Overlay File System and XFS

This update includes a patch that prevents mounting an overlay file system on XFS where the XFS file system is not formatted to support d_type entries. This change helps to prevent file system corruption issues and instability in environments that might use an overlay file system, such as Docker. Since most Oracle Linux releases format the root partition with ftype=0, any existing overlay file systems that have been configured to run within the root partition are no longer mountable with this update.can lead to an availability issue after upgrade. Therefore, you should ensure that appropriately formatted storage is available prior to upgrade and that the data for the overlay file system is migrated beforehand. See xfs for more information on this issue.

Support for Skylake Processor Family

This update includes improved support for servers having Intel® Xeon® E3 v5, Intel® Xeon® Platinum 8100, Intel® Xeon® Gold 6100, Intel® Xeon® Gold 5100, Intel® Xeon® Silver 4100 and Intel® Xeon® Bronze 3100 families of processors (formerly known as Skylake). This release of UEK R4 is the minimum update level that should be used for systems using any of these processor families.

ena driver 1.1.2 added

The ena (Elastic Network Adapter) driver module has been added to enable the custom EC2 network interface optimized for high throughput and low latency on EC2 instances. The driver supports a range of ENA devices, is link-speed independent (i.e., the same driver is used for 10GbE, 25GbE, 40GbE, etc.), and has a negotiated and extendable feature set.

fm10k driver 0.21.7-k added

The Intel® Ethernet Switch Host Interface Driver (fm10k) module has been added. Patches have been applied to bring this version of the driver up to the most current level for compatibility with this kernel release.

macsec driver added

The macsec driver enables MACsec/IEEE 802.1AE network device support. This driver provides authentication and encryption of traffic in a LAN, typically with GCM-AES-128, and optional replay protection. Patches have also been applied to bring this version of the driver up to the most current level for compatibility with this kernel release. The iproute package has been updated to include support for the ip macsec command and related functionality. Note that this functionality is currently only available on Oracle Linux 7.

smartpqi driver 0.9.13-370 added

The Microsemi Smart Family Controller Driver (smartpqi) module has been added. This driver enables next generation SCSI devices that implement the PQI queuing model, such as the Adaptec Series 9 controllers. The driver replaces the aacraid driver for these devices. Patches have been applied to bring this version of the driver up to the most current level for compatibility with this kernel release.

intel_idle driver updated for Skylake processor family

The intel_idle driver that loads on specific Intel® processors in lieu of the legacy ACPI processor_idle driver, to provide greater efficiency and stability for Linux on these processors, has been updated to include improved support for servers having Intel® Xeon® E3 v5, Intel® Xeon® E5 v5 and Intel® Xeon® E7 v5 families of processors (formerly known as Skylake). This driver is compiled into the kernel.

vmmouse driver updated for Secure Boot

The vmmouse driver has been updated with patches that enable it to work when Secure Boot is enabled.

Hardware enablement for latest HPE SGI UV platforms

The kernel is updated to apply upstream patches that enable hardware support for an HPE system utilizing SGI UV technology (HPE acquired SGI). The patches are limited to HPE system specific sections of the kernel or are properly guarded to only impact HPE systems.

Userfaultfd support added to kernel

The kernel is updated to support userfaultfd, a new feature that allows on-demand paging from user space and allows user space applications to take control of various memory page faults. The code for this takes advantage of several patches, including a back port of patches for hugetlbfs.

RDS improvements for cluster scalability on shared-port HCAs

The code for Reliable Datagram Sockets (RDS) has been updated to better handle large-scale clustering on shared-port InfiniBand HCAs. These changes include a modification to the code for active bonding to decouple the queue from the Reliable Datagram Sockets (RDS) code, and improvements to the RDS code for sync point failback scenarios to handle a staggered network interface readiness issue across the cluster that resulted in increased load. These changes better facilitate larger clusters and improve performance of RDS active bonding.