Amazon Web Services (AWS) has become the predominant public cloud provider, with its versatile infrastructure allowing organizations to run all types of workloads at scale. To optimize these cloud-based operations, AWS created Amazon Linux, an operating system derived from Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) and fine-tuned for the AWS environment.
In December 2017, AWS announced Amazon Linux 2, the next generation of their Linux OS. Like its predecessor, Amazon Linux 2 focuses on easy integration with AWS alongside a slew of under-the-hood performance enhancements.
Let‘s take a closer look at what makes Amazon Linux 2 tick and what it means for cloud-focused IT teams.
Amazon Linux 2 Benefits and Features
Amazon Linux 2 comes packed with capabilities to simplify deploying Linux workloads on AWS:
Five Years of Long-Term Support
Amazon commits to providing five years of long-term support for Amazon Linux 2 until June 30, 2023. This support applies to core components like the kernel, systemd, Python runtimes, and cryptographic modules.
Teams can run production workloads with the assurance that security updates and bug fixes will continue flowing from AWS over this multi-year span. The extended timeline eases management overhead compared to other enterprise Linux distributions.
Tight Integration with AWS Services
As a Linux distribution tailored specifically for AWS infrastructure, Amazon Linux 2 offers out-of-the-box integration with services like:
- EC2 – Optimization for performance, boot times, and ongoing instance management
- EBS – Advanced integration with elastic block storage volumes
- S3 – Preconfigured support for accessing S3 buckets
- CloudWatch – Logs and metrics visible in CloudWatch console
- CloudFormation – Streamlined infrastructure-as-code deployments
Engineers can build cloud-native applications leveraging these services without the hassle of manually integrating AWS tooling. Amazon Linux 2 handles that work behind the scenes.
Bleeding-Edge Packages Through Extras Catalog
Although Amazon Linux 2 centers on stability for production systems, the operating system also provides simple access to newer software versions.
The Extras catalog contains updated packages for hundreds of popular technologies, including:
- Languages – Go, Ruby, Rust, PHP
- Databases – PostgreSQL, MySQL, Redis
- Web Servers – Nginx, Apache
- Container Runtimes – Docker Engine, containerd
A single install command adds packages from the Extras repository. For example:
sudo amazon-linux-extras install nginx1This allows teams to pin core OS packages for long-term support while still utilizing cutting-edge releases of other software critical for cloud workloads.
Performance Optimization for EC2
Amazon Linux 2 tuning goes beyond just cloud integration – it also focuses intently on maximize performance on Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) instances.
Specific EC2 improvements include:
- Specialized EC2 kernel – Features PARAVIRT optimizations and AWS device drivers for Enhanced Networking. Improves boot speed, I/O throughput, and ongoing instance usage.
- Compiler flags – GCC and development toolchains utilize flags to generate extremely efficient machine code for the EC2 infrastructure.
- Workload-aware tuning – Custom Sysctl parameters, disk scheduler settings, and other OS-level tuning based on typical EC2 usage patterns.
Together these enhancements allow Amazon Linux 2 to reach peak efficiency running on AWS compute resources. Workloads experience lower latency, faster networking, and reduced CPU overhead thanks to Amazon‘s EC2-tailored configuration.
Transitioning to Systemd Init System
A major change in Amazon Linux 2 is the switch from SysVinit to systemd for core system initialization and service management.
For background – Linux distributions require an init system to bootstrap user space when the kernel first loads. Init handles starting essential daemon processes like udev, crond, and networking in the proper order.
Why SysVinit Reached Its Limits
The previous Amazon Linux utilized SysVinit, a simple and venerable init system that has been around since early Linux days.
However, as modern infrastructure became more complex with many interdependent services, SysVinit began to show its age. Its limitations included:
- Serial startup – SysVinit must wait for each daemon to fully load before starting the next, slowing boot times.
- Basic dependencies – Configuring start order is manual and messy for large-scale cloud native apps.
- No process tracking – SysVinit only starts processes, it cannot monitor or manage them afterwards.
Over time as teams build more cloud services, these constraints turn into serious operational headaches.
Systemd Solves Modern Init Problems
The systemd init process addresses the shortcomings of legacy init systems like SysVinit with capabilities like:
- Parallel startup – Rapidly launches services in parallel to reduce boot wait.
- Dependency management – Declare fine-grained dependencies between daemons and system state.
- Process monitoring – Track service status, resource usage, runtime logs, and other metrics.
- Transactional actions – Apply changes as a single unit to maintain system consistency.
For cloud workloads running many interconnected microservices, systemd makes administration fundamentally easier. Engineers can model dependencies between database, cache, messaging, and other components without wrestling against init system limitations.
Amazon Linux 2 utilizes systemd and its modern features as a base layer to build reliable, scalable systems on AWS.
Bolstering Cloud Security
Given constant emerging threats against production infrastructure, Amazon Linux 2 implements multiple complementary security enhancements.
Least Privilege Packages
By default, Amazon Linux 2 minimizes unnecessary packages installed on the OS. This reduces the "attack surface area" malicious actors can exploit by restricting what‘s present on the underlying system.
Package selection errs on the side of too little vs too much, and admins can then incrementally add additional packages as required.
Centralized Vulnerability Patching
Amazon manages patching the operating system and pushes out continuous security fixes to Amazon Linux 2 users. Updates arrive through:
- Yum repositories – Package repos deliver patches for new issues.
- Updated AMIs – New OS images incorporate layers of fixes.
- Docker images – Containers receive new immutable image versions.
Rather than leaving patching as a manual admin chore, Amazon Linux 2 handles it automatically across deployment patterns.
The Amazon Linux Security Center provides transparency into latest vulnerabilities and remediations as well. Customers can subscribe to notification options like RSS feeds for new relevant CVEs.
Marketplace Integrations
To further lock down critical systems, Amazon Linux 2 allows integrating additional security solutions from the AWS Marketplace like:
- Endpoint protection – Trend Micro, Sophos, Symantec
- Network security groups – Palo Alto Networks, Fortinet
- Identity and access – Okta, Ping Identity
- WAF/API protection – Imperva, Akamai
Hundreds of security vendors make their products available on Marketplace with pay-as-you-go pricing. Amazon Linux 2 instances and containers connect seamlessly with solutions running elsewhere in clients‘ cloud environments.
Amazon Linux 2 Usage Scenarios
Given its purpose-built nature for the AWS ecosystem, what are some typical use cases where Amazon Linux 2 excels?
EC2 Workloads
The cloud vendor tunes Amazon Linux 2 specifically to deliver optimal performance on Elastic Compute Cloud. For Linux VMs running production or development apps on EC2, Amazon Linux 2 should be a go-to choice.
The operating system provisions quickly, integrates natively with other AWS services, and continues receiving patches and updates automatically from Amazon over its 5-year lifespan.
Local Development and Testing
Interestingly, Amazon Linux 2‘s capabilities aren‘t restricted just to the public cloud. AWS offers free downloads of Amazon Linux 2 for on-premises usage under VMware, Hyper-V, and VirtualBox.
Teams can spin up identical environments locally as what runs in the cloud for debugging, CI/CD, staging, and other tasks. The local VMs provide full access to Amazon Linux 2 configuration for modeling production application deployments.
Container Deployments
As a slim and efficient operating system, Amazon Linux 2 also shines for containerized workloads. The OS comprises the base layer for Amazon ECS-optimized AMI images in widespread use.
These container-focused AMIs couple Amazon Linux 2 with:
- Docker Engine or containerd runtime
- ECS agent for cluster integration
- Application containers like Nginx, HAProxy
The result is a purpose-built container host ready for deployment on ECS infrastructure. Teams can instantly launch containerized services without the DEVOPS overhead of custom OS configuration.
How Amazon Linux 2 Compares to RHEL
Given Amazon Linux 2 traces its origins to Red Hat Enterprise Linux, where does it differ from its upstream OS counterpart?
A few areas to contrast include:
Tailored for AWS Services
As a cloud-focused distribution, Amazon Linux 2 far exceeds RHEL in terms of AWS service integration mentioned earlier. Teams must perform considerable manual work getting RHEL instances to interoperate with Amazon infrastructure.
Extras Software Catalog
Access to faster updating additional packages allows Amazon Linux 2 users to augment the long-term stable base with more cutting-edge components. RHEL administrators typically wait much longer for equivalent versions through official channels.
EC2 Performance Optimization
The deep performance tuning does not exist in RHEL, leaving unused optimization potential. Amazon Linux 2s squeezes maximum efficiency out of running on EC2 infrastructure.
Amazon-Provided Support
Both Amazon Linux 2 and RHEL offer paid enterprise tiers of customer support. However, RHEL support extends to local on-premises servers while Amazon only covers AWS cloud deployments with its paid plans.
So in summary – Amazon Linux 2 trades generality for specialization. The version tailored for AWS provides a streamlined experience managing cloud workloads with intelligent integration devops teams would otherwise need to build themselves.
Conclusion
Amazon Linux 2 gives software teams the ideal foundation for cloud-native applications on AWS. It couples the familiarity of RHEL with auto-configuration for Amazon infrastructure services critical to modern delivery.
Long-term OS stability, bleeding-edge language packages, elastic storage integration, and container readiness grant engineers flexibility in deployment patterns. Rigorous performance optimization saves money by reducing EC2 resource overhead. And ecosystem partners ensure add-on security hardens production systems against attack.
For organizations standardizing on AWS, Amazon Linux 2 checks all the boxes as a strategic, cost-efficient Linux OS choice. The operating system simplifies cloud migrations, aligns with DevOps practices, and sets up teams for success launching resilient cloud-based products.
