Chapter 1 New Features and Changes
The Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel Release 3 (UEK R3) is Oracle's third major release of its heavily tested and optimized operating system kernel for Oracle Linux 6 on the x86-64 architecture. It is based on the mainline Linux kernel version 3.8.13.
The 3.8.13-26 release is the first quarterly update release for UEK R3. It includes security and bug fixes, as well as driver updates.
Oracle actively monitors upstream checkins and applies critical bug and security fixes to UEK R3.
UEK R3 uses the same versioning model as the mainline Linux kernel version. It is possible that some applications might not understand the 3.x versioning scheme. If an application does require a 2.6 context, you can use the uname26 wrapper command to start it. However, regular Linux applications are usually neither aware of nor affected by Linux kernel version numbers.
1.1 Notable Changes
To simplify Kdump configuration, support has been added for the
crashkernel=autokernel parameter. For Xen, this parameter is supported only for Domain 0.NoteIf this parameter is enabled, the output of the dmesg command shows
crashkernel=XM@0M. This is normal.
The SDT (Statically Defined Tracing) provider has been improved so that probes for kernel modules can now be enabled. Previously you could only enable probes in the core kernel.
Xtables: IPv4/IPv6 packet logging (
xt_LOG) driver updated.
1.2 Xen Improvements
Support for 'indirect-descriptors' allowing more throughput and lower latency.
Fixes from kernel versions 3.8 to 3.11.
Support for IPv6 TCP GSO (Generic Segmentation Offload).
Switch to using NAPI + kthread 1:1 model to provide better scalability and performance.
Split of Tx (transmit) and Rx (receive) events.
Fixes from kernel versions 3.8 to 3.11.
Fixes from kernel versions 3.8 to 3.11.
1.3 Driver Updates
The Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel supports a wide range of hardware and devices. In close cooperation with hardware and storage vendors, several device drivers have been updated by Oracle.
1.3.1 Storage Adapter Drivers
NetXtreme II Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) driver (
bnx2fc) updated to 2.4.1e.NetXtreme II iSCSI driver (
bnx2i) updated to 2.7.8.2b.
Cisco FCoE host bus adapter (HBA) driver (
fnic) updated to 1.6.0.8.
OneConnect (previously known as Blade Engine 2) Open-iSCSI driver (
be2iscsi) updated to 10.0.659.0o.LightPulse Fibre Channel SCSI (previously known as Fibre Channel HBA) driver (
lpfc) updated to 0:8.3.7.34.4p.
HP Smart Array CCISS driver (
cciss) updated to 4.6.28-22.HP Smart Array Controller driver (
hpsa) updated to 3.4.2-5.
MegaRAID Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) driver (
megaraid_sas) updated to 06.700.06.00-rc1.
Core services module driver (
xscore) version 6.0.r7565 added. Required by all other Oracle Virtual Networking modules.Virtual HBA driver (
xsvhba) version 6.0.r7565 added.
Fibre Channel HBA driver (
qla2xxx) updated to 8.06.00.14.39.0-k.iSCSI HBA driver (
qla4xxx) updated to 5.04.00.02.06.02-uek3.
1.3.2 Network Adapter Drivers
NetXtreme II 1 Gigabit network adapter driver (
bnx2) updated to 2.2.4g.NetXtreme II 10 Gigabit network adapter driver (
bnx2x) updated to 1.78.80.NetXtreme II Converged Network Interface Card core driver (
cnic) updated to 2.5.18c.Tigon3 Ethernet adapter driver (
tg3) updated to 3.134f.
OneConnect (previously known as Blade Engine 2) 10Gbps adapter driver (
be2net) updated to 4.9.224.0u.
PRO/1000 PCI Express Gigabit network adapter driver (
e1000e) updated to 2.5.4-NAPI.Gigabit Ethernet network adapter driver (
igb) updated to 5.0.6.10 Gigabit PCI Express network adapter driver (
ixgbe) updated to 3.18.7.10 Gigabit PCI Express Virtual Function driver (
ixgbevf) updated to 2.11.3.
ConnectX Host Channel Adapter (HCA) Ethernet network adapter driver (
mlx4_en) updated to 2.1.8.The
mlx4_vnic_helperdriver has been removed as this functionality is now included with themlx4_vnicdriver.
Core services module driver (
xscore) version 6.0.r7565 added. Required by all other Oracle Virtual Networking modules.Virtual Ethernet driver (
xve) version 6.0.r7565 added.Virtual NIC driver (
xsvnic) version 6.0.r7565 added.
NetXen Multi port (1/10) Gigabit Network Devices driver (
netxen_nic) updated to 4.0.82.1/10 GbE Converged/Intelligent Ethernet Adapter driver (
qlcnic) updated to 5.3.52.3.
1.3.3 Miscellaneous Drivers
HP ProLiant Channel Interface Device Driver for Integrated Lights-Out (
hpilo) updated to 1.4.1.
1.4 Technology Preview
The following features included in the Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel Release 3 are still under development, but are made available for testing and evaluation purposes.
DRBD (Distributed Replicated Block Device)
A shared-nothing, synchronously replicated block device (RAID1 over network), designed to serve as a building block for high availability (HA) clusters. It requires a cluster manager (for example, pacemaker) for automatic failover.
Kernel module signing facility
Applies cryptographic signature checking to modules on module load, checking the signature against a ring of public keys compiled into the kernel. GPG is used to do the cryptographic work and determines the format of the signature and key data.
Transcendent memory
Transcendent Memory (tmem) provides a new approach for improving the utilization of physical memory in a virtualized environment by claiming underutilized memory in a system and making it available where it is most needed. From the perspective of an operating system, tmem is fast pseudo-RAM of indeterminate and varying size that is useful primarily when real RAM is in short supply. To learn more about this technology and its use cases, see the Transcendent Memory project page at https://oss.oracle.com/projects/tmem/.
1.5 Compatibility
Oracle Linux maintains user-space compatibility with Red Hat Enterprise Linux, which is independent of the kernel version running underneath the operating system. Existing applications in user space will continue to run unmodified on the Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel Release 3 and no re-certifications are needed for RHEL certified applications.
To minimize impact on interoperability during releases, the Oracle Linux team works closely with third-party vendors whose hardware and software have dependencies on kernel modules. The kernel ABI for UEK R3 will remain unchanged in all subsequent updates to the initial release. In this release, there are changes to the kernel ABI relative to UEK R2 that require recompilation of third-party kernel modules on the system. Before installing UEK R3, verify its support status with your application vendor.