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    Rocky Linux 9 (Official) - x86_64

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    Sold by: Rocky Linux 
    Deployed on AWS
    AWS Free Tier
    The official Rocky Linux 9 image
    4.4

    Overview

    Rocky Linux is a free, open, community enterprise operating system designed to be 100% bug-for-bug compatible with the top upstream enterprise Linux distribution. Built by the community, for the community. With fully open and transparent development, there's plenty of opportunity for anyone to contribute. From documentation, translations, testing, and release engineering to web development, infrastructure, and security, you can be a part of Rocky Linux no matter what your background. Join our Mattermost at https://chat.rockylinux.org  and our forums at https://forums.rockylinux.org  and get involved today! Bugs can be reported at https://bugs.rockylinux.org .

    Highlights

    • Configured with cloud-init for your convenience. Login as "rocky"
    • The next free, open, community enterprise operating system built by the community, for the community
    • With development completely open source and welcoming to all, come join us build, test, and further the Rocky Linux development at https://rockylinux.org

    Details

    Delivery method

    Delivery option
    64-bit (x86) Amazon Machine Image (AMI)

    Latest version

    Operating system
    OtherLinux 9.8.20260525

    Deployed on AWS
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    Pricing

    Rocky Linux 9 (Official) - x86_64

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    This product is available free of charge. Free subscriptions have no end date and may be canceled any time.
    Additional AWS infrastructure costs may apply. Use the AWS Pricing Calculator  to estimate your infrastructure costs.

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    Dimensions summary

    The software itself is free, so you pay only the hourly rate for the AWS EC2 instance you run it on. Each dimension maps to a specific EC2 instance type, billed per hour. Pricing scales with the compute you choose: smaller instances like large sizes cost less per hour, while metal and multi-xlarge instances cost more. This lets you match spending to your workload. General-purpose, compute-optimized, memory-optimized, storage, and accelerated instance families are all represented. You select the instance that fits your performance needs and pay for hours used, with no upfront commitment for the operating system.

    Top-of-mind questions for buyers

    You pay the hourly software rate for each running EC2 instance type you launch. The Rocky Linux operating system carries no license fee. The hourly charge you see reflects the instance you selected, and separate AWS compute and storage fees also apply to your account.
    Hourly charges apply only while an instance runs. A fully stopped instance stops accruing hourly rates. Stopped instances may still incur underlying AWS storage fees for attached volumes, but the operating system meters running hours only, with no upfront commitment.
    Each dimension maps to one EC2 instance type, billed per hour. The rate tracks the compute the instance provides. Larger sizes and bare-metal instances carry higher hourly rates than smaller sizes. You match the instance to your workload and pay for hours used.
    rockylinux.org
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    Usage information

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    Delivery details

    64-bit (x86) Amazon Machine Image (AMI)

    Amazon Machine Image (AMI)

    An AMI is a virtual image that provides the information required to launch an instance. Amazon EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud) instances are virtual servers on which you can run your applications and workloads, offering varying combinations of CPU, memory, storage, and networking resources. You can launch as many instances from as many different AMIs as you need.

    Additional details

    Usage instructions

    The account 'rocky' has been preconfigured and made available with sudo permissions. SSH as this user to your instance, authenticating with the key you provided upon instance creation.

    Resources

    Support

    AWS infrastructure support

    AWS Support is a one-on-one, fast-response support channel that is staffed 24x7x365 with experienced and technical support engineers. The service helps customers of all sizes and technical abilities to successfully utilize the products and features provided by Amazon Web Services.

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    Customer reviews

    Ratings and reviews

     Info
    4.4
    22 ratings
    5 star
    4 star
    3 star
    2 star
    1 star
    59%
    36%
    5%
    0%
    0%
    11 AWS reviews
    |
    11 external reviews
    External reviews are from PeerSpot .
    IsaacHernandez

    Building consistent QA environments has improved deployments and simplifies troubleshooting

    Reviewed on Sep 23, 2026
    Review from a verified AWS customer

    What is our primary use case?

    My main use case for Rocky Linux is for QA and development, such as setting up environments, running automated test suites, validating services, and troubleshooting application behavior in a RHEL compatible environment.

    I also use Rocky Linux to validate CI/CD workflows, containerized applications, and deployment-related issues in environments that are close to production.

    What is most valuable?

    The best features Rocky Linux offers in my experience are its stability, RHEL compatibility, strong security with SELinux, and reliable package management with DNF. It is also very useful for building QA environments that closely match production.

    Compatibility has made the biggest difference, allowing me to reproduce production-like, RHEL environments for QA and catch deployment and configuration issues earlier, reducing environment-specific failures.

    For QA, Rocky Linux's strong community support and predictable updates are highlights that make it easier to maintain consistent and reliable test environments over time.

    Rocky Linux has impacted my organization positively by helping to create stable, production-like environments for QA and development, thus improving consistency, reducing environment-related issues, and making deployments more predictable. We have seen fewer environment-related issues and less time spent troubleshooting differences between QA and production, which has made testing and deployments more consistent.

    What needs improvement?

    Rocky Linux could improve its documentation and onboarding for newer users, especially around troubleshooting SELinux and system configuration.

    The documentation and example configurations regarding SELinux and network configuration can sometimes be difficult to troubleshoot, especially for people coming from other Linux distributions. More practical examples and clearer error guidance would help solve these issues faster.

    For how long have I used the solution?

    I have used Rocky Linux for approximately four years, mainly in RHEL compatible environments for development, testing, and server administration.

    What do I think about the stability of the solution?

    Rocky Linux is stable and reliable for workloads, especially for QA and development environments.

    What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

    Scalability in Rocky Linux is very good, and it works well as workloads grow, particularly in virtualized and containerized environments, allowing us to scale resources without introducing major OS-level issues.

    How are customer service and support?

    Customer support for Rocky Linux is good, and I remember that the team was helpful with various scenarios, questions, and issues. The community is very active with helpful forums.

    Rocky Linux has a great community, and it is usually easy to find documentation, forums, and RHEL compatibility solutions while troubleshooting the most common issues, making it straightforward to solve problems.

    Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

    We previously used CentOS and Ubuntu, but we noticed performance issues, leading us to explore options and find that Rocky Linux has great performance, especially in workloads, which prompted us to switch.

    What was our ROI?

    We have seen a positive return from eliminating OS licensing costs and reducing maintenance overhead. We save time through fewer environment-related issues and more consistent QA and deployment processes.

    What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

    My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing for Rocky Linux is good because there are no licensing fees. The main costs are infrastructure setup, maintenance, and internal support rather than the operating system itself.

    Which other solutions did I evaluate?

    Before choosing Rocky Linux, I evaluated options including AlmaLinux, CentOS Stream, and RHEL. In the end, Rocky Linux was a good fit because of its RHEL compatibility, stability, and open-source model.

    What other advice do I have?

    I would improve the documentation, troubleshooting tools, and integration guidance for modern DevOps, container, and AI workloads. Better migration guides and more real-world examples would also help teams adopt Rocky Linux faster.

    The learning curve for Rocky Linux is moderate. If you already have experience with RHEL or CentOS, Rocky Linux feels very familiar, but areas such as SELinux and network configuration can take more time to master.

    In my experience, update and patch management in Rocky Linux is straightforward and reliable. DNF makes it easy to manage packages and security updates, allowing us to test patches in QA before promoting them to production-like environments.

    I would rate Rocky Linux's performance and resource efficiency under heavy workloads very well. It has been stable and resource-efficient with predictable CPU and memory usage, which is very important for QA and development environments.

    It is relatively easy to integrate Rocky Linux with CI/CD tools, Docker, Podman, and Kubernetes, enabling us to build consistent environments for automated testing and deployment with minimal compatibility issues.

    Rocky Linux provides a strong foundation for compliance through SELinux, with regular security updates, auditing, and system hardening. Meeting regulatory requirements still depends on how the organization configures and manages the environment.

    Compared with CentOS Stream, Rocky Linux feels more predictable for stable enterprise environments because it focuses on RHEL compatibility. Updates are consistent and the community support is strong, even though commercial support options are not as extensive as RHEL.

    My advice for those looking into using Rocky Linux is to ensure good infrastructure. Start by testing in a non-production environment and validate your applications, security policies, and automation workflows.

    Rocky Linux has been a reliable and cost-effective platform for us, and its RHEL compatibility, stability, and strong community make it a solid choice for QA, development, and private cloud environments. I would rate this product a ten out of ten.

    Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

    Private Cloud

    If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?

    Amazon Web Services (AWS)
    reviewer2775468

    Has improved security practices and streamlined server hosting in on-premises environments

    Reviewed on Nov 07, 2025
    Review provided by PeerSpot

    What is our primary use case?

    My main use case for Rocky Linux is for the Nutanix environment, where we have a data center and everything is hosted there, including all the services and systems. Rocky Linux is the main OS of the Nutanix, which we use for hosting the servers.

    In the Nutanix environment, Rocky Linux makes security hardening easier because we have guidelines to follow for those processes as per their advice.

    How has it helped my organization?

    My organization has seen positive impacts, particularly in security, as it is more secure and scalable. The commands are quite easy to use in the open-source environment, and scaling up or down is simple. Overall, it is more scalable and security-wise, it is good, and after using many commands, I become familiar with them.

    What is most valuable?

    The best features Rocky Linux offers, in my experience, are its simplicity, which helps us troubleshoot effectively, along with enhanced security features, security hardening capabilities, and the ability to perform regular patches.

    My organization has seen positive impacts, particularly in security, as it is more secure and scalable. The commands are quite easy to use in the open-source environment, and scaling up or down is simple. Overall, it is more scalable and security-wise, it is good, and after using many commands, I become familiar with them.

    What needs improvement?

    I am not an expert on Rocky Linux, but I do not have anything to say regarding improvements; I think it is doing better.

    I chose a rating of eight out of ten because Rocky Linux must grow more; it is not as comparable to Red Hat, which is why I took off those two points.

    For how long have I used the solution?

    I have been using Rocky Linux for a couple of years.

    What do I think about the stability of the solution?

    Rocky Linux is stable.

    What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

    The scalability of Rocky Linux is very good.

    How are customer service and support?

    We take customer support from Nutanix, and I think Nutanix support users are familiar with Rocky Linux, so I find the customer support to be very good.

    Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

    I am not sure what solution we previously used before Rocky Linux, as I am new to the organization. I think they might have used VMware, but those were not on Rocky Linux, and the licensing cost was likely higher, which is why we changed to Rocky Linux in the Nutanix environment.

    How was the initial setup?

    Rocky Linux is a product of CentOS, and I have experience using CentOS as well. I think CentOS and Rocky Linux are similar to each other, with almost all of the features being similar.

    The pricing, setup cost, and licensing for Rocky Linux are favorable because they come bundled with the Nutanix environment, making the costs and licensing cheaper than the VMware environment, which is why we chose the Nutanix environment.

    What was our ROI?

    I have seen a return on investment, including money saved and time saved.

    What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

    The pricing, setup cost, and licensing for Rocky Linux are favorable because they come bundled with the Nutanix environment, making the costs and licensing cheaper than the VMware environment, which is why we chose the Nutanix environment.

    Which other solutions did I evaluate?

    Before choosing Rocky Linux, I evaluated options based on cost.

    What other advice do I have?

    My advice to others looking into using Rocky Linux is to go ahead and use it. I give Rocky Linux a rating of eight out of ten.

    reviewer2772054

    Migration from discontinued systems has gone smoothly and supports reliable hosting for government websites

    Reviewed on Oct 28, 2025
    Review provided by PeerSpot

    What is our primary use case?

    My main use case for Rocky Linux is web hosting.

    I have used Rocky Linux to host Drupal websites for my employer.

    I don't have anything else to add about my use case or how I use Rocky Linux.

    What is most valuable?

    The best feature Rocky Linux offers is compatibility with Red Hat. This compatibility helps me because packages that aren't specifically available to the Rocky Linux repositories are able to be installed as long as the correct binary for the correct corresponding version of Red Hat and Rocky is selected.

    Rocky Linux has positively impacted my organization by allowing us to migrate away from CentOS 7 as a result of the end-of-life for that operating system and then the end of CentOS 8, so we were able to move away from it without losing data and without having to rebuild VMs from scratch. The migration process went smoothly, with the main thing that stood out being the exchanging of repository links and the use of purpose-built scripts by our infrastructure and hosting team that took care of the heavy lifting.

    What needs improvement?

    I don't have specific suggestions on how Rocky Linux can be improved.

    I don't want to add more about the needed improvements, even minor things or little annoyances.

    For how long have I used the solution?

    I have been using Rocky Linux for a couple of years.

    What do I think about the stability of the solution?

    In my experience, Rocky Linux is stable.

    What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

    Rocky Linux's scalability is good; it has handled growth or changing needs well considering that it was able to scale up our high availability environments for our web hosting services.

    How are customer service and support?

    I haven't needed to reach out for help regarding customer support for Rocky Linux.

    Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

    I previously used CentOS, and the reason for the change to Rocky Linux was because of the end-of-life of CentOS 7 and 8 since those distributions were being discontinued and we needed a platform to move to that wasn't going to cost us an arm and a leg for licensing.

    What was our ROI?

    I have seen a return on investment since there was definitely money saved at the time due to the lack of need for licensing since Rocky is available openly.

    What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

    My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing has been that there was no cost associated with licensing for Rocky at the time because it was available openly and freely.

    Which other solutions did I evaluate?

    Before choosing Rocky Linux, we evaluated one other option, which was AlmaLinux, and we chose to go with Rocky instead.

    What other advice do I have?

    My advice for others looking into using Rocky Linux is to be sure to look at tutorials on how to get started if they are new users to the Red Hat RPMs or if they are unfamiliar with Linux as a whole.

    I think it's been a great operating system to use both professionally and personally, and I've been able to adapt Rocky Linux into my WSL environment on my personal computer running Windows 11 and WSL Rocky.

    I found out about the interview through LinkedIn.

    On a scale of 1-10, I rate Rocky Linux a 10.

    Bakang Khunou

    Has reduced privilege escalation and improved patching efficiency through automation

    Reviewed on Oct 13, 2025
    Review provided by PeerSpot

    What is our primary use case?

    My main use case for Rocky Linux is the user-friendly commands and being able to work much easier on the RHEL supported flavor as compared to other flavors whereby you have to ask for escalation when you want to install something or change file permissions or anything of that sort.

    A specific example of how Rocky Linux has made things easier for me is that it has streamlined processes by not requiring privilege escalation all the time. Once I'm logged in as root, I don't have to escalate using sudo, which makes things much easier, especially since it's not a security risk when proper restrictions are set up in the perimeter with SSH and firewall rules and jump host, making it much smoother.

    What is most valuable?

    The best features Rocky Linux offers include not having to escalate privileges all the time, and it is binary compatible with RHEL systems, which means long-term support, making it much more predictable when it comes to updates. It also has a strong focus on enterprise workloads.

    Binary compatibility and long-term support features have made things simpler because you can easily integrate the two systems with your Red Hat kernel. The long-term predictable updates make it a clear choice because I know that whatever I'm implementing now is guaranteed to receive updates in the long term.

    Rocky Linux has positively impacted my organization by making things simpler, especially with not having to escalate privileges all the time using sudo as compared to Ubuntu flavors.

    I've experienced less downtime in terms of having to focus on updates, which improves the security posture. Rocky Linux is compatible with automation tools, including Ansible, whereby we can deploy the infrastructure using code. It easily integrates with other containers and automation tools, making it easier to push updates, particularly security updates, and upgrade packages.

    What needs improvement?

    At the moment, I don't see much improvement that can be made to Rocky Linux. We work in IT and security is the main factor that we focus on, so perhaps more security control rules could be implemented. However, so far, I don't see much room for improvement.

    For how long have I used the solution?

    I have been using Rocky Linux for three to four years.

    What do I think about the stability of the solution?

    Rocky Linux is stable.

    What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

    In terms of scalability, you need to have automation tools.

    How are customer service and support?

    The customer support for Rocky Linux is good, as it offers long-term support.

    Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

    I haven't necessarily switched. I used Ubuntu before, and we still use Ubuntu even in this current company along with Rocky Linux.

    How was the initial setup?

    It is not difficult to deploy Rocky Linux in my organization which is set up on a private cloud.

    What about the implementation team?

    I never worked on the implementation or pricing part, but I know that Rocky Linux is free, and I can download it and deploy it in whatever environment I have, whether it be H3C, VMware, or Hyper-V. I am not involved in costs.

    What was our ROI?

    Regarding return on investment in terms of time saved with automation, I wouldn't know about money saved as I am not in the finance department.

    What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

    I never worked on the pricing part, but I know that Rocky Linux is free, and I can download it and deploy it in whatever environment I have, whether it be H3C, VMware, or Hyper-V. I am not involved in costs.

    Which other solutions did I evaluate?

    Before choosing Rocky Linux, I didn't evaluate other options.

    What other advice do I have?

    My advice to others looking into using Rocky Linux is they should go for it. There isn't much difference compared to other flavors, and it is much closer to RHEL systems, so whatever commands you would use in your Red Hat, you would use in Rocky Linux. I rate Rocky Linux 8 out of 10.

    reviewer2764758

    Have built a secure server cluster environment and reduced vulnerabilities over time

    Reviewed on Oct 11, 2025
    Review provided by PeerSpot

    What is our primary use case?

    For the last two years, I have been using Rocky Linux for our project. I do all the things: installations of Rocky Linux, coding in Rocky Linux, and using Rocky Linux as a platform.

    We use Rocky Linux as a base OS for our project, and on top of Rocky Linux OS, we are building our project. We have chosen Rocky Linux because it supports long-term support.

    We are using Rocky Linux for one of our projects in CommScope, using it as a base OS, and on top of that, we are installing many RPMs and making it customized. We are adding numerous security patches, as Rocky Linux continuously provides security updates and patches, which is one of the best benefits we are getting. We are also using Rocky Linux for high availability purposes, with approximately 11 to 12 server clusters.

    What is most valuable?

    We are using Rocky Linux because it has strong security, compatibility with RHEL, and enterprise-grade stability, which is the main reason for choosing Rocky Linux. The plus point is that they regularly provide security updates and patches, which is very helpful to us.

    Rocky Linux offers strong security and enterprise-grade stability as its best features. These are the two main advantages compared to others.

    Enterprise-grade stability refers to the fact that it uses the RHEL source code, ensuring compatibility, and is suitable for servers, production environments, and critical applications, built to be a reliable, long-term support OS.

    In terms of security, we are getting regular security patches and updates, which is one of the best use cases I've noticed positively impacting Rocky Linux in my organization.

    Day by day, the vulnerabilities are decreasing, and as we have implemented good practices, there is less downtime.

    What needs improvement?

    Currently, I have nothing to say about how Rocky Linux can be improved.

    The rolling update for Rocky Linux is very limited and focused on stability, so the software may not always be the latest version, which is something they need to improve.

    For how long have I used the solution?

    I have been working in my current field for the last two years and eight months.

    What do I think about the stability of the solution?

    Rocky Linux is stable.

    Regarding scalability, Rocky Linux is a very good OS, and we haven't faced any issues currently.

    How are customer service and support?

    Currently, the customer support for Rocky Linux is not fully developed and is in a growing stage; the customer support is also not very responsive.

    Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

    Previously, we were using CentOS, which reached its end of life, prompting us to switch to Rocky Linux because we found it is an LTS with stability and long-term support.

    What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

    The pricing for Rocky Linux has no major difference compared to enterprise-level software, which is similar to enterprise-level Linux, so there isn't much difference and it's a good experience with both the older and newer versions compared to CentOS and Rocky Linux.

    Which other solutions did I evaluate?

    We checked some enterprise-level OSs such as Debian before choosing Rocky Linux, but we found we were more inclined toward Rocky Linux as it gives LTS support and stability, so we moved to Rocky Linux.

    What other advice do I have?

    If you are looking for a long-term support OS, an LTS, then I recommend choosing Rocky Linux, as they are releasing many patches and updates regarding security.

    Rocky Linux is best for someone who wants good scalability, enterprise-grade stability, substantial community engagement, compatibility with RHEL, and strong security. I also feel there is good documentation with Rocky Linux, along with providing long-term support, which makes it better to choose Rocky Linux.

    On a scale of one to ten, I rate Rocky Linux a nine out of ten.

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