Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 7.5 Release and Enhancements

Even though Red Hat doesn’t disclose future release schedules, it has managed to release at least a minor update every year since 2013. Here is a look at the past releases:

So we can assume that we should see RHEL 7.5 released around the end of the year.

As RHEL 7.5 is still under development, the improvements and additions are not written in stone yet. But according to current release notes, the following are the major areas of improvements:

Security and Compliance

• Improvements to Cloud and Remotely Hosted Systems with NBDE: Changes in RHEL 7.5 will enable remote systems to more securely unlock Network Bound Disk Encrypted (NBDE) devices at boot-time. It helps create a more automated process that saves time and removes manual interventions.
• Integration of Red Hat Ansible with OpenSCAP: OpenSCAP scanner can create remediation scripts in Ansible Playbook format. It simplifies administrative tasks. Administrators will be able to deploy remediation compliance policies across the environment. It will save time and improve efficiency.
• PTP Active-Backup Bonding for Clock Synchronization: Now users can specify a bond interface in the active-backup mode to be used with the ptp4l application. So there will be failover for bonding interfaces for Precision Time Protocol (PTP).

Performance and Efficiency

Reduction of Data Redundancy: RHEL 7.5 introduces Virtual Data Optimizer (VDO). It will use inline duplication and compression of primary storage to reduce data redundancy. It can help users save money on cloud storage and bandwidth usage.

Platform Manageability

• Cockpit Console Upgrades: The Cockpit administrator console will get enhancements for storage, services, containers, networking and other features.
• New boom Utility: Bootloader entries for LVM snapshots and images can be managed using the new boom tool. It is a command-line tool that also has an API.

Support for New Architectures

• New Architectures: The kernel-alt packages will include kernel version 4.14. This kernel version will help support IBM z Systems, IBM POWER9 (little endian) and 64-bit ARM support.

Virtualization

• KVM Virtualization: IBM z Systems, IBM POWER9 (little endian), and IBM POWER8 systems will be able to use KVM virtualization. But the z and POWER9 will require kernel version 4.14.

Identity Management and Access Control

• Windows Server 2016 Cross-Forest Trust: Identity Management will support cross-forest trust for Windows Server 2016 forest and domain functional levels.
• Active Directory (AD) Integration Improvements: AD integration solutions on Identity Management will have improved stability and performance.
• System Security Services Daemon (SSSD):  SSSD LDAP provider will be able to create user private groups. SSSD will also remember AD site after first successful connection.
• OpenLDAP Suite Update: The OpenLDAP suite will be compiled with OpenSSL library. The suite is abandoning Mozilla implementation of Network Security Services (NSS).
• Samba Update: The samba package will be upgraded to 4.7.1. The default protocol will be SMB protocol version 3.

Further Reading:

Full RHEL 7.5 Release Notes