[rhelv6-list] Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.3 Beta Now Available

[Engineering Partner Management]

We are pleased to announce the beta availability of Red Hat Enterprise
Linux 7.3, the latest version of the world’s leading enterprise Linux
platform.  While continuing to provide the stability, reliability, and
security required to meet the demands of both modern datacenters and
next-generation IT environments - Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.3 Beta
also includes a number of new features and enhancements.  A focus on
performance, security, and reliability - as well as additional support
for container-based applications and Internet-of-Things (IoT)
deployments - enables Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.3 Beta to provide
enterprises with a secure, stable platform for continued innovation.

Performance
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.3 Beta provides a number of performance
enhancements, tweaks and new features - including:
 * Improved datapath efficiency, scalability, flexibility, and
security features thanks to the inclusion of lightweight tunnels.
 * Improved performance for both 40 and 100 Gb networking interfaces
thanks to an enhanced bulk packet memory allocator.
 * Direct access to low-latency, high performance storage with support
for Non-Volatile Dual In-line Memory Modules (NVDIMMs), which can be
mounted as persistent memory block devices with either XFS or ext4
file systems.

Platform Security
As providing a safer and more secure platform for mission-critical
deployments remains a key concept for the world’s leading enterprise
Linux platform - Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.3 Beta introduces:
 * Support for smart card authentication with Active Directory,
enabling users to authenticate with smart cards directly against an
Active Directory server.
 * Support for the OpenSCAP workbench - allowing for the modification
of SCAP policies via a graphical tool, which can then be verified and
applied using OpenSCAP to enforce compliance and policies on a given
system.
 * The addition of Media Access Control Security (MACSec) v2 -
enabling encryption between Red Hat Enterprise Linux servers and
virtual machines.

Reliability
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.3 Beta provides several new reliability and
redundancy features, highlighted by:
 * Full support for the High Availability Add-On on IBM z Systems.
 * The ability to use pacemaker when creating and maintaining
multi-site clusters across geo-locations.
 * The capability for users to dynamically configure RAID devices via
RAID Takeover, making it easier to transform simple volumes into a
highly protected software-defined RAID configuration by adding more
disks to a given system.

Linux Containers
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.3 Beta aims to streamline the lifecycle of
containerized and cloud-native applications, from development to
deployment with new and enhanced container-centric features,
including:
 * The first container signing implementation that is capable of
associating multiple signatures per image layer via a Technology
Preview of the Atomic CLI, which can be used to sign and verify
container signatures. This enables customers to verify the provenance
of both their containers and the layers comprising each container.
 * The availability of both the Identity Management (IdM) client and
server services as container images via the Red Hat Container
Registry.

Internet of Things
As a powerful platform upon which to run enterprise-scale IoT
implementations, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.3 Beta introduces two key
features to help power these deployments:
 * Support for connections to low-cost integrated devices via
Bluetooth LE (Low Energy), an extension of the Bluetooth standard
designed for low power devices like IoT sensors.
 * The ability for customers to embed Red Hat Enterprise Linux into
high-end industrial controllers via support for the controller area
network (CAN) bus.

To review a full list of new features and capabilities as included
with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.3 Beta, please visit:
https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-US/Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux/

RED HAT ENTERPRISE LINUX 7.3 BETA AVAILABILITY
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.3 Beta is now available in the Red Hat
Customer Portal to all customers with an active Red Hat Enterprise
Linux subscription. To access and download Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7.3 Beta, please visit: https://access.redhat.com/downloads/

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
To access documentation for Red Hat Enterprise Linux, visit:
https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-US/Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux/

Sincerely,
The Red Hat Enterprise Linux Team