How it works

Purchase and maintain the correct subscriptions for your Red Hat environment

Red Hat® subscriptions have no client access licenses. No support incident limits. No unbudgeted upgrade costs. No hidden charges. Instead, your subscription gives you Red Hat's enterprise open source solutions and everything you need to use it effectively.

How does Red Hat charge for subscriptions?

Red Hat products are provided on a per-instance or per-installation subscription basis, which gives you access to all subscription benefits during your subscription term. These benefits include access to Red Hat's:

  • Software
  • Updates
  • Upgrades
  • Technical support
  • Security fixes
  • Open Source Assurance program
  • Proven, enterprise-ready solutions

What Red Hat subscriptions am I required to maintain?

Red Hat subscriptions provide continuous value through the product's tested reliability, availability of software maintenance and technical support, certifications, and Open Source Assurance.

Some resources may require more of these benefits, some less, so Red Hat simply measures the full value of your subscriptions by counting the number of instances or installations of Red Hat software you use. This means that while you have subscriptions for a Red Hat product, you must maintain a subscription for every instance or installation of Red Hat software being used in your environment.

How is JBoss Enterprise Middleware subscription sizing determined?

Subscriptions to JBoss® Enterprise Middleware products are provided in a virtualization-friendly model, consumed in increments of 16, 64, or both processor core bands, and backed by a choice of enterprise service levels that support any type of mission-critical deployment.

Some key features of the JBoss consumption model:

  • Processor cores can be virtual or physical, making them ideal for the growing trend toward virtualizing middleware workloads.
  • As a customer, you're free to choose the types of processor cores that make sense for your environment. Different types of processor cores are treated the same.
  • Technical support covers issues across the entire application lifecycle, from development to deployment management, across any supported environment.
  • A subscription for any individual JBoss product includes development use for all products in the JBoss Enterprise Middleware portfolio.
  • Learn more about sizing your JBoss Enterprise Middleware environment [PDF]

Terms and conditions of your Red Hat subscription

Who can provide me with Red Hat software?

Only Red Hat and its authorized business partners can give you access to Red Hat's tested and certified enterprise software. This access is provided via subscriptions available either directly from Red Hat or from an authorized Red Hat business partner.

What are my options for obtaining Red Hat subscription benefits?

You can purchase a Red Hat subscription and receive its full benefits (including access to software) directly from Red Hat or from an authorized Red Hat business partner.

Red Hat also works with thousands of system integrator (SI), independent software vendor (ISV), and independent hardware vendor (IHV) partners to build, optimize, sell, and deliver complete solutions to our customers. Some of these partners, including authorized original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), are also authorized to provide frontline support.

These partners and their customers can rely on their relationship with Red Hat to take advantage of the latest Red Hat technology and the expertise of the industry's leading open source provider.

What happens at the end of my subscription?

To continue to receive the benefits of your Red Hat subscriptions, you renew them so that all instances and installations of Red Hat software maintain an active subscription.

If you choose to let all your subscriptions expire and have no other active subscriptions in your organization, you retain the right to use the software, but your entire environment will no longer receive any of the subscription benefits, including: