Hi,
The Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) model was subscription based earlier meaning that there was no cost for using RHEL but if we needed support we had to purchase subscription. I am planning to use RHEL 7.4 for my organization. Is there any change in the RHEL model now?
I hope my query is clear that is there any change in the RHEL model now as there was no cost for using RHEL earlier but if we needed support we had to purchase the subscription.
Please revert.
Regards
Hi,
Whilst you can install and use RHEL without a subscription, you won't get any updates. So to put it mildly, this is not recommended at all - the security of your server would be continually at risk, as you would never be able to patch it without downloading the source for updated packages and compiling everything yourself. Which kind of defeats the purpose of going with RHEL in the first place, frankly.
A far better option would be to go with something like CentOS. Recently Red Hat have announced that CentOS 8 is going to be discontinued at the end of this year, but CentOS 7 is still fully supported until June 2024. So you'd get the same amount of life out of a CentOS 7 box as you would out of a RHEL 7 one (assuming you didn't purchase extended lifecycle support for RHEL 7 in 2024, which would not be an option for CentOS, what with it being an unsupported/non-commercial offering).
From a technical perspective, there is essentially no meaningful difference between CentOS and RHEL. I've used CentOS for many, many years in live production platforms without any issues, and (until Red Hat's recent announcement, anyway) would have had no hesitation in recommending it to anyone.
However, the future of CentOS now has a definite end point in 2024, so you might wish to look at other distributions if you take a longer view of things. Of course CentOS Stream will still be an option in 2024 if that is suitable for you, and also other community-supported replacements for CentOS are either already available or are becoming available, so there will be plenty of other non-RHEL options for you post-2024, if you deployed CentOS 7 now.
Thanks @drysdalk for your detailed reply. Can the Red Hat Satellite server be used for updates? Also related question, is a license/subscription required for Red Hat Satellite server?
Requesting a revert.
Regards
Hi,
As a follow-on to my original reply, it seems that due to the cancellation of CentOS 8, Red Hat have widened the usage cases in which they make RHEL available for free. Take a look at the following, since if any of these would fit your usage case, you might in fact be able to get RHEL without paying for it:
New Year, new Red Hat Enterprise Linux programs: Easier ways to access RHEL
Regarding Red Hat Satellite: I've no direct personal experience with this whatsoever, but some quick Googling and a look at some Red Hat documentation seems to indicate that yes, you need a subscription to run this properly.
You can use Centos/Foreman+Katello, to achieve (almost) same functionality as with RHEL / Satellite.
Almost as with RHEL ecosystem you have a company to call / raise bugs and some additional features you might or might not need.
Satellite has a big price tag, especially if you have large number of nodes to manage.
Of course, big price tag has different meaning to different companies 
As for 16 servers being free today, that could change tomorrow.
Nobody can guarantee it will remain like that in future, just as Centos 8 changed with a push of button.
Regards
Peasant.
One other option is Oracle (I know) who are providing a binary compatible drop in RHEL/CentOS replacement which their enterprise customers pay support for.
Oracle have a muddy history with Open Source projects in the past, however a lot of Enterprise DB licences are for data generated/used by software running on Linux so there's some hope they won't fleece the customer, at least until Larry needs another yacht. 
Hi,
True, Oracle are an option. I would personally be very reluctant, but that's just because I don't really trust Oracle not to put the squeeze on what would be basically a captive audience of CentOS refugees, more or less. They seem to be pathologically unable to resist getting every last penny they can out of anyone they can, even when they don't really have to. But technically yes, that's 100% an alternative and mature option that exists in a usable form today.
Here's another one I'm keeping my eye on - VzLinux 8, from Virtuozzo:
Do You Have an Alternative to CentOS? Virtuozzo Has You Covered With VzLinux!
I've used Virtuozzo and OpenVZ as Linux-based container solutions for over ten years now, so I'm very familiar with Virtuozzo both as a company and as a VPS hosting solution. VzLinux is the core distro that they base their own server product on, and they're now releasing it in a form that can be used in "real" servers, and not just containers. So it's another one worth keeping an eye on I'd say, as it has a well-established company backing it up, and one that has a history of making their products available both for free, and as a paid-for supported version (very like Red Hat themselves, in other words).