Red Hat provides additional software packages (rpms) for the convenience of our customers.

Packages in the Optional channel cover open source licensed software.
Packages in the Supplementary channel cover proprietary licensed software (in the "Supplementary” Red Hat Network channel).

Software packages in the Optional and Supplementary channels are not supported, nor are the ABIs guaranteed.

NOTE: The Virtio Windows Drivers are available on all releases of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 in their respected channels and are fully supported. The Virtio Windows Drivers are also available on the Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization and Red Hat Enterprise Linux OpenStack Platform channels and are fully supported in those products. For more information on this change, please see "How are the virtio drivers supported in Red Hat products?"