Chapter 1. Overview
Installer and image creation
In RHEL 8.2, you can register your system, attach RHEL subscriptions, and install from the Red Hat Content Delivery Network (CDN) before package installation. You can also register your system to Red Hat Insights during installation. Interactive GUI installations, as well as automated Kickstart installations, support these new features.
For more information, see Section 5.1.1, “Installer and image creation”.
Infrastructure services
The Tuned system tuning tool has been rebased to version 2.13, which adds support for architecture-dependent tuning and multiple include directives.
For more information, see Section 5.1.4, “Infrastructure services”.
Security
System-wide cryptographic policies now support customization. The administrator can now define a complete policy or modify only certain values.
RHEL 8.2 includes the setools-gui and setools-console-analyses packages that provide tools for SELinux-policy analysis and data-flow inspections.
SCAP Security Guide now provides a profile compliant with the Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC) Essential Eight Maturity Model.
See Section 5.1.5, “Security” for more information.
Dynamic programming languages, web and database servers
Later versions of the following components are now available as new module streams:
- Python 3.8
- Maven 3.6
See Section 5.1.10, “Dynamic programming languages, web and database servers” for details.
Compiler toolsets
The following compiler toolsets have been updated in RHEL 8.2:
- GCC Toolset 9
- Clang and LLVM Toolset 9.0.1
- Rust Toolset 1.41
- Go Toolset 1.13
See Section 5.1.11, “Compilers and development tools” for more information.
Identity Management
Identity Management introduces a new command-line tool: Healthcheck. Healthcheck helps users find problems that might impact the fitness of their IdM environments.
Identity Management now supports Ansible roles and modules for installation and management. This update makes installation and configuration of IdM-based solutions easier.
See Section 5.1.12, “Identity Management” for more information.
The web console
The web console has been redesigned to use the PatternFly 4 user interface system design.
A session timeout has been added to the web console to improve security.
See Section 5.1.15, “The web console” for more information.
Desktop
Workspace switcher in the GNOME Classic environment has been modified. The switcher is now located in the right part of the bottom bar, and it is designed as a horizontal strip of thumbnails. Switching between workspaces is possible by clicking on the required thumbnail.
The Direct Rendering Manager (DRM) kernel graphics subsystem has been rebased to upstream Linux kernel version 5.3. This version provides a number of enhancements over the previous version, including support for new GPUs and APUs, and various driver updates.
In-place upgrade
In-place upgrade from RHEL 7 to RHEL 8
The supported in-place upgrade path is:
- From RHEL 7.9 to RHEL 8.2 on the 64-bit Intel, IBM POWER 8 (little endian), and IBM Z architectures
- From RHEL 7.6 to RHEL 8.2 on architectures that require kernel version 4.14: 64-bit ARM, IBM POWER 9 (little endian), and IBM Z (Structure A). Note that these architectures remain fully supported in RHEL 7 but no longer receive minor release updates since RHEL 7.7.
For more information, see Supported in-place upgrade paths for Red Hat Enterprise Linux. For instructions on performing an in-place upgrade, see Upgrading from RHEL 7 to RHEL 8.
Notable enhancements include:
- You can now use additional custom repositories for an in-place upgrade from RHEL 7 to RHEL 8. It is also possible to upgrade without Red Hat Subscription Manager.
- You can create your own actors to migrate your custom or third-party applications using the Leapp utility.
For details, see Customizing your Red Hat Enterprise Linux in-place upgrade.
If you are using CentOS Linux 7 or Oracle Linux 7, you can convert your operating system to RHEL 7 using the supported convert2rhel utility prior to upgrading to RHEL 8. For instructions, see Converting from an RPM-based Linux distribution to RHEL.
In-place upgrade from RHEL 6 to RHEL 8
To upgrade from RHEL 6.10 to RHEL 8.2, follow instructions in Upgrading from RHEL 6 to RHEL 8.
If you are using CentOS Linux 6 or Oracle Linux 6, you can convert your operating system to RHEL 6 using the unsupported convert2rhel utility prior to upgrading to RHEL 8. For instructions, see How to convert from CentOS Linux or Oracle Linux to RHEL.
Additional resources
- Capabilities and limits of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 as compared to other versions of the system are available in the Knowledgebase article Red Hat Enterprise Linux technology capabilities and limits.
- Information regarding the Red Hat Enterprise Linux life cycle is provided in the Red Hat Enterprise Linux Life Cycle document.
- The Package manifest document provides a package listing for RHEL 8.
- Major differences between RHEL 7 and RHEL 8 are documented in Considerations in adopting RHEL 8.
- Instructions on how to perform an in-place upgrade from RHEL 7 to RHEL 8 are provided by the document Upgrading from RHEL 7 to RHEL 8.
- The Red Hat Insights service, which enables you to proactively identify, examine, and resolve known technical issues, is now available with all RHEL subscriptions. For instructions on how to install the Red Hat Insights client and register your system to the service, see the Red Hat Insights Get Started page.
Red Hat Customer Portal Labs
Red Hat Customer Portal Labs is a set of tools in a section of the Customer Portal available at https://access.redhat.com/labs/. The applications in Red Hat Customer Portal Labs can help you improve performance, quickly troubleshoot issues, identify security problems, and quickly deploy and configure complex applications. Some of the most popular applications are:
