Oracle released the release of the first update of Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel 6 which is based on the Linux 5.4 kernel and which is complemented by new features, optimizations and fixes and is also tested for compatibility with most applications running on RHEL and is specially optimized to work with Oracle hardware and industrial software.
For those who do not know about this Kernel modified by Oracle, is positioned as an advanced set Linux kernel, positioned for use in the Oracle Linux distribution as an alternative to the normal Red Hat Enterprise Linux kernel package.
Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel (UEK) provides the latest open source innovations, key optimizations and security for cloud and on-premises workloads.
It is the Linux kernel that powers Oracle Cloud and Oracle Engineered Systems, such as Oracle Exadata Database Machine and Oracle Linux on Intel and AMD 64-bit or Arm 64-bit platforms.
EUK Release 6 maintains Red Hat Compatible Kernel compatibility (RHCK) and does not disable any features that are enabled in RHCK. Additional features are enabled to support key functional requirements and patches are applied to improve performance and optimize the kernel.
Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel R6U1 Main New Features
In this new update version the implementation of NFS 4.2 adds an experimental capability to copy files directly between different NFS servers or within a single NFS server without transferring them to the client over the network.
An experimental mechanism has been added to the task scheduler to protect against data leakage through side channels through the CPU cache, limiting the simultaneous execution of sensitive information drivers on the same CPU core.
To organize the parallel execution of tasks in the kernel, instead of ktask, the padata mechanism is used, which allows you to execute load balanced multithreaded tasks on different CPU cores.
Bug fixes and improvements made to the filesystem code Btrfs, CIFS, ext4, NFS, OCFS2, and XFS.
Kernel scheduling is a feature enabled in the kernel to limit trusted tasks to run concurrently on CPU cores that share computing resources to help mitigate certain categories of 'central shared cache' processor errors that could cause computer leaks. data and other related vulnerabilities.
Wireguard is a faster and more secure replacement for IPsec and OpenVPN and in this new version, WireGuard is enabled as a technical preview on UEK R6U1 and introduces the wireguard kernel module in version 1.0.20200712.
Regarding the controllers that received improvements:
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The Controllers AMD-TEE, amdtee and tee, are new additions in this release to include updates to the main kernel.
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Atheros 802.11n HTC updated for security fixes, including CVE-2019-19073.
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El Network Driver Broadcom BCM573xx, bnxt_en, is available in version 1.10.1 and includes patches and updates.
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The Linux of the Intel Ethernet Connection E800 series, ice, is updated to version 0.8.2-k to support compatibility with the newer Intel 800 series Ethernet controllers and PCIe cards.
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The Broadcom Emulex LightPulse controller Fiber Channel SCSI, lpfc, is updated to version 12.8.0.3 with vendor-provided patches and bug fixes.
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El controller Broadcom MegaRAID SAS, megaraid_sas, it was updated to version 07.714.04.00-rc1.
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El device driver LSI MPT Fusion SAS 3.0, mpt3sas, is updated to version 34.100.00.00 to include vendor-provided patches.
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El controller QLogic Fiber Channel HBA , qla2xxx, it was updated to version 10.01.00.25-ke includes a large number of vendor-provided patches.
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The controller of the USB-based Ethernet adapter Realtek RTL8152 / RTL8153, r8152, it is updated to version 1.10.11 with patches.
Finally, if you want to know more about this new version of the Kernel, as well as the links to download it, you can find it In the following link.