Pro and Ubuntu Advantage) that include the new FIPS 140 validated module. With these new releases, you can run regulated workloads, reduce compliance costs, and get NIST-certified compliance.

To find out more about getting Ubuntu with the FIPS 140 validated module, contact Canonical via this form (https://ubuntu.com/security/fips#get-in-touch).