Installation and Availability

Installation Overview

If you have a subscription to Oracle Unbreakable Linux support, you can obtain the packages for Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel Release 4 by registering your system with the Unbreakable Linux Network (ULN) and subscribing it to additional channels. See Subscribing to ULN Channels.

If your system is not registered with ULN, you can obtain most of the packages from the Oracle Linux yum server. See Enabling Access to Oracle Yum Channels.

Having subscribed your system to the appropriate channels on ULN or the Oracle Linux yum server, upgrade your system. See Upgrading Your System.

After upgrading to UEK R4, you can replace any existing OFED packages with the Oracle-supported OFED packages, see Installing the Oracle-Supported OFED Packages.

Subscribing to ULN Channels

The kernel image and user-space packages are available on the following ULN channels for Oracle Linux 6:

ol6_x86_64_latest (latest user-space packages for Oracle Linux 6 other than DTrace, OFED, and DRBD packages)
ol6_x86_64_UEKR4 (kernel-uek*, dtrace-modules-*, and libdtrace-*)
ol6_x86_64_UEKR4_DTrace_userspace (dtrace-utils*)
ol6_x86_64_UEKR4_OFED (latest OFED tools packages)
ol6_x86_64_mysql-ha-utils (drbd84-utils)

The kernel image and user-space packages are available on the following ULN channels for Oracle Linux 7:

ol7_x86_64_latest (all of the latest user-space packages for Oracle Linux 7 other than DTrace, OFED, and DRBD packages)
ol7_x86_64_latest_optional (the latest optional user-space packages for Oracle Linux 7 other than DTrace, OFED, and DRBD packages)
ol7_x86_64_UEKR4 (kernel-uek*, dtrace-modules-*, and libdtrace-*)
ol7_x86_64_UEKR4_DTrace_userspace (dtrace-utils*)
ol7_x86_64_UEKR4_OFED (latest OFED tools packages)
ol7_x86_64_mysql-ha-utils (drbd84-utils)

The following procedure assumes that you have already registered your system with ULN.

To subscribe your system to a channel on ULN:

Log in to https://linux.oracle.com with your ULN user name and password.
On the Systems tab, click the link named for the system in the list of registered machines.
On the System Details page, click Manage Subscriptions.
On the System Summary page, select each required channel from the list of available channels and click the right arrow to move the channel to the list of subscribed channels.

For Oracle Linux 6, subscribe the system to the ol6_x86_64_latest and ol6_x86_64_UEKR4 channels. If required, you can also add the channels for the DTrace, OFED, and DRBD packages. You do not need to subscribe the system to the ol6_x86_64_UEK_latest or ol6_x86_64_UEKR3_latest channels.

For Oracle Linux 7, subscribe the system to the ol7_x86_64_latest and ol7_x86_64_UEKR4 channels. If required, you can also add the channels for the DTrace, OFED, and DRBD packages. You do not need to subscribe the system to the ol7_x86_64_UEKR3 channel.
Click Save Subscriptions.

For information about using ULN, see Oracle Linux: Unbreakable Linux Network User's Guide for Oracle Linux 6 and Oracle Linux 7.

Enabling Access to Oracle Yum Channels

On the Oracle Linux yum server at https://yum.oracle.com/, the kernel image and userspace packages are available on the following channels.

For Oracle Linux 6:

ol6_latest (latest user-space packages for Oracle Linux 6 other than the OFED tool packages)
ol6_UEKR4 (kernel-uek*, dtrace-modules-*, and libdtrace-*)
ol6_UEKR4_OFED (latest OFED tools packages)

For Oracle Linux 7:

ol7_latest (latest user-space packages for Oracle Linux 7 other than the OFED tool packages)
ol7_UEKR4 (kernel-uek*, dtrace-modules-*, and libdtrace-*)
ol7_UEKR4_OFED (latest OFED tools packages)

Note:

To be able to install UEK R4, enable the appropriate ol6_UEKR4 or ol7_UEKR4 channel and disable the ol6_UEKR3_latest or ol7_UEKR3 channel.

The DRBD (Distributed Replicated Block Device) packages are not available on the Oracle Linux yum server.

To enable access to the Oracle Linux 6 repositories on the Oracle Linux yum server, use yum-config-manager. For example, to enable access to the ol6_latest and ol6_UEKR4 repositories, run the following:

# yum-config-manager --enable ol6_latest,ol6_UEKR4

To enable access to the Oracle Linux 7 repositories on the Oracle Linux yum server, use yum-config-manager. For example, to enable access to the ol7_latest and ol7_UEKR5 repositories, run the following:

# yum-config-manager --enable ol7_latest,ol7_UEKR5

Note:

You can only use yum-config-manager to enable or disable repositories where you already have a configuration file for the specified repository. Repository configurations are typically stored in /etc/yum.repos.d. The repository configurations required to install UEK on Oracle Linux 7 are included in the oraclelinux-release-el7 package. The repository configurations required to install UEK on Oracle Linux 6 are included in the oraclelinux-release-el6 package. If you do not have the yum-config-manager command available you may need to install the yum-utils package.

See https://docs.oracle.com/en/operating-systems/oracle-linux/6/admin/ol_yum.html in Oracle^® Linux 6: Administrator's Guide or the Yum section in Oracle Linux 7: Administrator's Guide for more information.

Upgrading Your System

To upgrade your system to UEK R4:

After enabling access to the appropriate channels, including ol6_UEKR4 or ol7_UEKR4, on the Oracle Linux yum server or ol6_x86_64_UEKR4 or ol7_x86_64_UEKR4 on ULN, run the following command:
```
# yum update
```
After upgrading the system, reboot it, selecting the UEK R4 kernel (version 4.1.12) if this is not the default boot kernel.

See Boot and Service Configuration chapter in Oracle Linux 7: Administrator's Guide for more information on updating the default boot kernel on Oracle Linux 7.

See https://docs.oracle.com/en/operating-systems/oracle-linux/6/admin/ol_bootconf.html for more information on updating the default boot kernel on Oracle Linux 6.

For instructions on how to install the Oracle-supported OFED packages after upgrading to UEK R4, see Installing the Oracle-Supported OFED Packages.

If you are upgrading from Oracle Linux 7 Update 3 to Oracle Linux 7 Update 4 and you already have Oracle-supported OFED packages for UEK R4 installed on your system, follow the upgrade procedures that are described in Oracle^® Linux 7: Release Notes for Oracle Linux 7.4.

See https://docs.oracle.com/en/operating-systems/oracle-linux/6/admin/ol_yum.html in Oracle^® Linux 6: Administrator's Guide or the Yum chapter in in Oracle Linux 7: Administrator's Guide for more information.

The kernel's source code is available via a public git source code repository at https://oss.oracle.com/git/?p=linux-uek.git;a=summary.

Installing the Oracle-Supported OFED Packages

The following procedure describes how to install the OFED packages that are provided by Oracle, including how to remove any existing OFED packages.

Note:

For any additional preparation that is required prior to installing or upgrading OFED packages, refer to the release notes for the Oracle Linux release that you are running.

To install the OFED packages that are provided by Oracle:

If your system is registered with ULN, subscribe the system to the ol6_x86_64_UEKR4_OFED or ol7_x86_64_UEKR4_OFED channel on ULN as appropriate.

By default, the ol7_x86_64_UEKR4 and ol7_x86_64_latest channels are enabled when you register an Oracle Linux 7 system with ULN; and the ol6_x86_64_UEKR4 and ol6_x86_64_latest channels are enabled when you register an Oracle Linux 6 system with ULN. Check that these channels are still enabled before you begin installing the OFED packages provided by Oracle. If enabled, disable the ol6_x86_64_optional latest or ol7_x86_64_latest channel, or you may encounter dependency issues.

If your system uses the Oracle Linux yum server ensure that your system is up to date and that you have transitioned to use the modular yum repository configuration by installing the oraclelinux-release-el6 or oraclelinux-release-el7 package and running the /usr/bin/ol_yum_configure.sh script. For example, run the following as root:
```
# yum install oraclelinux-release-el7
                        
# /usr/bin/ol_yum_configure.sh
```
Then use yum-config-manager to enable the ol7_UEKR4_OFED repository for Oracle Linux 7 or the ol6_UEKR4_OFED repository for Oracle Linux 6. By default, ol7_latest and ol7_UEKR4 are already enabled on Oracle Linux 7 and the ol6_latest and ol6_UEKR4 are already enabled on Oracle Linux 6. If these repositories are not enabled on your system, you should enable these as well. For example as root, run:
```
# yum-config-manager --enable ol7_latest ol7_UEKR4 ol7_UEKR4_OFED
```
Use yum-config-manager to disable the ol7_optional_latest or ol6_optional_latest repository or you may encounter dependency issues if this repository is enabled. For exampe:
```
# yum-config-manager --disable ol7_optional_latest
```
If you are running Oracle Linux 7, stop and disable the rdma.service service.
```
# systemctl stop rdma.service
# systemctl disable rdma.service
```

Remove any existing OFED packages:

# yum remove 'ibacm*'
# yum remove 'ib-bonding*'
# yum remove 'ibutils*'
# yum remove 'infiniband-diags*'
# yum remove 'libibacl*'
# yum remove 'libibcm*'
# yum remove 'libibmad*'
# yum remove 'libibumad*'
# yum remove 'libibverbs*'
# yum remove 'libmlx4*'
# yum remove 'librdmacm*'
# yum remove 'libsdp*'
# yum remove 'mstflint*'
# yum remove 'ofed-docs*'
# yum remove 'ofed-scripts*'
# yum remove 'opensm*'
# yum remove 'perftest*'
# yum remove 'qperf*'
# yum remove 'sdpnetstat*'
# yum remove 'rdma*'
# yum remove 'rds-tools*'

Clean all yum cached files from all enabled repositories:
```
# yum clean all
```
Run one of the following commands, based on server type:
- For a bare metal server, install the OFED packages for UEK R4 as follows:
```
# yum install oracle-ofed-release
```
- For a server that will function as a guest, install the OFED packages for UEK R4 as follows:
```
# yum install oracle-ofed-release-guest
```
Enable the RDMA service by entering the following command:
```
# chkconfig rdma on
```

Each UEK release requires a different set of OFED packages. If you change the kernel on your system to a UEK release earlier than UEK R4, remove the existing UEK R4-based OFED packages before installing the correct packages for the new kernel by running the following command:

# yum remove --setopt=clean_requirements_on_remove=1 oracle-ofed-release

Caution:

Downgrading UEK versions is not advisable, except for testing purposes.

To update OFED packages that are already installed for UEK R4, run this command:

# yum update oracle-ofed-release

To update the OFED packages that are already installed on the guest, run this command on the guest:

# yum update oracle-ofed-release-guest