Data Center Automation: orcharhino installation for Enterprise Linux 8

Today, ATIX is introducing orcharhino version 6.2. The release includes many new features and stability improvements.

orcharhino can be installed on AlmaLinux 8, Oracle Linux 8, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8, or Rocky Linux 8. orcharhino now includes kickstart files to provision systems for the orcharhino server. For a complete list of kickstart files, see Kickstart Requirements in Installing orcharhino Server. The tool is also available as an Open Virtual Appliance image, so you can run orcharhino Server on AlmaLinux 8. With orcharhino 6.2, users can install orcharhino on EL7 or EL8. It is possible to upgrade from orcharhino 6.1 to 6.2 without changing the EL version and distribution. One of the next releases will include the possibility to migrate from EL7 to EL8.

The new release contains an Ansible playbook for the Application-Centric Deployment plug-in to provision Kubernetes clusters. You can download the Ansible Playbook from the following link: github.com/ATIX-AG/acd_playbook_for_kubernetes. For more information, see Application-Centric Deployment.

orcharhino 6.2 now offers the KernelCare plug-in from TuxCare as a tech preview. It improves the use of KernelCare on systems that are managed by orcharhino and that are run with AlmaLinux, CentOS, Oracle Linux, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, or Rocky Linux. To use KernelCare, you need a subscription from Home. The documentation for the KernelCare plug-in can be found in the orcharhino documentation under Live-Patching Hosts Using KernelCare.

The new version of orcharhino includes a landing page to the orcharhino documentation, which is independent of the operating system. By clicking Documentation on any page in the orcharhino user interface, you can select the desired operating system and are directed to the appropriate guide. This is especially useful for pages like Hosts > Installation Media.

orcharhino is used to automate on-premises and cloud-based IT environments and is based on the open-source software Foreman. It can be used to automatically deploy and configure systems and continuously provide them with software, including security updates. orcharhino supports AlmaLinux, Amazon Linux, CentOS, Debian, Oracle Linux, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Rocky Linux, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, and Ubuntu. ATIX Informationstechnologie und Consulting AG is based in Garching near Munich.