Oracle has released Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel 8.2 (UEK 8.2), a variant of the Linux kernel developed for use in the Oracle Linux distribution as an alternative to the standard kernel package from Red Hat Enterprise Linux. The kernel is available for x86_64 and ARM64 (aarch64) architectures. The kernel's source code, including separation into individual patches, has been published in Oracle's public Git repository.
The Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel 8 branch is based on Linux kernel 6.12, which has been enhanced with new capabilities, optimizations, and fixes, and has been verified for compatibility with most applications running on RHEL. It is also optimized for industrial software and hardware from Oracle. Installation and src packages for UEK 8.2 have been prepared for the Oracle Linux 9 and Oracle Linux 10 branches (there are no barriers to using this kernel in similar versions of RHEL, CentOS, Alma Linux, and Rocky Linux).
Among the changes in UEK 8.2 are:
- Support for Intel TDX (Trusted Domain Extensions) and AMD SEV-SNP (Secure Encrypted Virtualization-Secure Nested Paging) mechanisms has been implemented for the hypervisor and guest systems, protecting guest systems from interference and analysis by the host system administrator and physical attacks on hardware. Protection is ensured through memory encryption. of virtual machines.
- The ability to restore the XFS filesystem in online mode using the xfs_scrub utility has been added, without unmounting the partition or stopping work with the filesystem.
- Support for lightweight memory guard pages has been added, where access results in an exception and process termination (SIGSEGV). Compared to mapping in PROT_NONE mode, guard pages allow for more efficient blocking of code execution beyond the allocated memory area, as their creation does not require allocation of a new area of virtual memory.
- Profiling of memory allocation and deallocation operations in the system has been implemented, collecting statistics on memory allocation and the size of used memory, as well as detecting memory leaks. To enable profiling, the sysctl parameter "sysctl.vm.mem_profiling=1" is proposed, with access to information through /proc/allocinfo.
- Drivers for AMD HSMP devices, Intel Ethernet Connection XL710, Intel Data Streaming Accelerator, Intel 10 Gigabit PCI Express, Broadcom Emulex Fibre Channel HBA, and NVIDIA ConnectX have been updated.
Additionally, it is worth noting the update of the UEK-next branch (Next Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel), which has transitioned to using the Linux kernel version 6.19. The UEK-next is presented as a continuously updated option for developers, allowing access to the latest improvements from the mainline kernel, while retaining access to the advanced features specific to the UEK kernel. The UEK-next kernel is formed by overlaying fixes and enhancements prepared for the UEK kernel onto the mainline Linux kernel. After some time, a long-term support (LTS) cycle will be provided for one of the UEK-next kernels, which will serve as the basis for forming the UEK 9 branch.
Source: opennet.ru
