CentOS 7 (1804) released with Red Hat EL 7.5 base

The CentOS community has announced the release of CentOS 7 (1804), a minor release in CentOS 7 series. This release is derived from recently announced Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 7.5 and is available for multiple architectures.

CentOS 7 release comes with several bug fixes and security updates inherited from EL base. So, it is highly recommended to update the packages immediately. This can be done using regular yum update operation.

Updates released since the upstream release are all posted, across allarchitectures. We strongly recommend every user apply all updates,including the content released today, on your existing CentOS Linux 7machine by just running 'yum update'.

As with all CentOS Linux 7 components, this release was built fromsources hosted at git.centos.org. In addition, SRPMs that are abyproduct of the build (and also considered critical in the code andbuildsys process) are being published to match every binary RPM werelease. Sources will be available from vault.centos.org in their owndedicated directories to match the corresponding binary RPMs. Sincethere is far less traffic to the CentOS source RPMs compared with thebinary RPMs, we are not putting this content on the main mirrornetwork. If users wish to mirror this content they can do so using thereposync command available in the yum-utils package. All CentOS sourceRPMs are signed with the same key used to sign their binarycounterparts. Developers and end users looking at inspecting andcontributing patches to the CentOS Linux distro will find the codehosted at git.centos.org far simpler to work against.

For more information and download links, read CentOS 7 (1804) release announcement in projects release mailing list. 

NethServer 6.9 released with CentOS 6.9 base

The NethServer project has announced public availability of NethServer 6.9, latest stable update of CentOS based, highly customizable and modular GNU/Linux distribution for small and medium scale enterprise web servers. This release of NethServer is based on CentOS 6.9, a community driven enterprise operating system based on Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

In addition to all updates and bug fixes from community enterprise base, NethServer 6.9 also brings some countable improvements and features in web module, the area in which it is specialized.

Being an incremental release in NethServer 6.x series, existing users can update their system using regular means of system update. The easiest way is to use software center page in web interface. After update, it is recommended to reboot the system in order to reflect all the changes in new release.

Some of the notable improvements in NethServer 6.9 can be listed as follows:

• Based on CentOS 6.9
• Included option to add traffic shaping and port forwarding for red VLANs, which was not possible in previous releases.
• Backported some of the enhancement from 7.x series. The restore from old backups on 6.9 is added and NethServer 6.9 permits access to CGP graphs and lightsquid reports through the usual server-manager port (980).
• Enabled NTLMv2 authentication within samba. Enabling NTLMv2 authentication allows Samba to work with Windows networks where NTLMv2 is the only enabled authentication protocol.
• Avoid certificate generation on Let’s Encrypt renewal
• Avoid certificate generation in certificate-update event
• NethServer joined to AD fail Kerberos ticket renewal
• Update to shorewall 5
• Collectd 5: avoid rrd write problems on overloaded machines
• Webtop: import contacts from Outlook 2016
• ipsec tunnel: properly reject unencrypted traffic

For original release announcement on NethServer 6.9, see projects website.

CentOS 6.9 released based on RHEL 6.9 code

A little after release of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.9, CentOS team has prepared and published CentOS 6.9, latest updated snapshot of RHEL based, community driven, enterprise GNU/Linux distribution. This release announcement includes both x86 and x86_64 flavors of CentOS.

Being a RHEL 6.9 based release, CentOS 6.9 includes all updated packages from upstream. In order to make update process less painful, all of the upstream variants including Workstation, server and minimal install have been placed in a single combined repository. All of these variants can be installed from this combined repository.

Existing users of CentOS 6.x series can update their system to the latest release by performing simple yum update command. While, it is not recommended to perform updates from other series of CentOS as it may seriously break the system.

CentOS Linux 6.9 is derived from source code released by Red Hat, Inc.for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.9. All upstream variants have been placedinto one combined repository to make it easier for end users.Workstation, server, and minimal installs can all be done from ourcombined repository. All of our testing is only done against thiscombined distribution.

There are many fundamental changes in this release, compared with thepast CentOS Linux 6 releases, and we highly recommend everyone study theupstream Release Notes as well as the upstream Technical Notes about thechanges and how they might impact your installation.

All updates since the upstream 6.9 release are also on the CentOSmirrors as zero day updates. When installing CentOS-6.9 (or any otherversion) from any of our media, you should always run 'yum update' afterthe install to apply these.

For more information see release announcement and release notes of CentOS 6.9.

CentOS Linux 7 (1611) released for x86_64 computers

Mr Karanbir Singh of CentOS project has announced release of CentOS Linux 7 (16.11) for x86_64 bit computers. This release of CentOS 7, tagged with the version number 1611 is derived from Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.3.

This release of CentOS includes all updates from upstream project till November 2016. Updates released on later stages are available in repositories and can be updated after installing the base release. This update process in highly recommended by the project as it includes some bug fixes. This can be done using yum update command.

As with all CentOS Linux 7 components, this release was built from sources hosted at git.centos.org. In addition, SRPMs that are a byproduct of the build (and also considered critical in the code and buildsys process) are being published to match every binary RPM we release. Sources will be available from vault.centos.org in their own dedicated directories to match the corresponding binary RPMs. Since there is far less traffic to the CentOS source RPMs compared with the binary RPMs, we are not putting this content on the main mirror network. If users wish to mirror this content they can do so using the reposync command available in the yum-utils package. All CentOS source RPMs are signed with the same key used to sign their binary counterparts. Developers and end users looking at inspecting and contributing patches to the CentOS Linux distro will find the code hosted at git.centos.org far simpler to work against.

For more details, see release announcement in CentOS announcement mailing list.

CentOS 6.8 released for i386 and x86_64 architectures

The CentOS team announced immediate availability of CentOS 6.8, latest stable update in CentOS 6.x series. CentOS is a community driven enterprise operating system developed from the sources of Red Hat Enterprise Linux(RHEL).

The CentOS project has placed all upstream varieties into a single repository and users can easily install workstation, server or minimal flavors from this unified repository.

There are many fundamental changes in this release, compared with the past CentOS Linux 6 releases, and we highly recommend everyone study the upstream Release Notes as well as the upstream Technical Notes about the changes and how they might impact your installation. (See the 'Further Reading' section if the CentOS release notes link above).  All updates since the upstream 6.8 release are also on the CentOS mirrors as zero day updates. When installing CentOS-6.8 (or any other version) from any of our media, you should always run 'yum update' after the install to apply these.

See more information in original release announcement  in CentOS announcement mailing list.

NethServer 7 alpha 3 comes centralized account management

The NethServer team has released NethServer 7 alpha 3, latest development release of CentOS based enterprise operating system designed for small and medium enterprises.

NethServer 7 alpha 3 brings two exciting features which are active directory integration and centralized account management(aka multi-site account management).

NethServer is now designed to leverage existing Active Directory infrastructure and simplify administrative and user control. Administrators can quickly and securely roll out policy decisions using their existing Active Directory. Users authenticate against a single directory, removing the need for multiple accounts, syncing passwords or duplicating information.

Account management module is included in the ISO, so after the installation the following scenarios are supported out of the box:

• connecting a remote NethServer running OpenLDAP,
• connecting a remote Active Directory Domain Controller (Samba or Windows).

For more information, see release announcement published by NethServer team.