Latest Features
Caution:
Prior to patching or upgrading to the latest release, ensure that all compute nodes are in the provisioned state.
Platform Images
New platform images are made available for Compute Enclave users through Private Cloud Appliance installation, upgrade, and patching.
The following platform images are delivered with this Private Cloud Appliance release:
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Oracle Linux 9 |
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Oracle Linux 8 |
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Oracle Linux 7.9 |
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Oracle Solaris 11.4 |
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Kubernetes Engine |
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X11 Hardware Available
The Oracle Private Cloud Appliance X11 rack configuration is now available. This rack configuration is characterized by the use of Oracle Server X11 compute and management nodes, and the new Oracle ZFS Storage ZS11-2 node. Compared to the Oracle Private Cloud Appliance X10 rack configuration, the component order and cabling are slightly different.
Additionally, you can order Oracle Server X11 compute nodes as expansion nodes.
Compute Expansion Available
You can now expand your Oracle Private Cloud Appliance compute capacity by adding indvidual compute nodes to an existing rack, or adding an entire Compute Expansion rack. When ordering individual compute expansion nodes, ensure you order nodes compatible with your exising system.
For information about Compute Expansion racks, see Optional Compute Expansion Rack in the "Oracle Private Cloud Appliance Installation Guide".
System Upgrade to Oracle Linux 8
This release of the appliance software migrates the core system components to Oracle Linux 8. This includes operating systems as well as the platform layer, container images, microservices, and so on. A new disk layout is applied to management nodes and compute nodes, which contributes to faster and more reliable future upgrades. The management cluster is torn down, and reconstructed from the upgraded components. For more information, see Full Management Cluster Migration to Oracle Linux 8 in the Oracle Private Cloud Appliance Upgrade Guide.
Attention:
The minimum recommended appliance software version is now 3.0.2-b1261765. If your current version is older, see Upgrading from Earlier Software Versions. Version 3.0.2-b1261765 must be upgraded to version 3.0.2-b1392231 using ISO images. Migration to Oracle Linux 8 is not supported by ULN-based patching.
Enhanced Upgrade Workflow Orchestration
The appliance upgrade is now a fully integrated end-to-end process launched with a single command. Each individual component has its own process to maintain the granular nature of the upgrade, but all individual upgrade processes are orchestrated through a central workflow that runs all operations across the entire system, as prescribed by the upgrade plan.
The new unified full rack upgrade workflow is the preferred method, because it eliminates issues related to component order and timing of operations. Other upgrades of single components or groups of components remain possible, in case a workaround is required for an orchestration problem or a particular component requirement. More information, and instructions to use the new commands, can be found in the Oracle Private Cloud Appliance Upgrade Guide. See Performing a Full Rack Upgrade and Upgrading Components Individually.
For the enhanced workflow-driven approach, the Upgrader is integrated with the appliance job framework. You can query and drill down into its work requests and jobs from both the Service Web UI and Service CLI. The new full rack upgrade function also includes a convenient rack-wide health check. For more information, see Check Upgrade Readiness and Status.
Load Balancer Update
The internal foundations of the load balancer services are moving to a new implementation, which leads to minor differences in functionality. Administrators should verify the existing configuration of deployed load balancers before upgrading the appliance software. It might be necessary to reconfigure active load balancers to ensure a successful upgrade. For more information, see Load Balancer Functional Changes After Appliance Software Upgrade.
Kubernetes Engine
The following new features are added for Oracle Private Cloud Appliance Kubernetes Engine (OKE):
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Private Clusters. You can create a private cluster and use a Dynamic Routing Gateway to communicate with your on-premises IP address space, or use a Local Peering Gateway to communicate with instances in other VCNs. See "Public and Private Clusters" in the Creating OKE Network Resources chapter in the Oracle Private Cloud Appliance Kubernetes Engine user guide.
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VCN-Native Pod Networking. VCN-Native Pod Networking enables direct communication between pods in the control plane node pool worker nodes, and enables direct communication between worker node pods and other resources. The other resources can be in the same or different subnet and in the same or different compartment. See "VCN-Native Pod Networking" in the Creating OKE Network Resources chapter in the Oracle Private Cloud Appliance Kubernetes Engine user guide.
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Cluster Add-ons. Cluster add-ons are components that you can choose to deploy on a Kubernetes cluster. Cluster add-ons extend core Kubernetes functionality and improve cluster manageability and performance. This release offers the WebLogic Kubernetes Operator add-on, which supports running WebLogic Server and Fusion Middleware Infrastructure domains on Kubernetes. See Managing OKE Cluster Add-ons in the Oracle Private Cloud Appliance Kubernetes Engine user guide.
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Node Pool Creation. You can create a node pool when you create the cluster when you use the Compute Web UI. See "Creating an OKE Cluster" in the Creating and Managing OKE Clusters chapter in the Oracle Private Cloud Appliance Kubernetes Engine user guide.
Container Instances
Container Instances is a serverless compute service that enables you to quickly and easily run containers without managing any servers. Container Instances runs your containers on serverless compute optimized for container workloads that provides the same isolation as virtual machines.
A container instance is a minimal instance designed to run only what is needed for containers. Compute, networking, and storage resources are created as needed. A single user-specified container is started in the container instance.
For more information, see Container Instances in the Oracle Private Cloud Appliance User Guide.
Limit Service Expansion
Additional resource limits in more services can be viewed and set by Service Enclave administrators. In addition to the Service CLI, resource limits can be viewed and set by using the Service Web UI. See the Viewing and Setting Resource Limits chapter in the Oracle Private Cloud Appliance Administrator Guide.
New Flex Networking Commands
The Flex networking feature, formerly call Exadata Network, is introducing new commands in this release. The older Exadata commands will be deprecated in a future release. For more information, see Creating and Managing Flex Networks in the Oracle Private Cloud Appliance Administrator Guide.
New Flex Network Updates
- The limit for Flex networks allowed per port has changed from 8 to 32. There remains a rack limit of 128 Flex networks. See the Creating and Managing Flex Network section in the Oracle Private Cloud Appliance Administrator Guide.
- VRF-awareness is now supported.
Bugs Fixed in This Release
For a list of bugs fixed in each release, see Oracle Support Document 2906831.1 ([PCA 3.x] Private Cloud Appliance: Software Updates) can be found at: https://support.oracle.com/knowledge/Sun%20Microsystems/2906831_1.html.