Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 : Feature Function Benefit Summary ( Part 2)

Feature	Function	Benefit
Security	Numerous new security features make Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 the most secure version ever.  Svirt, which is enabled by default, provides containment and isolation of virtual guests. Xace brings Multi-Level Security (MLS) capabilities to desktop environments. The Sandboxing feature allows users to containerize potentially insecure applications. The Kiosk capability allows constrained, read- only environments to be created for use in public/kiosk settings, reducing the risk of system compromise by malicious users.  Policykit provides fine-grained authorization for user applications that need to do privileged operations, (using a client/server d-bus based model) – and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 applications are provided with default Policykit policies.	Svirt capabilities are unique to Red Hat Enterprise Linux – unmatched by competing virtualization solutions from VMware, Microsoft, or Oracle.  With Svirt customers can achieve guest isolation and confidently Live Migrate virtual guests across systems, or deploy in cloud environments, without worrying about malicious adjoining guests compromising security.  Using Xace, ISVs will be able to deliver “trusted” desktops to customers with high security requirements (MLS) – a capability not available with Microsoft Window desktops.  Sandboxing brings SELinux security confinement to any application, including desktop and console users,  thus allowing for testing un- trusted content without harm to the host. Kiosk allows customers to create fully functional environments with restrictions that are suitable for deployment in public kiosk settings such as libraries and public schools. Policy kit enables applications to perform privileged operations while minimizing exposure to security flaws – offering users an improved and safer experience.
Identity and Authentication	The new SSSD (System Security Services Daemon) makes Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 a more robust and better performing LDAP and Kerberos client. Features include offline support (eliminating the need for laptops to use duplicate user accounts), built-in caching of identity information and credentials (reducing server load), and improved robustness in the face of network congestion. Support for multiple identity domains allows clients to authenticate correctly in mixed identity environments.	Client systems can authenticate against multiple environments – Microsoft Active Directory, LDAP, Red Hat Directory Server, Kerberos, and IPA (Identity, Policy, and Audit). This offers IT department’s exceptional flexibility when deploying Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 systems into their security infrastructures. And support for disconnected clients means that laptop users can also be elegantly integrated into that infrastructure.
Networking	Networking enhancements in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 are focused on increasing performance and extending the support of industry standards and RFC requirements. A few of the many new features include IPv6 mobility; UDP-lite (for multimedia protocols such as VoIP); addition of TCP Illinois and TCP-YeAH congestion control algorithms; performance improvements with multi-CPU receive, multi-queue transmit and the extended use of RCU (Read Copy Update) algorithms; datacenter bridging support with 802.1p/802.1Qaz. Extensive IPv6 enhancements meet the requirements of multiple new RFCs, along with updated kernel subsystems for NFS/CIFS/RDMA.	Enhancements throughout the networking stack ensure that Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 systems can meet the needs of today's complex, business- critical networking environments. Multimedia and performance features, coupled with IPv6 readiness, mean that IT departments can successfully deploy network-intensive virtualized and cloud environments.
Filesystems and Storage	The next generation Ext file system, Ext4, is the default file system for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6. Ext4 combines the stability of Ext3 with significant scalability (up to 16TB) and performance enhancements. The optional XFS file system is available for customers deploying even larger, specialized environments with high-end servers and storage arrays. The optional GFS2 file system is designed for high-availability clusters with 2-16 nodes, and now includes support for clustered Samba deployments. Many new features in the I/O subsystem cover interconnects (FCoE, iSCSI, etc.) and hardware/software optimizations (SR-IOV, NPIV, topology awareness, thin provisioning, block discard, VSAN fabrics, etc.). LVM (Logical Volume Manager) enhancements include online resizing of mirrored volumes, dynamic multipath load balancing, and snapshot rollbacks. Storage topology awareness allows higher level software (drivers, logical volume management, file systems, virtual guests and applications) to interrogate the storage hardware to identify optimal I/O blocking patterns – offering the opportunity to optimize performance based on physical storage capabilities.	Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 provides support for the hardware and software technologies that allow IT departments to stay ahead of the explosive growth in their data access and storage requirements. Larger and faster file systems; online, dynamic storage management that eliminates reconfiguration downtime; virtualized I/O performance that matches non-virtualized environments. Capabilities that meet the needs of any deployment, from the small local-storage system to the largest virtualized SAN.
Interoperability	Interoperability with Microsoft Windows environments is enhanced by the inclusion of the latest version of Samba, which offers a number of significant new and updated features. Support is provided for: IPv6, Windows 2008 (R2) trust relationships, Windows 7 domain members, and Active Directory LDAP signing/sealing policy. Additionally, full support for Windows cross-forest, transitive trusts and one-way domain trusts is available, and support for Windows management tools (mmc and User Manager) has been significantly improved.	Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 provides improved compatibility with Microsoft Windows environments and technologies. And deployment in virtualized and clustered configurations adds flexibility and availability. These features and capabilities enable customers to build compatible, heterogeneous solutions that are robust and highly cost effective.
Virtualization	Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 features fully integrated virtualization based on the KVM hypervisor. The tight integration means that KVM benefits from a number of core kernel features such as the tickless kernel, cgroups and the CFQ (Completely Fair Queuing) scheduler, etc. Additionally, Red Hat's leadership in KVM development has fostered the development of sophisticated paravirtualization capabilities that encompass non-traditional devices such as the clock, interrupt controller, spinlock subsystem and vmchannel. A range of new features improve scalability, I/O performance and deployment flexibility. The application environment is consistent for physical and virtual systems, simplifying the adoption of virtualization. Support for features such as transparent huge pages, SR-IOV, virtualized asynchronous I/O, and message signaled interrupts deliver performance improvements for all guests, from the largest enterprise application to the Windows desktop. Scalability increases include more memory and CPUs per guest, more guests/server. Also, to ensure forward compatibility, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 is able to run as a full or paravirtualized Xen guest on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 Xen-based hosts.	Performance and scalability enhancements make it practical to deploy large- scale enterprise applications in virtualized environments, combining the best features of physical and virtualized systems. SR-IOV-enabled performance enhancements allow I/O-bound applications to be virtualized, so IT departments can adopt a “run anywhere” capability.  Support for Microsoft Windows and Red Hat Enterprise Linux guests enables rapid deployment and easy management of heterogeneous environments. The fully featured implementation includes capabilities such as Live Migration that competing products only offer as expensive options. And guest scalability matches, and usually exceeds, that of competing products.