| Novell offers RHEL, CentOS support |
Nov. 11, 2008
 Novell has launched a "competitive replacement" program aimed at luring Red Hat and CentOS users to its SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) product. Through the program, Novell will support customers' RHEL or CentOS servers for up to two years, while the customer migrates to SLES.
The program covers Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) versions 3, 4, and 5, for up to two years, or the end of their product lifecycle, whichever comes first. It also supports corresponding versions of CentOS, a free, community supported distribution compiled from Red Hat source code.
In order to support RHEL/CentOS users, Novell will, like CentOS (and Oracle, with its "Unbreakable Linux" offering), deliver security patches and feature upgrades as binaries built from Red Hat source code. The company will guarantee binary compatibility, it says.
Novell will also provide "24x7" phone and email support for supported RHEL/CentOS distributions, it says, along with the same service-level agreements (SLAs) offered for its own SLES distribution. And, although customers are expected to handle the actual migration by themselves or by working with third-party SLES consultants, Novell will launch a website with migration resources, according to Justin Steinman, VP of solution and product marketing. Launching "within the next two weeks," according to Steinman, the site will offer "some automated tools, and some best practices documentation," Steinman said, with resources to include a "deployment kit, quick reference material, technical guides, common use cases, best practice papers, and deployment methodology papers."
Steinman commented, "Competitive replacement programs are as old as the technology industry. We chose RHEL and CentOS to go after the biggest installed base, but will consider adding other platforms, based on customer demand."
Availability
Novell's competitive replacement program is available now, free of charge to customers purchasing a three-year "priority" level subscription to SLES, at a cost of $3,750 per machine. (SLES is also available for $350 per year, with "basic" support that includes patches and updates, or with "standard" support including 12 x 5 email and phone support).
Novell also offers an OpenSUSE build service for ISVs interested in targeting both RHEL/CentOS and its SUSE Linux.
-- Henry Kingman
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