Chapter 2 Feature Overview
This chapter provides an overview of the key features of Oracle Private Cloud Appliance.
2.1 Changes and Improvements in Release 2.4.3
This section describes functional changes, improvements and bug fixes compared to the previous release.
Kubernetes as a Service
This feature is no longer supported. Kubernetes functions are now available through Oracle Cloud Native Environment.
The Oracle Private Cloud Appliance now supports Kubernetes as a Service. Kubernetes as a Service automates the provisioning of Oracle VM infrastructure and Kubernetes components to provide an integrated solution for Oracle Private Cloud Appliance.
Enhanced Oracle Private Cloud Appliance Fault Monitoring
The new fault monitoring architecture brings together the Oracle Private Cloud Appliance health check, the Oracle VM health check, and the PCA pre-upgrade checks under one service. In addition, you can configure health checking to integrate with ZFS Phone Home service to send reports on a weekly basis to Oracle Service for monitoring, using Oracle's Automated Service Request (ASR) infrastructure.
Oracle Private Cloud Appliance Cloud Backup
The Oracle Private Cloud Appliance Cloud Backup service automates the backup of critical components and configuration data to your customer tenancy in Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI). This feature is designed to recover an Oracle Private Cloud Appliance to a running state after a catastrophic event.
Support for Oracle VM Exporter Appliance on Oracle Private Cloud Appliance
An Oracle VM Exporter Appliance is a special type of virtual machine used to export another virtual machine from the Oracle VM environment to a tenancy account in the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure.
Storage Network Provides Internal Access to ZFS Storage Appliance
Oracle Private Cloud Appliance administrators can now create custom networks that enable users to access iSCSI and NFS shares on the internal ZFS storage appliance from within their individual Oracle VM guests hosted on the Oracle Private Cloud Appliance. Ensure you have 60 TB of free space on the ZFS storage appliance to use this feature.
Bugs Fixed in Release 2.4.3
The following table lists notable bugs that have been fixed in Oracle Private Cloud Appliance Release 2.4.3.
|
Bug ID |
Description |
|---|---|
|
31683379 |
“PCA health check failed "Multicast Route Check" from one spine switch ” |
|
31133075 |
“check_storage_space always fails after a given failure scenario” |
|
30594475 |
“PCA 2.4.2 pca_upgrader fails ERROR (precheck:148) [OVMM Default Network Check (Checking default OVMM networks exist on the management nodes)] Failed ” Additional checks have been added to verify the system network configuration. |
|
31176592 |
“MySql lock issues on the active management node” |
|
31157042 |
“Timezone: Incorrect java version in /usr/bin/java for PCA 2.4.3 ” |
|
31607588 |
“Pick up the July CPU for JRE 8 on PCA MN” The latest component firmware is incorporated. |
|
30982691 |
“UI:Dashboard javascript library requires update” The latest UI update is incorporated. |
|
31629904 |
“Tracking - Pick up OVM Manager build 3.4.6.2684 ” The latest component firmware is incorporated. |
|
31350870 |
“Deprecated SSH settings ” |
2.2 Changes and Improvements in Release 2.4.2
This section describes functional changes, improvements and bug fixes compared to the previous release.
Oracle Private Cloud Appliance Release 2.4.2 Software Supports Both Platform Architectures
Controller Software Release 2.4.2 supports both Ethernet-based and InfiniBand-based Oracle Private Cloud Appliances, which includes these enhancements:
-
The Command Line Interface supports both architectures and displays only the applicable commands based on the system in question.
-
The Upgrader has been improved to include more automated checks and works on both architectures by determining the rack type.
-
A version of the Oracle Server X8-2 expansion node is available for each architecture.
Optional Fibre Channel Cards Available
Oracle Server X8-2 compute nodes can be ordered with optional physical FC cards with dual 32Gbit HBAs. This option is available for both architectures. Note that Fibre Channel HBAs can be installed in existing compute nodes. One or two HBAs are supported per Oracle Server X8-2 compute node. If adding Fibre Channel HBAs to Oracle Server X7-2 or older compute nodes, do not use Fibre Channel connections from the Infiniband hardware to those compute nodes.
Oracle JET User Interface
The Oracle JavaScript Extension Toolkit (JET) user interface leverages popular open-source technologies, and features a rich set of modern UI components with built-in accessibility and mobile support.
Oracle Private Cloud Appliance Health Check Utility
The Health Check utility is built on the framework of the Oracle Private Cloud Appliance Upgrader, and is included in the Upgrader package. It detects the appliance network architecture and runs the sets of health checks defined for the system in question.
Bugs Fixed in Release 2.4.2
The following table lists bugs that have been fixed in Oracle Private Cloud Appliance Release 2.4.2.
|
Bug ID |
Description |
|---|---|
|
26679231 |
“Error running chgnetid "ImportError: cannot import name disable_warnings"” An issue preventing the changing of network IDs has been fixed. |
|
29681802 |
“Pickup AK8.8.6 to prevent discovery issue with SI plugin” An issue was fixed that prevented the discovery of Oracle Private Cloud Appliance from Oracle Enterprise Manager, which results in the failures on both the internal and externally attached ZFS storage appliances. |
|
26784732 |
“PCA 2.3.1 upgrade fails due to bond0 not configured” Additional checks have been added to verify the system configuration on management nodes and compute nodes before upgrade. |
|
29437665 |
“The PCA 2.3.4 upgrade process breaks ASR if it is installed.” A fix is provided that maintains the ASR installation through the upgrade process. |
|
22720391 |
“Support listing backups in CLI” |
|
29585636 |
“Unable to Use Uplink to Communicate With Server Out of Rack After Restarting Network” The Cisco switches shipped with Oracle Private Cloud Appliance Release 2.4.2 (Ethernet-based systems) include the latest NX-OS I7(7) firmware, which fixes this connectivity issue. For more information about this bug fix (CSCvj65578) and others, see the Cisco 9000 Series NX-OS Release Notes, Release 7.0(3)I7(7): |
2.3 Changes and Improvements in Release 2.4.1
This section describes functional changes, improvements and bug fixes compared to the previous release.
Support for Next-Generation Server Hardware
Oracle Private Cloud Appliance Release 2.4.1 software adds provisioning and orchestration support for Oracle Server X8-2 hardware.
This software release is available only for factory installation on racks with Oracle Server X8-2 management nodes and compute nodes. Field upgrades of racks with previous generations of server hardware are not possible with Release 2.4.1.
Ethernet Fabric
With Release 2.4.1, a new network architecture is introduced. It is based on high-speed Ethernet switches in a leaf-spine configuration, and software defined networks that live on top of the Ethernet fabric. For a detailed description, see “Network Infrastructure” within the Hardware Components section of the Oracle Private Cloud Appliance Administrator's Guide .
Oracle VM Update
Controller Software Release 2.4.1 comes with Oracle VM 3.4.6 – both Oracle VM Server and Oracle VM Manager –, meaning it contains all the latest bug fixes and enhancements. This also implies that paravirtualized (PVM) guests are no longer supported. For information about security concerns with PVM guests, refer to the support article with Doc ID 2347948.1.
Bugs Fixed in Release 2.4.1
The following table lists bugs that have been fixed in Oracle Private Cloud Appliance Release 2.4.1.
|
Bug ID |
Description |
|---|---|
|
29705317 |
“Increase the Size of the iscsi_repository1 LUN”
The Oracle ZFS Storage Appliance ZS7-2 provides significantly more
disk space than the previous models. Therefore, the
default LUN for |
|
29529008 |
“Quota for kdump Must Be Applied During Compute Node Installation”
The behavior of |
|
29234323 |
“Update RAID Configuration for ZS7-2 Storage Appliance” The internal Oracle ZFS Storage Appliance ZS7-2 uses a different RAID configuration compared to previous systems: its disks are arranged in mirrors instead of RAID-z2. |
|
21036745 |
“Implement XML-RPC Call to Determine Rack Type” A new XML-RPC call was added to identify the rack type and certain properties. This is particularly useful when using Oracle Enterprise Manager, so that the correct rack details are displayed. |
|
26174921 |
“Missing LUN Paths Cause Refresh Failure on External Storage” This was an underlying issue in Oracle VM, where a refresh operation on a LUN storage element would fail if paths were missing. The code has been made more fault-tolerant and the fix is included in Oracle VM 3.4.6, which is used in Oracle Private Cloud Appliance 2.4.1. |
|
26222844 |
“Saving the Local Repository when Reprovisioning a Compute Node Does Not Work”
Previously, the |
|
25410225 |
“Catastrophic Failure of ZFS Storage Appliance Controller Causes Management Node Fencing” The failover process between the storage controllers has been improved, reducing the service downtime to just a few seconds. As a result, the management node cluster heartbeat function is no longer affected, and the risk of fencing is eliminated. |
2.4 Earlier Releases
For an overview of features, functional changes and bug fixes in earlier releases of Oracle Private Cloud Appliance, please refer to the release notes for the version in question. You can access the documentation libraries for all releases from the Documentation Overview page.