While many Red Hat users progressed from Red Hat’s versions 7 through 9 into Fedora or Enterprise Linux, some individuals and firms may have been too highly leveraged with production servers to just drop everything and migrate to new operating system installs.
With support now sunset for version 7 through 9, concerns over maintaining these legacy systems have now risen to the surface. If you are in that group, there are some lifelines left to assist in your transition that will give you some breathing room.
Of course one method is to manually monitor Linux OS and application advisories and track to find updates for your systems, however, this may be too labor intensive for many. One alternative is Progeny. Founded by Debian Linux-maker Ian Murdock, the company offers a wide array of Linux-based services.
More importantly, they offer a Red Hat support system that tracks and provides rpm updates to Red Hat Linux servers running versions 7 through 9. They guarantee this service through December 2005, which should give most firms the time needed to evaluate, select and deploy a replacement Linux OS for their servers.
The company states on their FAQ that they may go beyond 12-2005 with support depending upon customer feedback and market demand.
Progeny offers the service at $5 US per month per server or $2500 per month for unlimited servers (obviously for the enterprise). If you have four or five servers you maintain, the costs are relatively low considering the time saved.
The service sends advisory updates with access to the rpms needed to update your server(s). While the download is manual in contrast to the Red Hat Network, the convenience is clear. The research and collection of updates is ready and waiting upon receipt of each advisory email.
Definitely worth a review if you are leveraged in Red Hat servers and still considering your options for migration.
Blane Warrene
