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<pre style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">Oracle is pleased to announce the general availability of Oracle Linux 6.6 for x86 (32 bit) and x86_64 (64 bit) architectures.
</pre>
<p style="font-size: 14px; display: block; max-width: 720px; color:
rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal;
font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal;
text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none;
white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; background-color: rgb(255,
255, 255);"><tt>Oracle Linux 6 Update 6 ships with three sets of
kernel packages:</tt></p>
<div class="itemizedlist" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size:
14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight:
normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align:
start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space:
normal; word-spacing: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
<ul class="itemizedlist" style="list-style-type: disc;">
<li class="listitem" style="font-size: 14px; list-style: disc
outside none; vertical-align: middle; line-height: 16px;">
<p style="font-size: 14px; display: block; max-width: 720px;"><tt>Unbreakable
Enterprise Kernel Release 2 (</tt><tt><code
class="literal" style="font-size: 13px;
background-color: white; font-weight: bold;">kernel-uek-2.6.39-400.215.10.el6uek</code></tt><tt>)
for x86</tt></p>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="font-size: 14px; list-style: disc
outside none; vertical-align: middle; line-height: 16px;">
<p style="font-size: 14px; display: block; max-width: 720px;"><tt>Unbreakable
Enterprise Kernel Release 3 (</tt><tt><code
class="literal" style="font-size: 13px;
background-color: white; font-weight: bold;">kernel-uek-3.8.13-44.1.1.el6uek</code></tt><tt>)
for x86<code>_</code>64</tt></p>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="font-size: 14px; list-style: disc
outside none; vertical-align: middle; line-height: 16px;">
<p style="font-size: 14px; display: block; max-width: 720px;"><tt>Red
Hat Compatible Kernel (</tt><tt><code class="literal"
style="font-size: 13px; background-color: white;
font-weight: bold;">kernel-2.6.32-504.el6</code></tt><tt>)
for x86 and x86_64</tt></p>
</li>
</ul>
</div>
<pre style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">By default, both the Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel and the Red Hat Compatible Kernel are installed.
</pre>
<p style="font-size: 14px; display: block; max-width: 720px; color:
rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal;
font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal;
text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none;
white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; background-color: rgb(255,
255, 255);"><tt>UEK R3 includes the following major improvements
over UEK R2:</tt></p>
<div class="itemizedlist" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size:
14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight:
normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align:
start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space:
normal; word-spacing: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
<ul class="itemizedlist" style="list-style-type: disc;">
<li class="listitem" style="font-size: 14px; list-style: disc
outside none; vertical-align: middle; line-height: 16px;">
<p style="font-size: 14px; display: block; max-width: 720px;"><tt>Integrated
DTrace support in the UEK R3 kernel and user-space tracing
of DTrace-enabled applications.</tt></p>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="font-size: 14px; list-style: disc
outside none; vertical-align: middle; line-height: 16px;">
<p style="font-size: 14px; display: block; max-width: 720px;"><tt>Device
mapper support for an external, read-only device as the
origin for a thinly-provisioned volume.</tt></p>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="font-size: 14px; list-style: disc
outside none; vertical-align: middle; line-height: 16px;">
<p style="font-size: 14px; display: block; max-width: 720px;"><tt>The</tt><tt><span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></tt><tt><code
class="literal" style="font-size: 13px;
background-color: white; font-weight: bold;">loop</code></tt><tt><span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></tt><tt>driver
provides the same I/O functionality as</tt><tt><span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></tt><tt><code
class="literal" style="font-size: 13px; color: rgb(2,
103, 137); background-color: white; font-weight: bold;">dm-nfs</code></tt><tt><span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></tt><tt>by
extending the AIO interface to perform direct I/O. To
create the loopback device, use the</tt><tt><span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></tt><tt><span
class="command"><strong>losetup</strong></span></tt><tt><span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></tt><tt>command
instead of</tt><tt><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></tt><tt><span
class="command"><strong>dmsetup</strong></span></tt><tt>.
The</tt><tt><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></tt><tt><code
class="literal" style="font-size: 13px; color: rgb(2,
103, 137); background-color: white; font-weight: bold;">dm-nfs</code></tt><tt><span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></tt><tt>module is
not provided with UEK R3.</tt></p>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="font-size: 14px; list-style: disc
outside none; vertical-align: middle; line-height: 16px;">
<p style="font-size: 14px; display: block; max-width: 720px;"><tt>Btrfs</tt><tt><span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></tt><tt><span
class="command"><strong>send</strong></span></tt><tt><span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></tt><tt>and</tt><tt><span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></tt><tt><span
class="command"><strong>receive</strong></span></tt><tt><span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></tt><tt>subcommands
allow you to record the differences between two
subvolumes, which can either be snapshots of the same
subvolume or parent and child subvolumes.</tt></p>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="font-size: 14px; list-style: disc
outside none; vertical-align: middle; line-height: 16px;">
<p style="font-size: 14px; display: block; max-width: 720px;"><tt>Btrfs
quota groups (</tt><tt><span class="emphasis"><em
style="font-style: italic; font-size: 14px;
font-weight: normal; color: rgb(0, 51, 51);
background-color: white;">qgroups</em></span></tt><tt>)
allow you to set different size limits for a volume and
its subvolumes.</tt></p>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="font-size: 14px; list-style: disc
outside none; vertical-align: middle; line-height: 16px;">
<p style="font-size: 14px; display: block; max-width: 720px;"><tt>Btrfs
supports replacing devices without unmounting or otherwise
disrupting access to the file system.</tt></p>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="font-size: 14px; list-style: disc
outside none; vertical-align: middle; line-height: 16px;">
<p style="font-size: 14px; display: block; max-width: 720px;"><tt>Ext4
quotas are enabled as soon as the file system is mounted.</tt></p>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="font-size: 14px; list-style: disc
outside none; vertical-align: middle; line-height: 16px;">
<p style="font-size: 14px; display: block; max-width: 720px;"><tt>TCP
controlled delay management (</tt><tt><span
class="emphasis"><em style="font-style: italic;
font-size: 14px; font-weight: normal; color: rgb(0,
51, 51); background-color: white;">CoDel</em></span></tt><tt>)
is a new active queue management algorithm that is
designed to handle excessive buffering across a network
connection (</tt><tt><span class="emphasis"><em
style="font-style: italic; font-size: 14px;
font-weight: normal; color: rgb(0, 51, 51);
background-color: white;">bufferbloat</em></span></tt><tt>).
The algorithm is based on for how long packets are
buffered in the queue rather than the size of the queue.
If the minimum queuing time rises above a threshold value,
the algorithm discards packets and reduces the
transmission rate of TCP.</tt></p>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="font-size: 14px; list-style: disc
outside none; vertical-align: middle; line-height: 16px;">
<p style="font-size: 14px; display: block; max-width: 720px;"><tt>TCP
connection repair implements process checkpointing and
restart, which allows a TCP connection to be stopped on
one host and restarted on another host. Container
virtualization can use this feature to move a network
connection between hosts.</tt></p>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="font-size: 14px; list-style: disc
outside none; vertical-align: middle; line-height: 16px;">
<p style="font-size: 14px; display: block; max-width: 720px;"><tt>TCP
and STCP early retransmit allows fast retransmission
(under certain conditions) to reduce the number of
duplicate acknowledgements.</tt></p>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="font-size: 14px; list-style: disc
outside none; vertical-align: middle; line-height: 16px;">
<p style="font-size: 14px; display: block; max-width: 720px;"><tt>TCP
fast open (TFO) can speed up the opening of successive TCP
connections between two endpoints by eliminating one round
time trip (RTT) from some TCP transactions.</tt></p>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="font-size: 14px; list-style: disc
outside none; vertical-align: middle; line-height: 16px;">
<p style="font-size: 14px; display: block; max-width: 720px;"><tt>The
TCP small queue algorithm is another mechanism intended to
help deal with bufferbloat. The algorithm limits the
amount of data that can be queued for transmission by a
socket.</tt></p>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="font-size: 14px; list-style: disc
outside none; vertical-align: middle; line-height: 16px;">
<p style="font-size: 14px; display: block; max-width: 720px;"><tt>The
secure computing mode feature (</tt><tt><span
class="emphasis"><em style="font-style: italic;
font-size: 14px; font-weight: normal; color: rgb(0,
51, 51); background-color: white;">seccomp</em></span></tt><tt>)
is a simple sandbox mechanism that, in strict mode, allows
a thread to transition to a state where it cannot make any
system calls except from a very restricted set (</tt><tt><code
class="literal" style="font-size: 13px; color: rgb(2,
103, 137); background-color: white; font-weight: bold;">_exit()</code></tt><tt>,</tt><tt><code
class="literal" style="font-size: 13px; color: rgb(2,
103, 137); background-color: white; font-weight: bold;">read()</code></tt><tt>,</tt><tt><span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></tt><tt><code
class="literal" style="font-size: 13px; color: rgb(2,
103, 137); background-color: white; font-weight: bold;">sigreturn()</code></tt><tt>,
and</tt><tt><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></tt><tt><code
class="literal" style="font-size: 13px; color: rgb(2,
103, 137); background-color: white; font-weight: bold;">write()</code></tt><tt>)
and it can only use file descriptors that were already
open. In filter mode, a thread can specify an arbitrary
filter of permitted systems calls that would be forbidden
in strict mode. Access to this feature is by using the</tt><tt><span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></tt><tt><code
class="literal" style="font-size: 13px; color: rgb(2,
103, 137); background-color: white; font-weight: bold;">prctl()</code></tt><tt><span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></tt><tt>system
call. For more information, see the</tt><tt><span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></tt><tt><code
class="literal" style="font-size: 13px; color: rgb(2,
103, 137); background-color: white; font-weight: bold;">prctl(2)</code></tt><tt><span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></tt><tt>manual
page.</tt></p>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="font-size: 14px; list-style: disc
outside none; vertical-align: middle; line-height: 16px;">
<p style="font-size: 14px; display: block; max-width: 720px;"><tt>The
OpenFabrics Enterprise Distribution (OFED) 2.0 stack
supports the following protocols:</tt></p>
<div class="itemizedlist">
<ul class="itemizedlist" style="list-style-type: circle;">
<li class="listitem" style="font-size: 14px; list-style:
square outside none; vertical-align: middle;
line-height: 16px;">
<p style="font-size: 14px; display: block; max-width:
720px;"><tt>SCSI RDMA Protocol (SRP) enables access to
remote SCSI devices via remote direct memory access
(RDMA)</tt></p>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="font-size: 14px; list-style:
square outside none; vertical-align: middle;
line-height: 16px;">
<p style="font-size: 14px; display: block; max-width:
720px;"><tt>iSCSI Extensions for remote direct memory
access (iSER) provide access to iSCSI storage
devices</tt></p>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="font-size: 14px; list-style:
square outside none; vertical-align: middle;
line-height: 16px;">
<p style="font-size: 14px; display: block; max-width:
720px;"><tt>Reliable Datagram Sockets (RDS) is a
high-performance, low-latency, reliable
connectionless protocol for datagram delivery</tt></p>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="font-size: 14px; list-style:
square outside none; vertical-align: middle;
line-height: 16px;">
<p style="font-size: 14px; display: block; max-width:
720px;"><tt>Sockets Direct Protocol (SDP) supports
stream sockets for RDMA network fabrics</tt></p>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="font-size: 14px; list-style:
square outside none; vertical-align: middle;
line-height: 16px;">
<p style="font-size: 14px; display: block; max-width:
720px;"><tt>Ethernet over InfiniBand (EoIB)</tt></p>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="font-size: 14px; list-style:
square outside none; vertical-align: middle;
line-height: 16px;">
<p style="font-size: 14px; display: block; max-width:
720px;"><tt>IP encapsulation over InfiniBand (IPoIB)</tt></p>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="font-size: 14px; list-style:
square outside none; vertical-align: middle;
line-height: 16px;">
<p style="font-size: 14px; display: block; max-width:
720px;"><tt>Ethernet tunneling over InfiniBand
(eIPoIB)</tt></p>
</li>
</ul>
</div>
<p style="font-size: 14px; display: block; max-width: 720px;"><tt>The
OFED 2.0 stack also supports the following RDS features:</tt></p>
<div class="itemizedlist">
<ul class="itemizedlist" style="list-style-type: circle;">
<li class="listitem" style="font-size: 14px; list-style:
square outside none; vertical-align: middle;
line-height: 16px;">
<p style="font-size: 14px; display: block; max-width:
720px;"><tt>Async Send (AS)</tt></p>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="font-size: 14px; list-style:
square outside none; vertical-align: middle;
line-height: 16px;">
<p style="font-size: 14px; display: block; max-width:
720px;"><tt>Quality of Service (QoS)</tt></p>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="font-size: 14px; list-style:
square outside none; vertical-align: middle;
line-height: 16px;">
<p style="font-size: 14px; display: block; max-width:
720px;"><tt>Automatic Path Migration (APM)</tt></p>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="font-size: 14px; list-style:
square outside none; vertical-align: middle;
line-height: 16px;">
<p style="font-size: 14px; display: block; max-width:
720px;"><tt>Active Bonding (AB)</tt></p>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="font-size: 14px; list-style:
square outside none; vertical-align: middle;
line-height: 16px;">
<p style="font-size: 14px; display: block; max-width:
720px;"><tt>Shared Request Queue (SRQ)</tt></p>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="font-size: 14px; list-style:
square outside none; vertical-align: middle;
line-height: 16px;">
<p style="font-size: 14px; display: block; max-width:
720px;"><tt>Netfilter (NF)</tt></p>
</li>
</ul>
</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="font-size: 14px; list-style: disc
outside none; vertical-align: middle; line-height: 16px;">
<p style="font-size: 14px; display: block; max-width: 720px;"><tt>Paravirtualization
support has been enabled for Oracle Linux guests on
Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V or Windows Server 2008 R2
Hyper-V.</tt></p>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="font-size: 14px; list-style: disc
outside none; vertical-align: middle; line-height: 16px;">
<p style="font-size: 14px; display: block; max-width: 720px;"><tt>The
Virtual Extensible LAN (VXLAN) tunneling protocol overlays
a virtual network on an existing Layer 3 infrastructure to
allow the transfer of Layer 2 Ethernet packets over UDP.
This feature is intended for use by a virtual network
infrastructure in a virtualized environment. Use cases
include virtual machine migration and software-defined
networking (SDN).</tt></p>
</li>
</ul>
</div>
<h3>Technology Previews</h3>
<p style="font-size: 14px; display: block; max-width: 720px;
font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal;
letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start;
text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal;
word-spacing: 0px;"><tt>The following technology preview features
are provided with UEK R2:</tt></p>
<ul>
<li><tt>Distributed Replicated Block Device (Oracle Linux 6 only)</tt></li>
</ul>
<blockquote><tt>Distributed Replicated Block Device (DRBD)
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) to implement automatic failover.</tt><br>
<blockquote><tt> </tt><br>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<ul>
<li><tt>Kernel module signing facility</tt></li>
</ul>
<blockquote><tt>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.</tt><br>
</blockquote>
<blockquote><tt> </tt><tt>The kernel module signing facility is a
supported feature in the UEK R3 distribution.</tt><br>
<tt> </tt><br>
</blockquote>
<ul>
<li><tt>Linux Containers (Oracle Linux 6 and x86-64 only)</tt></li>
</ul>
<blockquote><tt>Based on the Linux cgroups and name spaces
functionality, Linux Containers (LXC) allow you to safely and
securely run multiple applications or instances of an operating
system on a single host without risking them interfering with
each other. Containers are lightweight and resource-friendly,
which saves both rack space and power. In order to get started
with containers, you need to install the lxc package, which is
included in the package repository of the Unbreakable Enterprise
Kernel.</tt><br>
</blockquote>
<blockquote><tt> </tt><tt>LXC is a supported feature in the UEK R3
distribution.</tt><br>
<tt> </tt><br>
</blockquote>
<ul>
<li><tt>Transcendent memory</tt></li>
</ul>
<blockquote><tt>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 on
oss.oracle.com: <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://oss.oracle.com/projects/tmem/">http://oss.oracle.com/projects/tmem/</a></tt><br>
</blockquote>
<tt> </tt><tt><br>
</tt><tt>The following technology preview features are provided with
UEK R3:</tt><tt><br>
</tt><tt><br>
</tt>
<ul>
<li><tt>Distributed Replicated Block Device</tt></li>
</ul>
<blockquote><tt>Distributed Replicated Block Device (DRBD)
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) to implement automatic failover.</tt><br>
</blockquote>
<ul>
<li><tt>Transcendent memory</tt></li>
</ul>
<blockquote><tt>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 on
oss.oracle.com: <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://oss.oracle.com/projects/tmem/">http://oss.oracle.com/projects/tmem/</a></tt><br>
</blockquote>
<tt> </tt><tt><br>
</tt><tt>The following Technology Preview features are available
when running the Red Hat Compatible Kernel (RHCK):</tt><br>
<ul>
<li><tt>Apache IPA identity management modules</tt></li>
<li><tt>Btrfs file system</tt></li>
<li><tt>Closed Process Group (CPG) API for inter-node locking</tt></li>
<li><tt>Corosync redundant ring with autorecovery</tt></li>
<li><tt>corosync-cpgtool dual-ring configuration</tt></li>
<li><tt>Cross Realm Kerberos Trust Functionality (relies on the
Samba 4 client library)</tt></li>
<li><tt>dm-era is a device mapper target that records when blocks
are written to a device and is typically intended for use by
backup applications</tt></li>
<li><tt>fence_ipmilan agent diagnostic pulse</tt></li>
<li><tt>fence_sanlock agent for luci</tt></li>
<li><tt>FUSE (Filesystem in Userspace)</tt></li>
<li><tt>keepalived daemon for network load balancing and high
availability</tt></li>
<li><tt>Kerberos v1.10 DIR cache storage type to handle TGTs for
multiple KDCs</tt></li>
<li><tt>Kernel Media support</tt></li>
<li><tt>libqb library for high performance logging, tracing,
inter-process communication, and polling by Pacemaker</tt></li>
<li><tt>Linux Containers (LXC)</tt></li>
<li><tt>LVM metadata dynamic aggregation (using lvmetad daemon)</tt></li>
<li><tt>LVM support for thinly-provisioned snapshots (single
system only)</tt></li>
<li><tt>LVM support for thinly-provisioned logical volumes (single
system only)</tt></li>
<li><tt>Pacemaker high-availability cluster manager</tt></li>
<li><tt>pcs utility for cluster configuration and management</tt></li>
<li><tt>Performance Co-Pilot (PCP) provides support for monitoring
and managing performance at the system level</tt></li>
<li><tt>Precision Time Protocol (PTP) linuxptp implementation</tt></li>
<li><tt>PTP kernel driver support</tt></li>
<li><tt>QFQ queuing discipline</tt></li>
<li><tt>rgmanager support for disabling via /etc/cluster.conf</tt></li>
<li><tt>Thin-provisioning and scalable snapshots</tt></li>
<li><tt>trousers and tpm-tools packages that support Trusted
Platform Module (TPM) hardware</tt></li>
</ul>
<pre style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">For more information, please refer to the online release notes available at:
<a href="http://oss.oracle.com/ol6/docs">http://oss.oracle.com/ol6/docs</a>
Software Accessibility
All packages are available on the <a href="http://linux.oracle.com">Unbreakable Linux Network</a>.
Installable binary and source ISO images will available on <a href="http://edelivery.oracle.com/linux">Oracle Software Delivery Cloud </a> shortly.
If ISO images are needed before they are available on Oracle Software Delivery Cloud, please request these via a My Oracle Support service request.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
The Oracle Linux Team</pre>
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