3.2 What's New in Oracle VM Release 3.4.4?

Oracle VM Release 3.4.4 includes features, enhancements, and security updates that were included in previous 3.4.x errata releases.

New features and enhancements included in Oracle VM Release 3.4.4 are as follows:

Infrastructure

Support for Microsoft Windows Server 2016

As of this release, Oracle VM supports Microsoft Windows Server 2016 guest operating systems. See Chapter 5, Supported Guest Operating Systems.

Update to the dom0 Kernel

The dom0 kernel for Oracle VM Server is updated to Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel Release 4 Update 4 (UEK R4 U4) in this release. See the UEK R4 U4 Release Notes for information on new features and updates: https://docs.oracle.com/cd/E52668_01/E86280/html/index.html.

Support for Skylake processors

Oracle VM provides improved support for servers that use Skylake processors, including the Intel® Xeon® E3 v5, Intel® Xeon® Platinum 8100, Intel® Xeon® Gold 6100, Intel® Xeon® Gold 5100, Intel® Xeon® Silver 4100 and Intel® Xeon® Bronze 3100 families of processors. This support is available as part of the dom0 kernel update to UEK R4 U4.

Package Additions and Updates

The full list of package additions and updates is beyond the scope of this document, but the following list includes the notable package updates that are included in this release:

  • This release adds the network-scripts-vxlan package.

  • The device-mapper-multipath, kpartx, and udev packages are updated as follows:

    • device-mapper-multipath-libs-0.4.9-100.0.3.el6.x86_64

    • device-mapper-multipath-0.4.9-100.0.3.el6.x86_64

    • kpartx-0.4.9-100.0.3.el6.x86_64

    • libgudev1-147-2.73.0.1.el6_8.2.x86_64

    • libudev-147-2.73.0.1.el6_8.2.x86_64

    • udev-147-2.73.0.1.el6_8.2.x86_64

  • The irqbalance package is updated to irqbalance-1.0.9-2.0.1.el6.x86_64.

Performance and Scalability

Increased Performance for Oracle VM

This release provides several enhancements to increase the performance of Oracle VM. These enhancements enable Oracle VM to utilize fewer resources and improve performance measurements such as input/output operations per second (IOPs).

Xen 4.4.4 Performance and Scalability Updates

  • Update to netfront and netback drivers: Along with UEK R4 U4, this release of Oracle VM delivers updates to the netfront and netback drivers.

  • Improved grant locking: Xen-netback multi-queue improvements take advantage of grant locking enhancements that are now available in Oracle VM Server Release 3.4.4.

  • Improved guest performance by recycling grants: With both host and guest virtual machines using the latest dom0 kernel version UEK R4 U4, network and database performance is enhanced by recycling grants, resulting in improved guest virtual machine performance.

Usability

CentOS is now listed as a supported guest OS type in Oracle VM

Oracle VM now displays CentOS as a supported guest operating system in the Oracle VM Manager Web Interface, Oracle VM Manager Command Line Interface, and Oracle VM Web Services API.

Documentation

New Location for the Oracle VM Paravirtual Drivers for Microsoft Windows Documentation

As of Oracle VM Release 3.4.4, the Oracle VM Paravirtual Drivers for Microsoft Windows documentation has moved to a new library location: http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E88077_01/index.html.

Note

Oracle VM Release 3.4, Release 3.3, and Release 3.2 library pages are updated with a Related Documentation section that includes a link to the Oracle VM Paravirtual Drivers for Microsoft Windows library. For example, see http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E64076_01/index.html.

Security

Security updates included in this errata update release are as follows:

  • Oracle MySQL patch update: This release of Oracle VM includes the July 2017 Critical Patch Update for MySQL. (26120786)

  • Oracle WebLogic patch update: This release of Oracle VM includes the July 2017 Critical Patch Update for WebLogic. (26120775)

  • Oracle Java patch update: This release of Oracle VM includes the July 2017 Critical Patch Update for Java. (26120782)

  • Xen security advisories: The following Xen security advisories are included in this release:

    • XSA-216 (CVE-2017-10911)

    • XSA-217 (CVE-2017-10912)

    • XSA-218 (CVE-2017-10913, CVE-2017-10914)

    • XSA-219 (CVE-2017-10915)

    • XSA-220 (CVE-2017-10916)

    • XSA-221 (CVE-2017-10917)

    • XSA-222 (CVE-2017-10918)

    • XSA-223 (CVE-2017-10919)

    • XSA-224 (CVE-2017-10920, CVE-2017-10921, CVE-2017-10922)

    • XSA-226 (CVE-2017-12135)

    • XSA-227 (CVE-2017-12137)

    • XSA-228 (CVE-2017-12136)

    • XSA-230 (CVE-2017-12855)

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