File Systems and Storage

The following features, enhancements, and changes related to file systems and storage are introduced in this Oracle Linux 9 release.

NVMe Over Fibre Channel

When you install Oracle Linux installation, you can now select NVMe over Fibre Channel (NVMe-FC) devices under the NVMe Fabrics Devices section while adding disks in the Installation Destination window.

Samba Updated to Version 4.19.4

The samba packages are updated to 4.19.4. Notable changes include:

• The smbget utility is updated to use a common command line parser to handle command line options and provides better authentication handling. This change is significant and can break scripts that depend on smbget because the options interface has changed. Also, you can no longer use the smbgetrc configuration file. For more information about changes to smbget, run smbget --help or see the smbget(1) manual page.

• An update to the handling of winbind tracing, so that if winbind debug traceid is enabled in the smb.conf file, the winbind service logs the following fields:

  • traceid: shows records belonging to the same request.

  • depth: shows the request nesting level.

• Samba uses the GnuTLS cryptographic library functionality, to replace its own cryptography implementation.

• The directory name cache size option is removed.

Before updating Samba and before you start the service, ensure that you back up the database files because downgrading databases isn't supported. When the smbd, nmbd, or winbind services start, Samba automatically updates its tdb database files.

Use the testparm utility to verify the /etc/samba/smb.conf file after updating Samba.

multipath.conf Includes New max_retries Option

The multipath.conf configuration file for the multipathd daemon now includes the max_retries option in the defaults section . By default this option is disabled which sets the SCSI layer’s default value of 5 retries. Valid values are from 0 to 5. When this option is set, it overrides the default value of the max_retries sysfs attribute for SCSI devices. This attribute controls the number of times the SCSI layer retries I/O commands before returning failure when it encounters certain error types.

If users encounter an issue where multipath’s path checkers return success but I/O to a device is hanging, they can set this option to decrease the time before the I/O will be retried down another path.

multipath.conf Includes New auto_resize Option

You use the new auto_resize option in the defaults section of the multipath.conf file to controls when the multipathd command automatically resizes a multipath device. The following are the different values for auto_resize:

• By default, auto_resize is set to never. In this case, multipathd works without any change.
• If auto_resize is set to grow_only, multipathd automatically resizes the multipath device when the device’s paths have grown in size.
• If auto_resize is set to grow_shrink, multipathd automatically shrinks the multipath device when the device’s paths are decreased in size.

As a result, when this option is enabled, you no longer need to manually resize your multipath devices.

SAN Boot for NVMe Over Fiber Channel

You can now boot Non-volatile Memory Express (NVMe) over Fibre Channel (NVMe-FC) on NVMe-FC host bus adapters that support a NVMe-FC boot capability. For more information about enabling NVMe-FC boot capability, see the NVMe-FC host bus adapter manufacturer’s documentation.

lvconvert now Converts Standard to Thin Logical Volumes

You can use the lvconvert command to convert a standard LV to a thin LV.