Red Hat Expands Messaging, Real-Time and Grid Features on Cloud Platform

By: Fahmida Y. Rashid
2010-10-15
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The Red Hat Enterprise MRG platform includes a new Linux kernel, expanded RHEL support and improved performance.
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Red Hat updated and expanded its Red Hat Enterprise Messaging, Realtime and Grid Linux platform, a critical set of tools for building and managing a private cloud, the company said on Oct. 14.

The enhancements in Red Hat Enterprise MRG 1.3 include adding support for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.8 and 5.5, improving Messaging APIs, optimizing performance and scalability, and expanding new management features.

Red Hat Enterprise MRG is a collection of three different subscriptions - advanced messaging, real-time computing and grid computing - for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5. The distributed computing platform features high-speed interoperable and open standards messaging tools, a deterministic low-latency real-time kernel based on Linux 2.6.33 kernel and high-performance and throughput computing grid scheduler for distributed workloads and cloud computing.

The Grid functionality had the most extensive updates in this release. A key enhancement allows IT managers to build out complex infrastructures that consist of multiple cloud environments, both public and private.

Along with integrated support for virtualization and public clouds, the Grid module can also aggregate multiple cloud resources into one common computing pool. These changes provide IT managers with flexible computing across private, public, and hybrid clouds and streamlined operations across remote grids with servers, Red Hat said.

The release includes new user tools, Windows Execute Node support, enhanced workflow management, resource restriction capabilities, update configuration management and new administration tool. With these updates, customers will gain the ability to scale to tens of thousands of devices, be able to provision virtual machines, centralize configuration and management and utilize cloud spill-over capabilities.

Based on the University of Wisconsin, Madison-hosted Condor Project, the Grid module introduces flexible deployment to various applications and workloads. With the Red Hat Grid component, IT managers can scale out applications with real-time or high-performance needs or take advantage of better asset utilization for applications.

In Enterprise 1.3, the Messaging component features updated clients with improve performance, and enhancements that optimize performance and increase stability in clustered environments. New protocol version independent C++ and Python clients, Windows C++ client and additional QMF APIs are also available.

The new MRG Messaging can now be used on JBoss Enterprise SOA Platform and has a number of security improvements, such as Kerberos support. The messaging component is built on the Advanced Messaging Queuing Protocol, which can handle multiple kinds of messaging functions at the same time.

Enterprise MRG’s updated Realtime kernel includes the new Performance Counter subsystem and the associated perf performance tool to enable greater performance capabilities. As real-time still has trade-offs in performance levels, low-latency is the preferred option over real-time to ensure mission-critical systems remain up and running. With the Realtime kernel, IT managers can make the necessary adjustments for each application.

Red Hat will be introducing a new MRG Realtime hardware self-certification program soon, the company said in its statement. The new hardware enablement and certifications in the module are designed to work with the program, according to Red Hat.

Rival Novell has a similar real-time product, called SUSE Linux Enterprise Real Time.

Red Hat Enterprise MRG, first released in 2008, is part of Red Hat Cloud Foundations suite. Red Hat uses the same set of compilers for both Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Enterprise MRG so applications certified for RHEL will be supported without the need to recertify on Enterprise MRG. The platform is available only for x86 and x64 hardware at this time.

Customers with an Enterprise MRG subscription will automatically receive the 1.3 update via the Red Hat Network. Under Enterprise MRG 1.3, Grid is fully supported for everyone, even customers without a technical account manager, Red Hat said.