5 ms·

Introducing Amazon Linux 2

71 points by hgontijo 9y ago

sd6594 9y ago
systemd support is a quite big news, I guess they're now based on Centos 7.
- dod9er 9y ago
  Someone already pointed out the differences? What kind of optimisations are done to qualify a new spinoff?
- microcolonel 9y ago
  > I guess they're now based on Centos 7 If the quoted package versions are anything to go by, that is not the case.
  - jlgaddis 9y ago
    Is Amazon's "Extras" something different than RHEL/CentOS's "Software Collections"? At first glance, they appear to be basically the same thing to me.
scrollaway 9y ago
Is this going to trickle down to Lambda? If so what's the implication there, anything interesting?
jnsaff2 9y ago
Q. How is Amazon Linux 2 different from its predecessors? There are four major differences Amazon Linux 2 has from its predecessors: Amazon Linux 2 will offer long-term support. It is available as a VM image for on-premises development and testing. It includes systemd service and systems manager as opposed to System V init system and also includes new version of compiler and build tools. It provides the ability to install additional software packages through Extras mechanism without impacting the underlying LTS stability of the operating system. https://aws.amazon.com/amazon-linux-2/faqs/ https://aws.amazon.com/amazon-linux-2/faqs/
- unwind 9y ago
  Meta: Please don't indent to block quote. It is for code, and due to HN's design makes it unreadable on mobile.
  - reustle 9y ago
    Yeah, unfortunately see it done often too. Here's the text: --- > Amazon Linux 2 will offer long-term support. > It is available as a VM image for on-premises development and testing. > It includes systemd service and systems manager as opposed to System V init system and also includes new version of compiler and build tools. > It provides the ability to install additional software packages through Extras mechanism without impacting the underlying LTS stability of the operating system.
rambojazz 9y ago
What about the licensing terms of this OS, and the eventual blobs that can possibly come with it?
make3 9y ago
as an AWS noob, why would anyone use this over Centos or Ubuntu?
- dagw 9y ago
  In theory, since the kernel is specifically tuned towards running on EC2 virtual machines (by the people who know EC2 virtual machines better than anyone) as opposed to 'generic' hardware, performance might be slightly better. Also, and for many more importantly, it's probably easier to get support from Amazon if you're using their official Linux as opposed to a third party distribution.
  - slgeorge 9y ago
    Your first point is not true compared to Ubuntu at least [0]. AWS is basically are repackaged version of KVM (the last time I checked), so there's no particular advantage. Ubuntu (and I'm sure Centos/RHEL) provide custom images which have the same optimised code. [0] I'm pretty sure it's true for CentOS / RHEL, I just don't know for a fact.
    - geofft 9y ago
      AWS is mostly Xen (they just introduced a KVM option https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/aws/now-available-compute-intensive-c5-instances-for-amazon-ec2/ https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/aws/now-available-compute-inten... ), and there are a few things like "enhanced networking" where you get a performance boost if you're on a kernel with support but it's still functional if you're on any other kernel.
  - lscotte 9y ago
    Ubuntu has kernels specifically tuned for different cloud providers in LTS releases. For AWS, it's the linux-aws package.
- jon-wood 9y ago
  If you're running on AWS it's really nice to have everything preconfigured for things like logging to Cloudwatch, and not having to mess around with kernel optimisations.
Hackosaurus 9y ago
We are using Amazon Linux in my company, because it is part of the RPM based distributions that are "security approved" (we needed a recent officially built kernel). I always felt it was a weird monster, that works really well for containers, or applications that don't rely on lots of system libraries. You could quickly end up pulling some packages from both EPEL 6 and 7 (if you want clang for example) I hope we can use the entire EPEL7 with this new version.
mvanbaak 9y ago
"It includes systemd service and systems manager as opposed to System V init system" I'm off to rewrite/test/fix all ansible and puppet modules so they support FreeBSD. I had hoped AWS was smart enough to stay sober, but no. Too bad, I liked AWS Linux.
- lykr0n 9y ago
  I don't know about you, but I like how systemd can restart my processes if they die. sysvinit is ancient; time to move on.
  - cheald 9y ago
    I've been managing all my application daemons with supervisord across systems for this reason - it's agnostic as to the underlying init system, can restart crashed daemons, and provides the same kind of "service up/down" functionality as sysv or systemd. Systemd can do quite a lot, but if you have to do any kind of orchestration across nonhomogenous machines, you can't necessarily count on it being in play.
    - geofft 9y ago
      The nice thing about systemd is that it works the same across various Linux distros (unlike even sysvinit!). So I've been solving this problem by pushing everyone to upgrade to a version that supports systemd. :-) I would really like to see something UI-compatible with systemd that works on non-Linux, though.
      - throwawaymanbot 9y ago
        I swear the similarity of phrasing with SystemD lovers makes me think theres more to systemd love than just "its not sysvinit"
  - lscotte 9y ago
    Systemd is a huge improvement for sure. There's some effort involved in understanding new things, and this is one which has ultimately made our lives much easier. I say this as someone who maintains the OS for a large AWS deployment and has made the effort the understand it rather than run away in irrational fear.

71 points by hgontijo 9y ago

sd6594 9y ago

systemd support is a quite big news, I guess they're now based on Centos 7.

dod9er 9y ago
Someone already pointed out the differences? What kind of optimisations are done to qualify a new spinoff?
microcolonel 9y ago
> I guess they're now based on Centos 7 If the quoted package versions are anything to go by, that is not the case.
- jlgaddis 9y ago
  Is Amazon's "Extras" something different than RHEL/CentOS's "Software Collections"? At first glance, they appear to be basically the same thing to me.

scrollaway 9y ago

Is this going to trickle down to Lambda? If so what's the implication there, anything interesting?

jnsaff2 9y ago

Q. How is Amazon Linux 2 different from its predecessors? There are four major differences Amazon Linux 2 has from its predecessors: Amazon Linux 2 will offer long-term support. It is available as a VM image for on-premises development and testing. It includes systemd service and systems manager as opposed to System V init system and also includes new version of compiler and build tools. It provides the ability to install additional software packages through Extras mechanism without impacting the underlying LTS stability of the operating system. https://aws.amazon.com/amazon-linux-2/faqs/ https://aws.amazon.com/amazon-linux-2/faqs/

unwind 9y ago
Meta: Please don't indent to block quote. It is for code, and due to HN's design makes it unreadable on mobile.
- reustle 9y ago
  Yeah, unfortunately see it done often too. Here's the text: --- > Amazon Linux 2 will offer long-term support. > It is available as a VM image for on-premises development and testing. > It includes systemd service and systems manager as opposed to System V init system and also includes new version of compiler and build tools. > It provides the ability to install additional software packages through Extras mechanism without impacting the underlying LTS stability of the operating system.

rambojazz 9y ago

What about the licensing terms of this OS, and the eventual blobs that can possibly come with it?

make3 9y ago

as an AWS noob, why would anyone use this over Centos or Ubuntu?

dagw 9y ago
In theory, since the kernel is specifically tuned towards running on EC2 virtual machines (by the people who know EC2 virtual machines better than anyone) as opposed to 'generic' hardware, performance might be slightly better. Also, and for many more importantly, it's probably easier to get support from Amazon if you're using their official Linux as opposed to a third party distribution.
- slgeorge 9y ago
  Your first point is not true compared to Ubuntu at least [0]. AWS is basically are repackaged version of KVM (the last time I checked), so there's no particular advantage. Ubuntu (and I'm sure Centos/RHEL) provide custom images which have the same optimised code. [0] I'm pretty sure it's true for CentOS / RHEL, I just don't know for a fact.
  - geofft 9y ago
    AWS is mostly Xen (they just introduced a KVM option https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/aws/now-available-compute-intensive-c5-instances-for-amazon-ec2/ https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/aws/now-available-compute-inten... ), and there are a few things like "enhanced networking" where you get a performance boost if you're on a kernel with support but it's still functional if you're on any other kernel.
- lscotte 9y ago
  Ubuntu has kernels specifically tuned for different cloud providers in LTS releases. For AWS, it's the linux-aws package.
jon-wood 9y ago
If you're running on AWS it's really nice to have everything preconfigured for things like logging to Cloudwatch, and not having to mess around with kernel optimisations.

Hackosaurus 9y ago

We are using Amazon Linux in my company, because it is part of the RPM based distributions that are "security approved" (we needed a recent officially built kernel). I always felt it was a weird monster, that works really well for containers, or applications that don't rely on lots of system libraries. You could quickly end up pulling some packages from both EPEL 6 and 7 (if you want clang for example) I hope we can use the entire EPEL7 with this new version.

mvanbaak 9y ago

"It includes systemd service and systems manager as opposed to System V init system" I'm off to rewrite/test/fix all ansible and puppet modules so they support FreeBSD. I had hoped AWS was smart enough to stay sober, but no. Too bad, I liked AWS Linux.

lykr0n 9y ago
I don't know about you, but I like how systemd can restart my processes if they die. sysvinit is ancient; time to move on.
- cheald 9y ago
  I've been managing all my application daemons with supervisord across systems for this reason - it's agnostic as to the underlying init system, can restart crashed daemons, and provides the same kind of "service up/down" functionality as sysv or systemd. Systemd can do quite a lot, but if you have to do any kind of orchestration across nonhomogenous machines, you can't necessarily count on it being in play.
  - geofft 9y ago
    The nice thing about systemd is that it works the same across various Linux distros (unlike even sysvinit!). So I've been solving this problem by pushing everyone to upgrade to a version that supports systemd. :-) I would really like to see something UI-compatible with systemd that works on non-Linux, though.
    - throwawaymanbot 9y ago
      I swear the similarity of phrasing with SystemD lovers makes me think theres more to systemd love than just "its not sysvinit"
- lscotte 9y ago
  Systemd is a huge improvement for sure. There's some effort involved in understanding new things, and this is one which has ultimately made our lives much easier. I say this as someone who maintains the OS for a large AWS deployment and has made the effort the understand it rather than run away in irrational fear.