NREC GOLD images

The NREC Team provides prebuilt images for user consumption. We try to include popular Linux distributions as well as Windows images with an up to date patch level and basic features needed for working in the cloud.

Current GOLD images

Currently available GOLD images in NREC:

GOLD image	Family	Default user name	Boot FW	End of Life	Notes
Alma Linux 8	RedHat	almalinux	UEFI	May, 2029	Downstream RHEL [1]
Alma Linux 9	RedHat	almalinux	UEFI	May, 2032	Downstream RHEL [1]
CentOS Stream 9	RedHat	cloud-user [2]	BIOS	unknown	Upstream RHEL [1]
Debian 11	Debian	debian	UEFI	June, 2026	“Bullseye” release
Debian 12	Debian	debian	UEFI	June, 2028	“Bookworm” release
Fedora 39	RedHat	fedora	UEFI	Dec, 2024
Fedora 40	RedHat	fedora	UEFI	May, 2025
UiO Managed RHEL 8	RedHat	cloud-user	BIOS	May, 2029	UiO projects only
UiO Managed RHEL 9	RedHat	cloud-user	UEFI	May, 2032	UiO projects only
Rocky Linux 8	RedHat	rocky	BIOS	May, 2029	Downstream RHEL [1]
Rocky Linux 9	RedHat	rocky	UEFI	May, 2032	Downstream RHEL [1]
Ubuntu 20.04 LTS	Debian	ubuntu	BIOS	April, 2025	“Focal Fossa”
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS	Debian	ubuntu	UEFI	April, 2027	“Jammy Jellyfish”
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS	Debian	ubuntu	UEFI	April, 2029	“Noble Numbat”
Windows Server 2019 Std	Windows	Admin	UEFI	January, 2029	Licensed in BGO only
Windows Server 2022 Std	Windows	Admin	UEFI	October, 2031	Licensed in BGO only

In addition, the following GOLD images are available to GPU users. These images have the correct GPU driver preinstalled:

GOLD image	Family	Default user name	Boot FW	End of Life	Notes
vGPU Alma Linux 8	RedHat	almalinux	UEFI	May, 2029	Downstream RHEL [1]
vGPU Alma Linux 9	RedHat	almalinux	UEFI	May, 2032	Downstream RHEL [1]
vGPU Ubuntu 20.04 LTS	Debian	ubuntu	BIOS	April, 2025	“Focal Fossa”
vGPU Ubuntu 22.04 LTS	Debian	ubuntu	UEFI	April, 2027	“Jammy Jellyfish”
vGPU Ubuntu 24.04 LTS	Debian	ubuntu	UEFI	April, 2029	“Noble Numbat”

[1] (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10)

“Downstream RHEL” means that this is a binary compatible distribution built from Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), trailing the release closely. “Upstream RHEL” means that this distribution is ahead of RHEL, so if RHEL is in 8.n release, the Stream release will be somewhere near the future 8.n+1 RHEL release.

[2]

GOLD images for CentOS Stream 9 released in the period between July 1, 2022 and November 1, 2022 had their default username set to “centos”.

[3]

GOLD images for CentOS Stream 8 released before December 1, 2022 had their default username set to “centos”. Between December 1 and May 1, 2023 the default username was set to “cloud-user”.

Retired GOLD images

The following GOLD images are retired and no longer available:

GOLD image	Family	Default user name	Boot FW	End of Life	Notes
CentOS 7	RedHat	centos	BIOS	May, 2024	Downstream RHEL [1]
CentOS 8	RedHat	centos	BIOS	Dec, 2021	Downstream RHEL [1]
CentOS Stream 8	RedHat	centos [3]	BIOS	May, 2024	Upstream RHEL [1]
Fedora 34	RedHat	fedora	BIOS	May, 2022
Fedora 35	RedHat	fedora	BIOS	November, 2022
Fedora 36	RedHat	fedora	BIOS	June, 2023
Fedora 37	RedHat	fedora	UEFI	December, 2023
Fedora 38	RedHat	fedora	UEFI	May, 2024
Ubuntu 18.04 LTS	Debian	ubuntu	BIOS	April, 2023
Ubuntu 21.04	Debian	ubuntu	BIOS	Dec, 2021
Ubuntu 21.10	Debian	ubuntu	BIOS	July, 2022
Debian 9	Debian	debian	BIOS	June, 2022	“Stretch” release
Debian 10	Debian	debian	BIOS	June, 2024	“Buster” release
UiO Managed RHEL 7	RedHat	cloud-user	BIOS	June, 2024	UiO projects only

UiO Managed

Shared projects with an organization affiliation to UiO have access to the “UiO Managed” images. An instance created from any of these images will instantly be automatically managed by the IT department at UiO. This includes CFEngine configuration management, monitoring and everything else.

Automatic updates

Automatic updates are enabled for all GOLD images. This involves automatic download and update of packages. The specific configuration depends on the Linux distribution and Windows version. For Linux distributions in the RedHat family, it involves enabling and starting a systemd timer, which regurarly calls a systemd service that reads from a dnf configuration file, while for distributions in the Debian family, the same effect is achieved with unattended-upgrades and apt configuration. For Windows, the configuration varies.