The Oracle Linux and Oracle Virtualization team is pleased to announce support for Oracle Linux 9 Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM) hosts with Oracle Linux Virtualization Manager 4.5. This product update allows customers to run and manage Oracle Linux 9 KVM compute hosts with Oracle Linux Virtualization Manager; moving Oracle Virtualization to a more current version of Oracle Linux with the Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel (UEK).

What’s New

The Oracle Virtualization solution has been updated to add support for Oracle Linux 9 KVM hosts. Customers that add Oracle Linux 9 KVM hosts to their deployments will be able to leverage the same features today available on Oracle Linux 8 KVM hosts including live migration, snapshots, scheduling policies, and high availability. In addition, the following enhancements are available:

  • UEK8 support: Oracle Linux 9.6 is the minimum Oracle Linux 9 release now supported with Oracle Virtualization. UEK8 is the default kernel which is based on the upstream Linux Kernel release 6.12.0 and contains the latest driver and firmware updates to support modern hardware.
  • Pre-check scripts: To help ensure that your KVM hosts are configured properly, pre-check scripts can be run before you add them to Oracle Linux Virtualization Manager. The pre-check scripts have been updated to support Oracle Linux 9 KVM hosts. The Oracle Linux 9 version of the pre-check script can be found in the oracle-ovirt-release-45-el9 RPM available in the Oracle Linux 9 “BaseOS Latest” channel.
  • Updated Self-Hosted Engine appliance: The Oracle Linux 8-based version of the Oracle Linux Virtualization Manager 4.5 Self-Hosted Engine is now available as an Oracle Linux 9 based RPM and can be installed on Oracle Linux 9 KVM hosts.
  • Access to new certified servers: The Oracle Linux and Oracle Virtualization Hardware Certification List can be used to find the servers that have been certified for Oracle Linux and Oracle Virtualization. As many server partners focus their new certifications on the latest operating systems available, Oracle Linux 9 KVM support will allow customers to add the latest certified server technology to their installations.

Installation and Upgrades

Oracle Linux Virtualization Manager 4.5 is based on the open source oVirt project and can be installed from the Oracle Linux 8 channels on Oracle Linux yum server or the Unbreakable Linux Network. To support Oracle Linux 9 KVM hosts with Oracle Virtualization, two new yum repository channels have been created:

Oracle Linux 9 KVM hosts can be installed with installation media (ISO images) available from the Oracle Linux yum server or the Oracle Software Delivery Cloud. Step-by-step instructions to download the Oracle Linux 9 ISO can be found on the Oracle Linux Community website. Using the “Minimal Install” option during the installation process sets up a base KVM system, which will be updated using the KVM Utilities in the Oracle Linux 9 repositories. These KVM enhancements and other important packages for your Oracle Linux 9 KVM host will be automatically installed when the host is added to Oracle Linux Virtualization Manager.

Oracle Linux 8 KVM hosts can be upgraded to Oracle Linux 9 KVM following the instructions in the Host Upgrade section of the Administration Guide.

Support

Support for Oracle Virtualization is available to customers with an Oracle Linux Premier Plus Support subscription. Refer to Oracle Linux Support for information about Oracle Linux support levels.

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