Today, we are pleased to announce the beta availability of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.2, the latest version of the world’s leading enterprise Linux platform. Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.2 beta includes a number of new features and enhancements – furthering Red Hat’s mission to redefine the enterprise operating system – while continuing to provide the stability, reliability, and security required to meet both the demands of the modern datacenter and next-generation IT requirements. A focus on security, manageability and system administration, as well as a continued emphasis on the functionality to build and deploy Linux containers, helps Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.2 beta provide enterprises a trusted path towards the future of information technology.

On the container front, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.2 beta provides improvements to the platform's underlying container support infrastructure (e.g. enhancements to OverlayFS and user namespaces). By continuing to refine support for container-based application development and deployment, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.2 beta can help enterprises feel more confident as they begin to containerize existing applications or develop new applications based on a microservices style architecture.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux Atomic Host, our container-optimized host platform (released on March 5, 2015), continues to be available with your Red Hat Enterprise Linux subscription. Red Hat Enterprise Linux Atomic Host updates occur on a rapid 6-week sprint cycle, and therefore are not made available as part of the beta program.

With a nod to the importance of continuously maintaining stable and secure enterprise environments, the beta release of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.2 includes several new and enhanced security capabilities. The introduction of a new SCAP module in the installer (anaconda) allows enterprise customers to apply SCAP-based security profiles during installation. Another new capability allows for the binding of data to local networks. This allows enterprises to encrypt systems at scale with centralized management. In addition, Red Hat Enterprise 7.2 beta introduces support for DNSSEC for DNS zones managed by Identity Management (IdM) as well as federated identities, a mechanism that allows users to access resources using a single set of digital credentials.

Given the complexity and necessary due diligence required to efficiently and effectively manage the modern datacenter at scale, the beta release of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.2 includes new and improved tools to facilitate a more streamlined system administration experience. These new features and enhancements include:

Better processor allocation for tasks that require dedicated processor time. Modern systems have multiple processors and certain demanding workloads typically prioritize a dedicated processor at all times rather than efficiently sharing processor time with other applications and services. The introduction of on-demand vmstat workers in the kernel helps achieve more efficient CPU sharing and resource balancing.

The ability to remotely manage local disk data security based on network identity, making the task easier and more secure.

Enhancements to the storage management API (libStorageMgmt) now provide a vendor agnostic mechanism to query disk health and RAID configuration management.

The introduction of conntrack-tools for better network connection tracking

Enhancements to NetworkManager, facilitating better integration with external programs

A new web-based user interface for Performance Co-Pilot, aiding in the management and analysis of network and system performance

New tooling that aids in diagnostics and allows system administrators to easily gather key I/O metrics for device mapper devices.

As always, leveraging work in the Fedora community, Red Hat continuously monitors upstream developments and systematically incorporates select enterprise-ready features and technologies into Red Hat Enterprise Linux. The beta release of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.2 accomplishes this through the rebasing of the GNOME 3 desktop, the inclusion of GNOME Software, and the addition of new tuned profiles (inclusive of a profile for Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Real Time).

For more information on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.2, you can read the full release notes or, as an existing Red Hat customer, take Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.2 beta for a test drive yourself via the Red Hat Customer Portal.