CIS Hardened Image STIG on Amazon Linux 2

My main use case for Amazon Linux  is as load test injectors VMs. I use Amazon Linux  as a load test injector VM by spinning up a number of instances in AWS  using this or using auto-scaling. For our requirement, we required RHEL-based systems and servers, which is why we are using Amazon Linux.

For a load injector, we are using a number of servers, mainly 10 to 20 servers. If we were going for RHEL , it would require a 10-server subscription. However, we are using Amazon Linux, which is freeware and does not require any subscription. Additionally, it belongs to the RHEL  family and is easily integrated with all the AWS  services.

The best feature of Amazon Linux is that it can easily integrate with all the services in AWS. The easy integration with AWS services helps me in my day-to-day work because if we are choosing any RHEL or Ubuntu-based server in AWS, we are required to install a service manager on that server. However, if we are using Amazon Linux, it is not required to install that type of package on it.

Amazon Linux has impacted my organization positively because, as I mentioned, we are using it as a load injector, and for this, our client required an RHEL-based OS. If we are using RHEL machines or servers, it requires an RHEL subscription. However, for Amazon Linux, no subscription is required. It is freeware, so it is cost-effective for our organization.

I have not felt any lag or any performance issues on Amazon Linux, so it does not require any improvement from my perspective. I do not have anything I wish Amazon Linux would do differently or features I would like to see added in the future.

I have been using Amazon Linux for around five plus years.

Amazon Linux is stable.

Amazon Linux's scalability is good. I have used it in an auto-scaling group for some time, and it is more scalable and more flexible and reliable.

The customer support is awesome because it belongs to AWS, and AWS customer support is excellent.

I have not yet used a different solution.

I did not purchase Amazon Linux through the AWS Marketplace .

I have seen a return on investment because it saves money. As I mentioned, if we required RHEL servers, it needs some subscriptions. However, for using Amazon Linux, it is freeware, and it saves us a lot of money.

Before choosing Amazon Linux, I did not evaluate any other options.

I would add that it is freeware for RHEL machines and belongs to the RHEL family. I chose 8 out of 10 for my review rating because for the RHEL family, I am using Amazon Linux, but sometimes, if we are using OpenShift or something that requires an RHEL subscription, then we are required to have an RHEL subscription or RHEL OS. Apart from that, we can easily use Amazon Linux.

I would advise that if your company and if your client is required to have an RHEL-based OS on AWS, you must go for Amazon Linux because it easily integrates with all the services and belongs to AWS, and it is freeware for RHEL.

Private Cloud

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

I use Amazon Linux  in my day-to-day work as a performance test engineer to monitor performance-related issues. For my cloud environment, which is AWS , most of my servers are EC2  instances, so I identify CPU utilization, memory usage on EC2  instances, and services. I am using Performance Insight, AWS  CloudWatch, and RDS .

The best features Amazon Linux  offers in my experience are the security of all updates and its ease of use, particularly in terms of performance.

Amazon Linux has positively impacted my organization by reducing costs, improving reliability, and saving time by scanning all AWS services and basically integrating all the services.

I think Amazon Linux can be improved, but I have no specific suggestions.

I have been using Amazon Linux for four years.

Amazon Linux is stable.

The scalability of Amazon Linux is flexible, and I basically use it for multiple load balancers.

The customer support for Amazon Linux is good.

I did not previously use a different solution.

My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing is that the setup cost is freeware, which results in no cost setup, thereby saving money.

Before choosing Amazon Linux, I did not evaluate other options, as I am comfortable with my choice.

My advice to others looking into using Amazon Linux is that if you require a RHEL-based OS, you must use it. I gave this product a rating of 9.

Public Cloud

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

I have been using Amazon Linux  from my company for the last five years. We deploy Amazon Linux  to most of our cloud servers, such as Apache, Nginx, and sometimes Kubernetes  boxes. In a recent project, we used Terraform  to deploy Amazon Linux and then used it to deploy one MySQL  server. We explicitly deployed the MySQL  database using Amazon Linux and then used Terraform  to configure the deployment along with user data to perform post-implementation tasks, including installing packages, updating packages, and configuring user accounts. These are the general use cases we implemented.

Amazon Linux has impacted my organization very positively. Initially, we used to host on-premises servers, but now we have moved to Amazon Cloud and instead of using other distributions, we use Amazon Linux. It is very lightweight and provides all the packages needed, making it easy to customize and deploy.

Amazon Linux is a very lightweight operating system compared to others. We do not need a separate subscription to use Amazon Linux, and we have access to a good repository that provides many packages we can use in our day-to-day operations. Almost everything I need can be obtained from the packages when it comes to the lightweight nature of Amazon Linux. It uses very few resources from the operating system standpoint, and the remaining resources can technically be used for my applications.

These images are managed by Amazon, which helps us reduce the maintenance of the operating systems. Amazon Linux has good scalability. If we use different services from Amazon to provide scalable solutions, we can have multi-AZ setups or multi-region setups as well, which provides good scalability.

Customer support for Amazon Linux is really good. Whenever I need anything, I raise a support case and receive support on priority. I would rate the customer support for Amazon Linux on a scale of one to ten as nine.

Amazon Linux has almost everything, but there are some tools and libraries missing when we receive this operating system. If those tools and libraries could be installed with it, that would be much better.

I have been working in my current field for more than seven to eight years.

Amazon Linux is stable.

Amazon Linux has good scalability. If we use different services from Amazon to provide scalable solutions, we can have multi-AZ setups or multi-region setups as well, which provides good scalability.

Customer support for Amazon Linux is really good. Whenever I need anything, I raise a support case and receive support on priority.

I initially used different distributions like Ubuntu  and CentOS . However, these AMIs are well maintained and well supported, which is why I am using Amazon Linux now.

I purchased Amazon Linux from the Marketplace and had quite a good experience regarding pricing, setup cost, and licensing.

I directly went and tried Amazon Linux without evaluating other options.

I am not sure about the exact number because I am from the operations side, not from the financial side. However, when it comes to performance, Amazon Linux really helped my team and my organization to deploy instances much faster compared to other operating systems. I would say it helped me save on maintenance and some cost as well.

I purchased Amazon Linux from the Marketplace and had quite a good experience regarding pricing, setup cost, and licensing.

I directly went and tried Amazon Linux without evaluating other options.

I would rate the customer support for Amazon Linux on a scale of one to ten as nine. Because there are some improvements needed which I already mentioned, I think eight would be the right rating.

Amazon Linux has almost everything. The only part is that there are some tools and libraries missing when we receive this operating system. If those tools and libraries could be installed with it, that would be much better.

I use AWS  and Azure  as my cloud providers. This is a good operating system to use when it comes to public cloud because it is mainly used for the Amazon platform. It provides good scalability and good performance and also helps with cost-saving aspects. My overall rating for this review is eight.

Public Cloud

Amazon Web Services  (AWS)

My use case for Amazon Linux  includes web and application hosting, microservices, container, database management, and virtual desktop services.

I use Amazon Linux  as a lightweight base image for Docker  containers and power nodes for Amazon Elastic Kubernetes  Services and Amazon Elastic Container Services. For database management, I use PostgreSQL , MariaDB , and MySQL  for Jupyter Notebook and R services.

I use Amazon Linux for LQs with our IT data center. I deploy different flavors of Amazon Linux so that all applications can be deployed on that particular Amazon Linux environment. My team members use it for services use cases during the development and testing process.

I use MySQL  and MariaDB  services with Amazon Linux, which makes the workflow smoother for my testing and developer team.

I use Amazon Linux for testing, development, and staging environments. Different teams work in those particular fields. For the Java environment, the database environment, and the staging environment, my team is organized in a positive way.

Amazon Linux is freeware. The key benefits include integration, pre-installed tools for the AWS  System Manager, EC2  instance connection directly via PuTTY, and it is lightweight and scalable. There is no additional licensing cost for Amazon Linux, so my organization sees 20% to 40% better performance when migrating from a paid distribution such as RHEL . This enhances performance and contributes to cost-cutting.

It is very reliable for me and my organization, and the licensing is beneficial for us.

Amazon Linux provides both money and time savings.

It provides native AWS  integration, optimized performance, enhanced security, and is cost-effective. My advice to others is that Amazon Linux is the best way to develop business and solutions.

I believe there is no need to improve Amazon Linux. It is definitely working in a very progressive and highly scalable way.

I have been working with Amazon Linux for the last three years.

I would rate the stability as eight out of ten and ten out of ten.

Amazon Linux has long-time support provided. For security, Amazon Linux is most scalable.

I will provide a rating of eight for Amazon Linux.

I am using a long-term support version of Amazon Linux, so there is no need for any other features.

Amazon Linux provides different types of services that can be installed for DevOps automation, high-performance computing, virtual desktops, database management, microservices, containerization, and web services hosting. For all of these capabilities, I have provided a rating of eight out of ten. My overall review rating for Amazon Linux is eight out of ten.

Public Cloud

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Amazon Linux  has been our go-to distribution for about two years in our organization for hosting our web application and managing our EC2  instances.

Day-to-day, we primarily use Amazon Linux  for our application deployments. We mainly use Amazon Linux to manage our Nginx web servers and handle our routine security patching via the DNF package manager. We spend considerable time writing Bash scripts to automate log rotation and monitor resource utilization, ensuring our EC2  instances stay within performance thresholds.

Amazon Linux helps tremendously in this scenario. The routine tasks we perform really stand out because of its tight integration with AWS  services such as SSM and IAM , which makes managing permissions and remote access much smoother than on standard distributions such as Ubuntu . I have found that the kernel is specifically tuned for EC2, leading to faster boot times and better resource efficiency during automated deployments.

I would highlight the ease of automatic patching through the curated repositories, which ensures our instances stay compliant with minimal manual intervention.

The best features that Amazon Linux offers are, first, its Security-First design, which is a standout feature, as it comes with a minimal package set that significantly reduces our attack surface from the start. I also really value the version locking and predictable release cycles in AL2023, which gives us the stability we need for long-term production support.

The Security-First design helps us maintain confidence that our instances are not easily compromised because of its security-first approach. The minimal package set significantly reduces our maintenance overhead. During a recent vulnerability scan, we had nearly 40% fewer findings compared to our previous standard images. Regarding version locking, it was invaluable during a major scaling event where we needed to ensure every new instance was bit-for-bit identical, preventing a mid-rollout update from breaking our custom monitoring agents.

We have significantly improved our operational efficiencies by reducing the instance boot time. This directly impacts our organization's efficiency, making our auto-scaling much more responsive during traffic spikes. This streamlined our deployments and helped us maintain high availability with lower compute overhead.

Any technology can be improved. One minor frustration has been the lack of EPEL support, which forced us to manually compile a few niche packages that were previously easy to install. I would also like to see more streamlined documentation for migrating legacy scripts that rely on deprecated packages from older versions. Other than those transition hurdles, the performance gains have mostly outweighed the initial setup frictions.

I would like more comprehensive recipes in the documentation for hardening the operating system according to specific compliance standards such as CIS or FedRAMP. On the package side, a more centralized way to request or track the addition of popular community packages would bridge the gap left by the lack of EPEL.

Amazon Linux is quite stable. It is extremely stable and deeply integrated with the rest of the AWS  ecosystem, and its boot times are quite good.

Compared to other Linux distributions, Amazon Linux is significantly more stable for AWS workloads because it is pre-optimized for EC2 hypervisor and includes integrated AWS tools out of the box, compared to general-purpose distributions such as Ubuntu .

Amazon Linux is absolutely highly scalable. Since it is stable and efficient, we do not have any problems regarding scalability. Whenever there are traffic spikes, Amazon Linux handles it quite well.

The customer support is excellent. We do not have any specific problems that we have had to reach out to customer support for. The support is good.

We previously were using other images of Linux distributions, such as Ubuntu. In our findings, we found that Amazon Linux images or instances boot up quite well and fast. That is why we decided to switch over to Amazon Linux.

Regarding the setup, pricing, and licensing cost, I would say it is quite easy and streamlined to manage because we only have to select the Amazon Linux base image while deploying our machine or creating an EC2 instance. Clear pricing is mentioned for whatever duration we are using the machine, and the setup cost and licensing information are properly mentioned on the AWS page while we are initiating our EC2 instance. The experience is good with respect to this regard.

We are a partner. We are not a reseller; we simply have a customer relationship with AWS, so we do not have any business relationship with the vendor beyond being a customer.

We have surely seen a return on investment. As mentioned, money saved is the number one metric that we have encountered. We have reduced our boot time and saved approximately $2,000 on a month-to-month basis.

Regarding the setup, pricing, and licensing cost, I would say it is quite easy and streamlined to manage because we only have to select the Amazon Linux base image while deploying our machine or creating an EC2 instance. Clear pricing is mentioned for whatever duration we are using the machine, and the setup cost and licensing information are properly mentioned on the AWS page while we are initiating our EC2 instance. The experience is good with respect to this regard.

We were considering using some other Windows images, but based on Amazon Linux documentation, we determined we should go with Amazon Linux compared to Windows distributions because we thought this would be much better, and that is why we selected it.

Amazon Linux is quite customizable and highly flexible, especially when using cloud-init for automated, repeatable configuration during boot. For specialized workloads, I leverage Amazon Linux Extras library or specific repositories to pull in optimized runtimes such as Docker  or Python without bloating the base image.

The documentation and community support are top-notch. It is deeply integrated with the rest of the AWS ecosystem, making it easy to find specific configuration steps for services such as IAM  or EC2.

It handles security and compliance requirements quite well, as the documentation is excellent. The security of Amazon Linux is also excellent, so we do not have to worry about that. The compliance for Amazon Linux is top-notch for our organization.

I would recommend using Amazon Linux without hesitation. In my experience, the customer support is quite reliable. Amazon Linux is quite stable, the documentation is great, and it is tightly integrated with the AWS service, so most of the support comes through the AWS support channel rather than a separate Linux support channel. I would recommend others who are going to use it feel confident using Amazon Linux without hesitation. The overall rating for this product is 9 out of 10.

Public Cloud

Amazon Web Services (AWS)