This document covers the following topics regarding Oracle Linux 5.8.
For the latest updates please refer to the online version of these release notes available
at:
http://oss.oracle.com/el5/docs/
NOTE: An upgrade of Oracle Linux from a beta release is not supported. Further, an in-place upgrade between major versions of Oracle Linux is not supported. Oracle does not recommend an upgrade from earlier major versions of Oracle Linux even though anaconda provides an option to do this upgrade. A fresh installation is strongly recommended rather than a system upgrade between major versions.
The following RPMs are modified from the upstream release. All changes are trademark and look/feel related unless otherwise noted below under the specific RPM.
The following packages have been removed
The following documentation packages have been removed
The following packages were added upstream for this release (5.8) which were not in the previous update release (5.7)
The following packages have been added to the release
Oracle Linux 5.8 ships with the following kernel packages
Note:Oracle Linux 5.8 includes both a 32 bit and a 64 bit Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel. Both Unbreakable Enterprise kernel and Red Hat compatible kernel are installed and the system boots with Unbreakable Enterprise kernel by default. If needed /etc/grub.conf can be modifed to make the system boot with Red Hat compatible kernel by default.
This section covers significant changes in the Red Hat compatible kernel in this release.
This is the Red Hat compatible kernel with critical bug fixes produced by Oracle.
The Red Hat Compatible Kernel with Bug Fixes by Oracle must be manually installed. To install this kernel, follow these steps:
The Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel is based on the upstream kernel 2.6.32-41 stable source tree with additional performance improvements, including:
OFED implements Remote Direct Memory Access (RDMA) and kernel bypass mechanisms to deliver high-efficiency computing, wire-speed messaging, ultra-low microsecond latencies and fast I/O for servers, block storage and file systems.
The Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel includes the OCFS2 1.6 kernel module. New features include:For more details, see the OCFS2 1.6 User's Guide
- JBD2 support
- Extended attributes
- POSIX ACLs
- Security attributes
- Metadata checksums
- Indexed directories
- REFLINKs
The Linux data integrity framework (DIF) enables applications or kernel subsystems to attach metadata to I/O operations, allowing devices that support DIF to verify the integrity before passing them further down the stack and physically committing them to disk. Data Integrity Extensions or DIX is a hardware feature that enables exchange of protection metadata between host operating system and HBA.
The Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel is tickless. In the tickless kernel, timer interrupts are performed on demand rather than at a predetermined frequency. This allows CPUs to stay in a low power state when the system is idle, reducing overall power consumption
TCG can track and group processes into user-defined cgroups so that the operating system can treat them as whole and perform scheduling, accounting, and resourceallocation accordingly. For example, using TCG, you can associate a set of CPU cores and memory nodes to a group of processes that makeup an application or a group of applications. This enables subsetting larger systems, more fine grained control over CPU and memory, and isolation of applications.
The performance counter subsystem keeps track of hardware and software events without affecting performance and enables you to do tracing and performance analysis. Included is a tool called perf for analysis.
The kernel block layer will detect devices that claim to be fast,solid state storage and tune itself accordingly. The result of this detection can be found in:/sys/block/xxx/queue/rotationalWhere xxx is the block device. Echoing a 0 or a 1 into this file will force the value to off or on. When assuming a device is an SSD, the block layer will try harder to immediately dispatch the IO to the device.
IO affinity ensures processing of a completed IO is handled by the same CPU that initiated the IO. It can have a fairly large impact on performance, especially on large NUMA machines. IO affinity is turned on by default, but it can be controlled via the tunable in /sys/block/xxx/queue/rq_affinity. For example, the following will turn IO affinity on:echo 1> /sys/block/sda/queue/rq_affinity
RPS distributes the load of received packet processing across multiple CPUs. This solution allows protocol processing (e.g. IP and TCP) to be performed on packets in parallel. This removes a bottleneck when a single core is saturated processing network interrupts. To enable receive packet steering for the interface xxx, place a CPU mask into/sys/class/net/xxx/queues/rx-0/rps_cpusThe cpu mask takes the same form as the masks for the taskset command. For example:echo 0x55> /sys/class/net/eth0/queues/rx-0/rps_cpus
fallocate() is a new system call which will allow applications to preallocate space to any file(s) in a file system. Applications can get a guarantee of space for particular file(s) - even if later the system becomes full. Using this method of allocation can dramatically speed up the creation of large files such as those used for virtual machine images.
The following Technology Preview features are currently not supported under Oracle Linux 5 and may not be functionally complete.
These features are not suitable for production use. However, these features are included to provide the feature with wider exposure.
Upgrading an existing Oracle Linux 5 Update 6 or Update 7 guest which is running in HVM mode on Oracle VM 2.2.2 may result in the network interface(s) being disabled after the reboot post-upgrade. To resolve this issue, ensure that the network interfaces are set to "paravirtual" in Oracle VM Manager.
Alternatively, to maintain the emulated devices inside the guest, add xen_emul_unplug=never to the kernel boot line in /boot/grub/grub.conf and reboot the guest.
Upgrading an existing Oracle Linux 5 Update 6 or Update 7 guest which is running in HVM with PV Drivers mode on Oracle VM 2.2.2 or 3.0 may result in the network interface(s) being disabled after the reboot post-upgrade. To resolve this issue, rename the /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0.bak file to /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0 and reboot the guest.
After an initial install of Oracle Linux 5.8, the following warning may appear one or more times in the output of dmesg:warning: process `firstboot' used the deprecated sysctl system call with 1.23.This warning can be safely ignored.
Oracle Linux 5.8 includes a new version of device-mapper-multipath. This new version requires manual changes to the /etc/multipath.conf file. In the multipath.conf, the line with prio_callout needs to be replaced by the keyword prio, and a simple string, not an executable pathname, used for the parameter to prio. Valid settings for prio are:
- alua
- ontap
- const
- random
- emc
- rdac
- hds
- tpg_pref
- hp_sw
- weighted
In some multipath failure cases, the multipath maps can get flushed when all paths fail, and multipath -l displays no information on the status of your multipath devices. This has been reported with 2.6.32 UEK kernels using NetApp LUNs, but not when running 2.6.18 series kernels with the same storage LUNs.
iscsi offload via cxgb3i on a server with Chelsio T3 Network Controller will fail with following error if ofa kernel package is installedfatal: error inserting cxgb3i - unknown symbol t3_l2e_freeUse following workaround steps to fix the issue:
- Remove cxgb3i dependent module from memory if any loaded , i.e
# rmmod libcxgbi cxgb3- Uninstall ofa package,
# rpm -e ofa-2.6.32-300.10.1.el6uek-1.5.1-4.0.47.x86_64- Load cxgb3i module
# modprobe cxgb3i
On 32-bit Oracle Linux systems, you may see the following warning in dmesg:warning: `dbus-daemon' uses 32-bit capabilities (legacy support in use)This is only a warning and can be safely ignored.
Some server hardware may not support the Intel TCO watchdog drivers. The following warning may be seen in dmesg:iTCO_vendor_support: vendor-support=0 iTCO_wdt: Intel TCO WatchDog Timer Driver v1.05 iTCO_wdt: failed to reset NO_REBOOT flag, reboot disabled by hardware iTCO_wdt: No card detected intel_rng: FWH not detectedTo disable this TCO WatchDog Timer Driver and suppress this warning at boot time add the line "blacklist iTCO_wdt" to /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-watchdog".
Due to a change in the way firmware is loaded between the Red Hat Compatible Kernel and the Oracle Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel, you may need to manually install the correct UEK kernel firmware package if you want to boot a previous kernel version after upgrading to Oracle Linux 5.8. For example, to install the firmware for kernel-uek-2.6.32-200.13.1, download the correct RPM package from the Unbreakable Linux Network and run the following command:# rpm -ivh --force kernel-uek-firmware-2.6.32-200.13.1.el5uek.noarch.rpm
Oracle Linux 5.8 paravirtualized guests running on Oracle VM with the Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel have a memory limit of 220GB. Setting the memory beyond this value may cause the paravirtualized network interfaces to fail.
Attempting to boot a 32-bit HVM guest with PV Drives with more than 1 virtual CPU may fail. To resolve this issue, boot the guest with a single virtual CPU and append tsc=reliable parameter to the kernel boot line in */boot/grub/grub/conf*. You can then boot the guest with multiple virtual CPUs.
Certain server platforms may not support the default kdump parameters. To test this, enable kdump and issue:echo c > /proc/sysrq-triggerIf your server hangs indefinitely, you may need to disable the "reset_devices" parameter for kdump. To do this, edit /etc/sysconfig/kdump and remove the "reset_devices" parameter from the KDUMP_COMMANDLINE_APPEND variable.
yum package need to be updated before upgrading previous update releases of Oracle Linux 5 to Oracle Linux 5 Update 8 using yum from ULN. Please use the following steps to upgrade:# yum update yum # yum update
In certain upgrade scenarios the Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel may not be the default boot kernel. Update /etc/grub.conf to make the latest Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel as the default boot kernel.
Starting OpenFabrics Enterprise Distribution 1.4.2-5 version (ofa package), ib_iser kernel module is not built as part of ofa package. If the ofa package installed on the system tries to load ib_iser.ko, the following message will be displayed on the console
ib_iser: disagrees about version of symbol ib_fmr_pool_unmap ib_iser: Unknown symbol ib_fmr_pool_unmapThese messages can be ignored as ib_iser.ko is no more needed.
If any of the following packages are installed on the systemkmod-cmirror kmod-cmirror-xen kmod-gfs kmod-gfs-xen kmod-gnbd kmod-gnbd-xenUpgrade of Oracle Linux 5 system may fail with the following errorAn error occured while installing packages. Please examine /root/install.log on your installed system for detailed informationto workaround this problem, remove above packages before upgrade. These packages can be installed after the upgrade.
Following messages during boot of paravirtualized guest can be ignoredFailed to stat /dev/mapper/no Failed to stat /dev/mapper/block Failed to stat /dev/mapper/devices Failed to stat /dev/mapper/foundThese errors are expected as dmraid utility returns 'no block devices found' because an ioctl to get serial numbers on pv devices returns -EINVAL."
When failed paths are restored in a multipath configuration, you may see udevd-work error messages in /var/log/messages. The failed paths do get restored despite these messages.
The default NFS mount option has changed to NFS v4. To mount an NFS volume using NFS v3 (the default using the Red Hat Compatible Kernel), use the following mount options:-o vers=3,mountproto=tcp
Please use the following steps to configure the serial console in a paravirtualized guest (PV) using the Unbreakable Enterprise kernel (updates are in the guest):.
- change the kernel boot parameter 'console=xvc0' to 'console=hvc0' in the /etc/grub.conf:
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.32-300.10.1.el5 ro root=/dev/sd0 console=tty0 console=hvc0- add an 'hvc0' entry to /etc/inittab:
co:2345:respawn:/sbin/agetty hvc0 9600 vt100-nav- add an 'hvc0' entry to /etc/securetty
To set the serial console a hardware virtualized (HVM) guest use the following settings in the guest:
- On the kernel boot line in grub.conf, add:
console=tty0 console=ttyS0,57600n8- add the following to /etc/securetty
ttyS0- add the following to /etc/inittab
co:2345:respawn:/sbin/agetty ttyS0 57600 vt100-nav
On some hardware, the console may appear to hang during the boot process after starting udev. But the system does boot up properly and is accessible. A workaround to this problem is to add nomodeset as a kernel boot parameter in /etc/grub.conf:
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.32-300.10.1.el5uek.x86_64 ro root=/dev/sd0 nomodeset
On some hardware, startup of the X environment may fail after upgrading to Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel with following Error:
Fatal server error:
Cannot run in framebuffer mode. Please specify busIDs for all
framebuffer devices.
To workaround this issue reconfigure X using command "X -configure" and use generated configuration file to start X environment.
With the Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel a higher memory setting is required for crashkernel option in /etc/grub.conf file. Booting with crashkernel=128M@16M will result in following error:
crashkernel reservation failed - memory is in use
Minimum value for crashkernel option is 128M@32M. Based on the system configuration a higher value may be required. If kdump service loading fails increase the second value (32M). If the system hangs or crashes with out of memory during dumping core increase the first value (128M)
For the Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel, the default IO scheduler is the 'deadline' scheduler.
For the Red Hat Compatible Kernel, the default IO scheduler is the 'cfq' scheduler.
For the Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel, kernel.sched_compat_yield=1 by default.
For the Red Hat Compatible Kernel, kernel.sched_compat_yield=0 by default.
In some instances, large IO loads on NFS that use mmap may fail and cause the kernel to panic with
a message like:
kernel BUG at mm/truncate.c:469!
The following error may be encountered while mounting an NFS filesystem:
"SVC: FAILED TO REGISTER LOCKDV1 RPC SERVICE (ERRNO 97)."
This is an informative message and can be ignored
When kdump starts, you may see the following warning message:
WARNING: No modules scsi_mod found for kernel 2.6.32-300.10.1.el5uek.x86_64, continuing anyway
This warning can be ignored. The kdump service does get started and a vmcore does get generated.
The following message during boot can be ignored as selinux does not allow to recreate login subdir and hence directory should not be removed for dovecot:Error : "rm: cannot remove `/var/run/dovecot/login': Is a directory "
The following warnings during kernel install can be ignored:WARNING: No module ehci-hcd found for kernel 2.6.32-300.10.1.el5uek, continuing anyway WARNING: No module ohci-hcd found for kernel 2.6.32-300.10.1.el5uek, continuing anyway WARNING: No module uhci-hcd found for kernel 2.6.32-300.10.1.el5uek, continuing anyway
ocfs2 and oracleasm kernel modules will not be automatically updated during upgrade of Oracle Linux 5 as package name for these modules contains kernel version in it. These packages need to be updated manulaly after the upgrade.
Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel requires kpartx and device-mapper-multipath RPMs that are newer than those provided for the Red Hat compatible kernel. By default device-mapper-multipath-0.4.9-23.0.9.el5 and kpartx-0.4.9-23.0.9.el5 are installed. These updated versions of kpartx and device-mapper-multipath are supported with the Red Hat compatible kernel. The original RPMs for the Red Hat compatible kernel (kpartx-0.4.7-46.el5 and device-mapper-multipath-0.4.7-46.el5) are also included on the Oracle Linux 5.8 ISO in directory Server/oracle_updated.
Pirut and system-config-packages cannot be used to manage, install, and uninstall software packages. Follow the steps below to resolve the issue
- Mount the DVD iso of the desired update of Oracle Linux Release 5.
Command for mounting the DVD media inserted in /dev/cdrom # mount -r -o loop -t iso9660 /dev/cdrom /mnt
Command to mount iso image file # mount -o loop/mnt - Create yum repository configuration file /etc/yum.repos.d/dvd.repo with following contents
[dvd] name=OEL5DVD baseurl=file:///mnt/Server enabled=1 gpgcheck=1 gpgkey=file:///mnt/RPM-GPG-KEY file:///mnt/RPM-GPG-KEY-oracle- Clear and update the yum cache
# yum clean all # yum update- Run pirut/system-config-packages to manage software packages
The following packages can not co-exists due to file conflict
- freeradius and freeradius2
- postgres and postgresql84
- samba and samba3x
- tcsh and tcsh617
- bind and bind97
- php and php53
If updating from Oracle Linux 5 GA or RHEL 5 GA using up2date, you may encounter the following error:Unresolvable chain of dependencies: xen-3.0.3-64.el5 requires xen-hypervisor-abi = 3.1This happens because a kernel-xen package update is needed by the xen package, but 'kernel*' is part of the up2date pkgSkipList. To get around this, add 'xen;xen-devel;' to the the pkgSkipList line in /etc/sysconfig/rhn/up2date and then run up2date. You can update the xen and kernel-xen packages together later via 'up2date --force xen kernel-xen'.
Oracle Linux offers an option to keep your operating system up to date with latest operating system patches using up2date. To access Linux updates via Unbreakable Linux Network, you must purchase a Linux support subscription.For more information please visit http://linux.oracle.com
Note: Prior to using up2date, import the RPM-GPG-KEY for Oracle Linux:
rpm --import /etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY