Release Notes for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 Service Pack 3 (SP3)

Version 11.3.22 (2013-06-13)

Abstract

This document provides guidance and an overview to high level general features
and updates for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 Service Pack 3 (SP3). Besides
architecture or product-specific information, it also describes the
capabilities and limitations of SLES 11 SP3. General documentation may be found
at: http://www.suse.com/documentation/sles11/.

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1. How to Obtain Source Code
2. SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
3. Important Upgrade Information
4. Support Statement for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server

    4.1. Erasing All Registration Data
    4.2. General Support Statement

        4.2.1. Support for the btrfs File System
        4.2.2. Tomcat6 and Related Packages
        4.2.3. SELinux

    4.3. Software Requiring Specific Contracts
    4.4. Technology Previews

        4.4.1. Technology preview: QEMU: Include virtio-blk-data-plane
        4.4.2. Technology Preview: KVM Nested Virtualization with Intel VT
        4.4.3. Technology Preview: libguestFS
        4.4.4. Technology preview: KVM support on s390x
        4.4.5. Hot-Add Memory
        4.4.6. Internet Storage Naming Service (iSNS)
        4.4.7. Read-Only Root File System

5. Installation

    5.1. Current Limitations in a UEFI Secure Boot Context
    5.2. UEFI Secure Boot
    5.3. Support for 4 KB/Sector Hard Disk Drives
    5.4. Network Installation from HTTPS
    5.5. UEFI 2.3.1 Support
    5.6. XEN: Pygrub Improvement
    5.7. Installation via USB
    5.8. Mapping Network Interface Names to Names Written on the Chassis
        (biosdevname)
    5.9. Deployment
    5.10. CJK Languages Support in Text-mode Installation
    5.11. Booting from Harddisks larger than 2 TiB in Non-UEFI Mode
    5.12. Installation Using Persistent Device Names
    5.13. iSCSI Booting with iBFT in UEFI Mode
    5.14. Using iSCSI Disks when Installing
    5.15. Using qla3xxx and qla4xxx Drivers at the Same Time
    5.16. Using EDD Information for Storage Device Identification
    5.17. Automatic Installation with AutoYaST in an LPAR (System z)
    5.18. Adding DASD or zFCP Disks During Installation (System z)
    5.19. Network Installation via eHEA on POWER
    5.20. For More Information

6. Features and Versions

    6.1. Linux Kernel and Toolchain

        6.1.1. Lustre 2.1 Kernel Modules Preparation
        6.1.2. Kernel Dumps with LZO Compression
        6.1.3. Add Option to mpstat to Only Display Stats for Online CPUs
        6.1.4. Support for Failopen Mode When Using Netfilter's NFQUEUE Target
        6.1.5. libvirt Support for QEMU seccomp Sandboxing
        6.1.6. Makedumpfile: Enhanced Elimination of Sensitive Data from Dumps
        6.1.7. USB3 Power Savings Features
        6.1.8. Support for Latest Intel Active Management Technology (AMT)
        6.1.9. General Version Information
        6.1.10. SUSE Linux Enterprise Real Time Extension

    6.2. Server

        6.2.1. SGI UV Plattform Enablement
        6.2.2. Upgrading MySQL to Version 5.5

    6.3. Desktop
    6.4. Security

        6.4.1. Support of SHA-256 Hash Algorithm in opencryptoki CCA Token
        6.4.2. OpenSCAP Tools and Libraries Added
        6.4.3. OpenSSH Update
        6.4.4. cms feature in openssl
        6.4.5. PAM Configuration
        6.4.6. SELinux Enablement
        6.4.7. Enablement for TPM/Trusted Computing
        6.4.8. Linux File System Capabilities

    6.5. Network

        6.5.1. Linux Virtual Server Load Balancer (ipvs) Extends Support for
            IPv6
        6.5.2. Mapping Network Interface Names to Names Written on the Chassis
            (biosdevname)
        6.5.3. pNFS client support for scalable NFS access

    6.6. Resource Management

        6.6.1. libseccomp
        6.6.2. XEN: Support for PCI Pass-through Bind and Unbind in libvirt Xen
            Driver
        6.6.3. Btrfs Quota for Subvolumes
        6.6.4. LXC Requires Correct Network Configuration

    6.7. Systems Management
    6.8. Other

7. Driver Updates

    7.1. X.Org: fbdev Used in UEFI Secure Boot Mode (ASpeed Chipset)
    7.2. X.Org Driver Used in UEFI Secure Boot Mode (Matrox)
    7.3. Support for Intel 2nd Generation of Atom Microserver
    7.4. Network Drivers

        7.4.1. Add Support for TIPC (Transparent Inter-Process Communication)
        7.4.2. Emulex be2net Driver
        7.4.3. Intel ixgbe driver update
        7.4.4. Intel igb driver update
        7.4.5. Intel e1000e driver update
        7.4.6. Updating Firmware for QLogic 82XX based CNA

    7.5. Storage Drivers

        7.5.1. SATA Device Sleep
        7.5.2. Update of Intel SCU Driver
        7.5.3. iSCSI Update
        7.5.4. Support for Micron Technology P320 PCIe SSD
        7.5.5. Brocade FCoE Switch Does Not Accept Fabric Logins from Initiator

    7.6. Other Drivers

        7.6.1. SUSE Linux Enterprise Virtual Machine Driver Pack 2.1
        7.6.2. New Intel Platform and CPU Support
        7.6.3. Recent SSDs and SAS/SATA Interfaces in SMARTmon
        7.6.4. Updated Support for Intel Integrated Graphics
        7.6.5. Support for Intel Microserver

8. Other Updates

    8.1. Package python-ethtool
    8.2. Update Python to 2.6.8
    8.3. Individual Timeout Value for Each Direct AutoFS Mount
    8.4. List of Updated Packages

9. Software Development Kit

    9.1. Optional GCC Compiler Suite on SDK

10. Update-Related Notes

    10.1. General Notes

        10.1.1. Upgrading PostgreSQL Installations from 8.3 to 9.1.
        10.1.2. Upgrading from SLES 10 (GA and Service Packs) or SLES 11 GA
        10.1.3. Online Migration from SP2 to SP3 via "YaST wagon"
        10.1.4. Migrating to SLE 11 SP3 Using Zypper
        10.1.5. Migration from SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 SP4 via Bootable
            Media
        10.1.6. Migrating Hosts Running SMT 11 SP2 to SMT 11 SP3
        10.1.7. Online Migration with Debuginfo Packages Not Supported
        10.1.8. Upgrading to SLES 11 SP3 with Root File System on iSCSI
        10.1.9. Kernel Split in Different Packages
        10.1.10. Tickless Idle
        10.1.11. Development Packages
        10.1.12. Displaying Manual Pages with the Same Name
        10.1.13. YaST LDAP Server No Longer Uses /etc/openldap/slapd.conf
        10.1.14. AppArmor
        10.1.15. Updating with Alternative Boot Loader (Non-Linux) or Multiple
            Boot Loader Programs
        10.1.16. Upgrading MySQL to SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11
        10.1.17. Fine-Tuning Firewall Settings
        10.1.18. Upgrading from SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 SP4 with the
            Xen Hypervisor May Have Incorrect Network Configuration
        10.1.19. LILO Configuration Via YaST or AutoYaST

    10.2. Update from SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11

        10.2.1. Changed Routing Behavior
        10.2.2. Kernel Devel Packages

    10.3. Update from SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP1
    10.4. Update from SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP2

        10.4.1. Update of python-lxml to 2.3.x
        10.4.2. Postfix: Incompatibility Issues and New Features
        10.4.3. Binutils Update
        10.4.4. unixODBC Updated to Version 2.3.1
        10.4.5. stunnel Update to Version 4.54
        10.4.6. IBM Java 1.4.2 End of Life
        10.4.7. Update from SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP2
        10.4.8. Migrating SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP2 with WebYaST
            Installed via wagon

11. Deprecated Functionality

    11.1. X.Org: fbdev Used in UEFI Secure Boot Mode (ASpeed Chipset)
    11.2. X.Org Driver Used in UEFI Secure Boot Mode (Matrox)
    11.3. Support for the JFS File System
    11.4. Support for Portmap to End with SUSE Linux Enterprise 11 SP3
    11.5. L3 Support for Openswan Is Scheduled to Expire
    11.6. PHP 5.2 Is Deprecated
    11.7. Packages Removed with SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP3

        11.7.1. The (unsupported) Websphere AS CE Package has been removed from
            SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 with SP3

    11.8. Packages Removed with SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 Service Pack 2
    11.9. Packages Removed with SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 Service Pack 1
    11.10. Packages Removed with SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11
    11.11. Packages and Features to Be Removed in the Future

12. Infrastructure, Package and Architecture Specific Information

    12.1. 16TB memory support for PPC64
    12.2. Systems Management

        12.2.1. Providing the URL of an Add-on Media at the Command Line during
            Installation
        12.2.2. Snapper Enhancements
        12.2.3. Individual Timeout Value for Each Direct AutoFS Mount
        12.2.4. YaST Repair Tool Limitation
        12.2.5. Modified Operation against Novell Customer Center
        12.2.6. Operation against Subscription Management Tool
        12.2.7. Minimal Pattern
        12.2.8. SPident

    12.3. Performance Related Information

        12.3.1. Linux Completely Fair Scheduler Affects Java Performance
        12.3.2. Tuning Performance of Simple Database Engines

    12.4. Storage

        12.4.1. Improved Support for Intel RSTe
        12.4.2. Define disk order for MD Raid with YaST
        12.4.3. Multipathing: SCSI Hardware Handler
        12.4.4. Local Mounts of iSCSI Shares

    12.5. Hyper-V

        12.5.1. Hyper-V: driver to support host initiated backup
        12.5.2. Hyper-V: Framebuffer Driver
        12.5.3. Hyper-V: Update the Vmbus protocol
        12.5.4. Hyper-V: Memory Ballooning Support
        12.5.5. Hyper-V: KVP IP Injection
        12.5.6. Xen Support for Booting the Hypervisor to UEFI X64
        12.5.7. Change of Kernel Device Names in Hyper-V Guests
        12.5.8. Using the "Virtual Machine Snapshot" Feature

    12.6. Architecture Independent Information

        12.6.1. Current Limitations in a UEFI Secure Boot Context
        12.6.2. Change of libzypp History
        12.6.3. Changes in Packaging and Delivery
        12.6.4. Security
        12.6.5. Networking
        12.6.6. Cross Architecture Information

    12.7. AMD64/Intel64 64-Bit (x86_64) and Intel/AMD 32-Bit (x86) Specific
        Information

        12.7.1. System and Vendor Specific Information
        12.7.2. Virtualization
        12.7.3. RAS

    12.8. Intel Itanium (ia64) Specific Information

        12.8.1. Installation on Systems with Many LUNs (Storage)

    12.9. POWER (ppc64) Specific Information

        12.9.1. Support for the IBM POWER7+ Accelerated Encryption and Random
            Number Generation
        12.9.2. POWER7+ Random Number Generator
        12.9.3. Add Per-process Data Stream Control Register (DSCR) Support
        12.9.4. Check Sample Instruction Address Register (SIAR) Valid Bit
            before Saving Contents of SIAR
        12.9.5. LightPath Diagnostics Framework for IBM Power
        12.9.6. PRRN Event Handling
        12.9.7. Increase Number of Partitions per Core on IBM POWER7+
        12.9.8. Enable Firmware Assisted Dump for IBM Power Systems
        12.9.9. Kernel cpuidle Framework for POWER7
        12.9.10. Supported Hardware and Systems
        12.9.11. Using btrfs as /root File System on IBM Power Systems
        12.9.12. Loading the Installation Kernel via Network on POWER
        12.9.13. Huge Page Memory Support on POWER
        12.9.14. Installation on POWER onto IBM VSCSI Target
        12.9.15. iSCSI Installations with Multiple NICs Losing Network
            Connectivity at the End of Firstboot Stage
        12.9.16. IBM Linux VSCSI Server Support in SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
            11
        12.9.17. Virtual Fibre Channel Devices
        12.9.18. Virtual Tape Devices
        12.9.19. Chelsio cxgb3 iSCSI Offload Engine
        12.9.20. Known TFTP Issues with Yaboot
        12.9.21. Graphical Administration of Remotely Installed Hardware
        12.9.22. InfiniBand - SDP Protocol Not Supported on IBM Hardware
        12.9.23. RDMA NFS Server May Hang During Shutdown (OFED)
        12.9.24. XFS stack overflow

    12.10. System z (s390x) Specific Information

        12.10.1. Hardware
        12.10.2. Virtualization
        12.10.3. Storage
        12.10.4. Network
        12.10.5. Security
        12.10.6. RAS
        12.10.7. Performance
        12.10.8. Miscellaneous

13. Resolved Issues
14. Technical Information

    14.1. Kernel Limits
    14.2. KVM Limits

        14.2.1. QEMU: Version 1.4 Master Feature
        14.2.2. XEN/KVM: virt-manager Can Configure PCI Pass-through Devices at
            VM Creation
        14.2.3. libseccomp
        14.2.4. libvirt Support for QEMU seccomp Sandboxing
        14.2.5. libvirt Bridged Networking for Unprivileged Users
        14.2.6. libvirt DAC Isolation
        14.2.7. QEMU Network Helper for Unprivileged Users
        14.2.8. QEMU: Sandboxing with seccomp
        14.2.9. KVM: Export Platform Power Management Capability through
            libvirt Framework
        14.2.10. KVM: Support INVPCID's Haswell Instructions
        14.2.11. KVM: TSC Deadline Timer Support
        14.2.12. KVM: TSC Offset Timer
        14.2.13. KVM: Support for APIC Virtualization
        14.2.14. KVM: Haswell New Instructions Support
        14.2.15. KVM: support for Supervisor Mode Execution Protection (SMEP)
        14.2.16. XEN/KVM/libvirt: Virtual Machine Lock Manager

    14.3. Xen Limits

        14.3.1. XEN: Secure Boot
        14.3.2. AMD iommu: enable ats devices
        14.3.3. Add support for AMD's OSVW feature in guests
        14.3.4. Do not intercept RDTSC(P) when TSC scaling is supported by
            hardware
        14.3.5. XEN/KVM: virt-manager Can Configure PCI Pass-through Devices at
            VM Creation
        14.3.6. XEN: Netconsole Support to Netfront Device
        14.3.7. XEN: TSC Deadline Timer Support
        14.3.8. XEN: JKT Core Error Recovery
        14.3.9. XEN: TSC Offset Support
        14.3.10. XEN: Haswell New Instructions Support
        14.3.11. APIC Virtuatization in Xen and KVM
        14.3.12. XEN: Large VT-d Pages
        14.3.13. XEN/KVM/libvirt: Virtual Machine Lock Manager
        14.3.14. XEN: Bios Information to XEN HVM Guest
        14.3.15. XEN: Support for PCI Pass-through Bind and Unbind in libvirt
            Xen Driver
        14.3.16. XEN: xenstore-chmod Command Now Support 256 Permissions
        14.3.17. XEN VNC implementation to correctly map keyboard layouts

    14.4. File Systems

        14.4.1. XFS Realtime Volumes
        14.4.2. ext4: Runtime Switch for Write Support

    14.5. Kernel Modules
    14.6. IPv6 Implementation and Compliance

        14.6.1. IPv6 Support for NFSv3
        14.6.2. IPv6 Support to AutoFS
        14.6.3. Linux Virtual Server Load Balancer (ipvs) Extends Support for
            IPv6
        14.6.4. IP Set Support

    14.7. Other Technical Information

        14.7.1. libica 2.1.0 Available since SLES 11 SP2 for s390x
        14.7.2. YaST Support for Layer 2 Devices
        14.7.3. Changes to Network Setup
        14.7.4. Memory cgroups
        14.7.5. MCELog
        14.7.6. Locale Settings in ~/.i18n
        14.7.7. Configuration of kdump
        14.7.8. Configuring Authentication for kdump through YaST with ssh/scp
            as Target
        14.7.9. JPackage Standard for Java Packages
        14.7.10. Stopping Cron Status Messages

15. Documentation and Other Information

    15.1. Additional or Update Documentation
    15.2. Product and Source Code Information

16. Miscellaneous
17. Legal Notices

Chapter 1. How to Obtain Source Code

This SUSE product includes materials licensed to SUSE under the GNU General
Public License (GPL). The GPL requires SUSE to provide the source code that
corresponds to the GPL-licensed material. The source code is available for
download at http://www.suse.com/download-linux/source-code.html. Also, for up
to three years after distribution of the SUSE product, upon request, Novell
will mail a copy of the source code. Requests should be sent by e-mail to
mailto:sle_source_request@novell.com or as otherwise instructed at http://
www.suse.com/download-linux/source-code.html. Novell may charge a reasonable
fee to recover distribution costs.

Chapter 2. SUSE Linux Enterprise Server

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server is a highly reliable, scalable, and secure server
operating system, built to power mission-critical workloads in both physical
and virtual environments. It is an affordable, interoperable, and manageable
open source foundation. With it, enterprises can cost-effectively deliver core
business services, enable secure networks, and simplify the management of their
heterogeneous IT infrastructure, maximizing efficiency and value.

The only enterprise Linux recommended by Microsoft and SAP, SUSE Linux
Enterprise Server is optimized to deliver high-performance mission-critical
services, as well as edge of network, and web infrastructure workloads.

Designed for interoperability, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server integrates into
classical Unix as well as Windows environments, supports open standard CIM
interfaces for systems management, and has been certified for IPv6
compatibility,

This modular, general purpose operating system runs on five processor
architectures and is available with optional extensions that provide advanced
capabilities for tasks such as real time computing and high availability
clustering.

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server is optimized to run as a high performing guest on
leading hypervisors and supports an unlimited number of virtual machines per
physical system with a single subscription, making it the perfect guest
operating system for virtual computing.

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server is backed by award-winning support from SUSE, an
established technology leader with a proven history of delivering
enterprise-quality support services.

With the release of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 Service Pack 3 the former
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 Service Pack 2 enters the 6 month migration
window, during which time SUSE will continue to provide security updates and
full support and maintenance. At the end of the six-month parallel support
period, on 2013-12-31, general support for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11
Service Pack 2 will be discontinued. Long Term Service Pack Support (LTSS) for
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 Service Pack 1 is available as a separate
add-on.

Chapter 3. Important Upgrade Information

For users upgrading from a previous SUSE Linux Enterprise Server release it is
recommended to review:

  • Chapter 4, Support Statement for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server

  • Chapter 10, Update-Related Notes

  • Chapter 14, Technical Information

Installation Quick Start and Deployment Guides can be found in the docu
language directories on the media. Documentation (if installed) is available
below the /usr/share/doc/ directory of an installed system.

These Release Notes are identical across all architectures, and the most recent
version is always available online at http://www.suse.com/releasenotes/. Some
entries are listed twice, if they are important and belong to more than one
section.

Chapter 4. Support Statement for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server

To receive support, customers need an appropriate subscription with SUSE; for
more information, see http://www.suse.com/products/server/services-and-support/
.

4.1. Erasing All Registration Data

Sometimes you may want to remove all data that was created during the
registration of a SUSE Linux Enterprise system, so you can cleanly re-register
it with different credentials.

This can now be accomplished with suse_register by using the new option
"--erase-local-regdata". Note that this does not free the subscription that the
system may have consumed in the Customer Center. This needs to be done from the
Customer Center's Web UI.

4.2. General Support Statement

The following definitions apply:

L1

    Problem determination, which means technical support designed to provide
    compatibility information, usage support, on-going maintenance, information
    gathering and basic troubleshooting using available documentation.

L2

    Problem isolation, which means technical support designed to analyze data,
    duplicate customer problems, isolate problem area and provide resolution
    for problems not resolved by Level 1 or alternatively prepare for Level 3.

L3

    Problem resolution, which means technical support designed to resolve
    problems by engaging engineering to resolve product defects which have been
    identified by Level 2 Support.

For contracted customers and partners, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 will be
delivered with L3 support for all packages, except the following:

  • technology previews

  • sound, graphics, fonts and artwork

  • packages that require an additional customer contract

  • packages provided as part of the Software Development Kit (SDK)

SUSE will only support the usage of original (e.g., unchanged or un-recompiled)
packages.

4.2.1. Support for the btrfs File System

Btrfs is a copy-on-write (CoW) general purpose file system. Based on the CoW
functionality, btrfs provides snapshoting. Beyond that data and metadata
checksums improve the reliability of the file system. btrfs is highly scalable,
but also supports online shrinking to adopt to real-life environments. On
appropriate storage devices btrfs also supports the TRIM command.

Support

With SUSE Linux Enterprise 11 SP2, the btrfs file system joins ext3, reiserfs,
xfs and ocfs2 as commercially supported file systems. Each file system offers
disctinct advantages. While the installation default is ext3, we recommend xfs
when maximizing data performance is desired, and btrfs as a root file system
when snapshotting and rollback capabilities are required. Btrfs is supported as
a root file system (i.e. the file system for the operating system) across all
architectures of SUSE Linux Enterprise 11 SP2. Customers are advised to use the
YaST partitioner (or AutoYaST) to build their systems: YaST will prepare the
btrfs file system for use with subvolumes and snapshots. Snapshots will be
automatically enabled for the root file system using SUSE's snapper
infrastructure. For more information about snapper, its integration into ZYpp
and YaST, and the YaST snapper module, see the SUSE Linux Enterprise
documentation.

Migration from "ext" File Systems to btrfs

Migration from existing "ext" file systems (ext2, ext3, ext4) is supported
"offline" and "in place". Calling "btrfs-convert [device]" will convert the
file system. This is an offline process, which needs at least 15% free space on
the device, but is applied in place. Roll back: calling "btrfs-convert -r
[device]" will roll back. Caveat: when rolling back, all data will be lost that
has been added after the conversion into btrfs; in other words: the roll back
is complete, not partial.

RAID

Btrfs is supported on top of MD (multiple devices) and DM (device mapper)
configurations. Please use the YaST partitioner to achieve a proper setup.
Multivolume/RAID with btrfs is not supported yet and will be enabled with a
future maintenance update.

Future Plans

  • We are planning to announce support for btrfs' built-in multi volume
    handling and RAID in a later version of SUSE Linux Enterprise.

  • Starting with SUSE Linux Enterprise 12, we are planning to implement
    bootloader support for /boot on btrfs.

  • Transparent compression is implemented and mature. We are planning to
    support this functionality in the YaST partitioner in a future release.

  • We are commited to actively work on the btrfs file system with the
    community, and we keep customers and partners informed about progress and
    experience in terms of scalability and performance. This may also apply to
    cloud and cloud storage infrastructures.

Online Check and Repair Functionality

Check and repair functionality ("scrub") is available as part of the btrfs
command line tools. "Scrub" is aimed to verify data and metadata assuming the
tree structures are fine. "Scrub" can (and should) be run periodically on a
mounted file system: it runs as a background process during normal operation.

The tool "fsck.btrfs" tool will soon be available in the SUSE Linux Enterprise
update repositories.

Capacity Planning

If you are planning to use btrfs with its snapshot capability, it is advisable
to reserve twice as much disk space than the standard storage proposal. This is
automatically done by the YaST2 partitioner for the root file system.

Hard Link Limitation

In order to provide a more robust file system, btrfs incorporates back
references for all file names, eliminating the classic "lost+found" directory
added during recovery. A temporary limitation of this approach affects the
number of hard links in a single directory that link to the same file. The
limitation is dynamic based on the length of the file names used. A realistic
average is approximately 150 hard links. When using 255 character file names,
the limit is 14 links. We intend to raise the limitation to a more usable limit
of 65535 links in a future maintenance update.

Note

With SLE 11 SP3 you can now raise this limitation. The so-called “extended
inode refs” are not turned on by default in the SUSE kernels. This is because
enabling them involves turning on an incompat bit in the file system which
would make it unmountable by old versions of SLE.

If you want extended inode refs on though use 'btrfstune' to turn them on.
There is no way to turn them off so it is a 1-way conversion. The command is
(replace /PATH/TO/DEVICE with your device):

btrfstune -r /PATH/TO/DEVICE

Other Limitations

At the moment, btrfs is not supported as a seed device.

For More Information

For more information about btrfs, see the SUSE Linux Enterprise 11
documentation.

4.2.2. Tomcat6 and Related Packages

Tomcat6 and related packages are fully supported on the Intel/AMD x86 (32bit),
AMD64/Intel64, IBM POWER, and IBM System z architectures.

4.2.3. SELinux

The SELinux subsystem is supported. Arbitrary SELinux policies running on SLES
are not supported, though. Customers and Partners who have an interest in using
SELinux in their solutions, are encouraged to contact SUSE to evaluate the
level of support that is needed, and how support and services for the specific
SELinux policies will be granted.

4.3. Software Requiring Specific Contracts

The following packages require additional support contracts to be obtained by
the customer in order to receive full support:

  • BEA Java (Itanium only)

  • MySQL Database

  • PostgreSQL Database

  • WebSphere CE Application Server

4.4. Technology Previews

Technology previews are packages, stacks, or features delivered by SUSE. These
features are not supported. They may be functionally incomplete, unstable or in
other ways not suitable for production use. They are mainly included for
customer convenience and give customers a chance to test new technologies
within an enterprise environment.

Whether a technical preview will be moved to a fully supported package later,
depends on customer and market feedback. A technical preview does not
automatically result in support at a later point in time. Technical previews
could be dropped at any time and SUSE is not committed to provide a technical
preview later in the product cycle.

Please, give your SUSE representative feedback, including your experience and
use case. Alternatively, use the Novell Requirements Portal at http://
www.novell.com/rms.

4.4.1. Technology preview: QEMU: Include virtio-blk-data-plane

The virtio-blk-data-plane is a new experimental performance feature for KVM. It
provides a streamlined block IO path which favors performance over
functionality.

4.4.2. Technology Preview: KVM Nested Virtualization with Intel VT

The KVM kernel module "kvm_intel" now has the nested parameter available,
achieving parity with the "kvm_amd" kernel module with respect to nested
virtualization capabilities.

4.4.3. Technology Preview: libguestFS

Libguestfs is a set of tools for accessing and modifying virtual machine disk
images. It can be used for many virtual image managements tasks such as viewing
and editing files inside guests (only Linux one are enable), scripting changes
to VMs, monitoring disk used/free statistics, performing partial backups, and
cloning VMs. See http://libguestfs.org/ for more information.

4.4.4. Technology preview: KVM support on s390x

KVM is now included on the s390x platform as a technology preview.

4.4.5. Hot-Add Memory

Hot-add memory is currently only supported on the following hardware:

  • IBM x3800, x3850, single node x3950, x3850 M2, single node x3950 M2,

  • certified systems based on recent Intel Xeon Architecture,

  • certified systems based on recent Intel IPF Architecture,

  • all IBM servers and blades with POWER5, POWER6, POWER7, or POWER7+
    processors and recent firmware. (This requires the Power Linux service and
    productivity tools available at http://www14.software.ibm.com/webapp/set2/
    sas/f/lopdiags/yum.html.)

If your specific machine is not listed, please call SUSE support to confirm
whether or not your machine has been successfully tested. Also, regularly check
our maintenance update information, which will explicitly mention the general
availability of this feature.

Restriction on using IBM eHCA InfiniBand adapters in conjunction with hot-add
memory on IBM System p:

The current eHCA Device Driver will prevent dynamic memory operations on a
partition as long as the driver is loaded. If the driver is unloaded prior to
the operation and then loaded again afterwards, adapter initialization may
fail. A Partition Shutdown / Activate sequence on the HMC may be needed to
recover from this situation.

4.4.6. Internet Storage Naming Service (iSNS)

The Internet Storage Naming Service (iSNS) package is by design suitable for
secure internal networks only. SUSE will continue to work with the community on
improving security.

4.4.7. Read-Only Root File System

It is possible to run SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 on a shared read-only
root file system. A read-only root setup consists of the read-only root file
system, a scratch and a state file system. The /etc/rwtab file defines which
files and directories on the read-only root file system are replaced by which
files on the state and scratch file systems for each system instance.

The readonlyroot kernel command line option enables read-only root mode; the
state= and scratch= kernel command line options determine the devices on which
the state and scratch file systems are located.

In order to set up a system with a read-only root file system, set up a scratch
file system, set up a file system to use for storing persistent per-instance
state, adjust /etc/rwtab as needed, add the appropriate kernel command line
options to your boot loader configuration, replace /etc/mtab with a symlink to
/proc/mounts as described below, and (re)boot the system.

To replace /etc/mtab with the appropriate symlinks, call:

ln -sf /proc/mounts /etc/mtab

See the rwtab(5) manual page for further details and http://
www.redbooks.ibm.com/abstracts/redp4322.html for limitations on System z.

Chapter 5. Installation

5.1. Current Limitations in a UEFI Secure Boot Context

When booting in Secure Boot mode, the following restrictions apply:

  • bootloader, kernel and kernel modules must be signed

  • kexec and kdump are disabled

  • hibernation (suspend on disk) is disabled

  • access to /dev/kmem and /dev/mem is not possible, even as root user

  • access to IO port is not possible, even as root user. All X11 graphical
    drivers must use a kernel driver

  • PCI BAR access through sysfs is not possible

  • 'custom_method' in ACPI is not available

  • debugfs for "asus-wmi" module is not available

  • 'acpi_rsdp' parameter doesn't have any effect on kernel

5.2. UEFI Secure Boot

SLES11-SP3 and SLED11-SP3 implement uEFI Secure Boot. Installation media
supports Secure Boot. Secure Boot is only supported on new installations (not
on upgraded systems from older SLES11 installations), if Secure Boot flag is
enabled in the uEFI firmware at installation time.

For more informations, see Administration Guide, section Secure Boot.

5.3. Support for 4 KB/Sector Hard Disk Drives

Support for 4 KB/sector hard disk drives requires support from all code that
directly accesses the hard disk drives.

SUSE Linux Enterprise fully supports 4 KB/sector drives in all conditions and
architectures with one exception. The 4KB/sector hard disk drives are not
supported as a boot drive on x86_64 systems booting with a legacy BIOS.

5.4. Network Installation from HTTPS

In some environments it is desirable not to have any unencrypted network
connection to the installation server. This was not possible until SLE 11 SP2.

Since SLE 11 SP3, the HTTPS URL scheme is also supported and the installation
can be done completely via HTTPS.

When using HTTPS, if you are unable to access the network, specify sslcerts=0
as a boot option to disable certificate checking.

5.5. UEFI 2.3.1 Support

SP3 is supporting booting systems following UEFI specification up to version
2.3.1 errata C.

Note: Installating SLE 11 SP3 on Apple hardware is not supported.

5.6. XEN: Pygrub Improvement

The pygrub command is used to boot a virtual Xen machine according to a certain
menu.lst entry. pygrub now accepts a new flag [-l|--list_entries] to show grub
entries in the guest.

5.7. Installation via USB

With SP3 it is possible to dump the DVD1 iso-file to an USB-stick and install
from that (given that your BIOS supports it). This will only work for DVD1 and
not with UEFI.

5.8. Mapping Network Interface Names to Names Written on the Chassis
(biosdevname)

This feature addresses the issue that eth0 does not map to em1 (as labeled on
server chassis), when a server has multiple network adapters.

This issue is solved for Dell hardware, which has the corresponding BIOS
support, by renaming onboard network interfaces to em[1234], which maps to
Embedded NIC[1234] as labeled on server chassis. (em stands for
ethernet-on-motherboard.)

The renaming will be done by using the biosdevname utility.

biosdevname is automatically installed and used if YaST2 detects hardware
suitable to be used with biosdevname. biosdevname can be disabled during
installation by using "biosdevname=0" on the kernel commandline. The usage of
biosdevname can be enforced on every hardware with "biosdevname=1". If the BIOS
has no support, no network interface names are renamed.

5.9. Deployment

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server can be deployed in three ways:

  • Physical Machine,

  • Virtual Host,

  • Virtual Machine in paravirtualized environments.

5.10. CJK Languages Support in Text-mode Installation

CJK (Chinese, Japanese, and Korean) languages do not work properly during
text-mode installation if the framebuffer is not used (Text Mode selected in
boot loader).

There are three alternatives to resolve this issue:

 1. Use English or some other non-CJK language for installation then switch to
    the CJK language later on a running system using YaST+System+Language.

 2. Use your CJK language during installation, but do not choose Text Mode in
    the boot loader using F3 Video Mode. Select one of the other VGA modes
    instead. Select the CJK language of your choice using F2 Language, add
    textmode=1 to the boot loader command-line and start the installation.

 3. Use graphical installation (or install remotely via SSH or VNC).

5.11. Booting from Harddisks larger than 2 TiB in Non-UEFI Mode

Booting from harddisks larger than 2 TiB in non-UEFI mode (but with GPT
partition table) fails.

To successfully use harddisks larger than 2 TiB in non-UEFI mode, but with GPT
partition table (i.e., grub bootloader), consider one of the following options:

  • Use a 4k sector harddisk in 4k mode (in this case, the 2 TiB limit will
    become a 16 TiB limit).

  • Use a separate /boot partition. This partition must be one of the first 3
    partitions and end below the 2 TiB limit.

  • Switch from legacy mode to UEFI mode, if this is an option for you.

5.12. Installation Using Persistent Device Names

The installer uses persistent device names by default. If you plan to add
storage devices to your system after the installation, we strongly recommend
you use persistent device names for all storage devices.

To switch to persistent device names on a system that has already been
installed, start the YaST2 partitioner. For each partition, select Edit and go
to the Fstab Options dialog. Any mount option except Device name provides you
persistent device names. In addition, rerun the Boot Loader module in YaST and
select Propose New Config to switch the boot loader to using the persistent
device name, or manually adjust all boot loader sections. Then select Finish to
write the new proposed configuration to disk. Alternatively, edit /boot/grub/
menu.lst and /boot/grub/device.map according to your needs.

This needs to be done before adding new storage devices.

For further information, see the “Storage Administration Guide” about "Device
Name Persistence".

5.13. iSCSI Booting with iBFT in UEFI Mode

If booting over iSCSI, iBFT information cannot be parsed when booting via
native UEFI. The system should be configured to boot in legacy mode if iSCSI
booting using iBFT is required.

5.14. Using iSCSI Disks when Installing

To use iSCSI disks during installation, passing the withiscsi boot parameter is
no longer needed.

During installation, an additional screen provides the option to attach iSCSI
disks to the system and use them in the installation process.

Booting from an iSCSI server on i386, x86_64 and ppc64 is supported if
iSCSI-enabled firmware is used.

5.15. Using qla3xxx and qla4xxx Drivers at the Same Time

QLogic iSCSI Expansion Card for IBM BladeCenter provides both Ethernet and
iSCSI functions. Some parts on the card are shared by both functions. The
current qla3xxx (Ethernet) and qla4xxx (iSCSI) drivers support Ethernet and
iSCSI function individually. In contrast to previous SLES releases, using both
functions at the same time is now supported.

If you happen to use brokenmodules=qla3xxx or brokenmodules=qla4xxx before
upgrading to SLES 11 SP2, these options can be removed.

5.16. Using EDD Information for Storage Device Identification

EDD information (in /sys/firmware/edd/<device>) is used by default to identify
your storage devices.

EDD Requirements:

  • BIOS provides full EDD information (found in /sys/firmware/edd/<device>)

  • Disks are signed with a unique MBR signature (found in /sys/firmware/edd/
    <device>/mbr_signature).

Add edd=off to the kernel parameters to disable EDD.

5.17. Automatic Installation with AutoYaST in an LPAR (System z)

For automatic installation with AutoYaST in an LPAR, the parmfile used for such
an installation must have blank characters at the beginning and at the end of
each line (the first line does not need to start with a blank). The number of
characters in one line should not exceed 80.

5.18. Adding DASD or zFCP Disks During Installation (System z)

Adding of DASD or zFCP disks is not only possible during the installation
workflow, but also when the installation proposal is shown. To add disks at
this stage, please click on the Expert tab and scroll down. There the DASD and/
or zFCP entry is shown. These added disks are not displayed in the partitioner
automatically. To make the disks visible in the partitioner, you have to click
on Expert and select reread partition table. This may reset any previously
entered information.

5.19. Network Installation via eHEA on POWER

If you want to carry out a network installation via the IBM eHEA Ethernet
Adapter on POWER systems, no huge (16GB) pages may be assigned to the partition
during installation.

5.20. For More Information

For more information, see Chapter 12, Infrastructure, Package and Architecture
Specific Information.

Chapter 6. Features and Versions

6.1. Linux Kernel and Toolchain

6.1.1. Lustre 2.1 Kernel Modules Preparation

Lustre 2.1 builds of kernel modules by 3rd parties needed kernel modifications
of the previous shipped SUSE Kernel, and thus breaking the support chain.

To allow the build of kernel modules for Lustre 2.1 by 3rd parties without
breaking the support chain for the SUSE Kernel, the needed hooks for Lustre
were added to the shipped kernel.

This change does not include Lustre modules or packages, nor support.

6.1.2. Kernel Dumps with LZO Compression

Dumping on large machines (i.e. with terabytes of RAM) takes unreasonably long.

The default and recommended settings for kdump have changed in SP3 to provide
faster dumping on machines with a large amount of RAM. This includes changing
the default dump level to 31 (filter out as much as possible) and using the LZO
compression algorithm. LZO is much faster than GZIP while offering a similar
compression ratio for typical dumps.

yast2-kdump and crash also support LZO compression as a new target format.

6.1.3. Add Option to mpstat to Only Display Stats for Online CPUs

mpstat added the "-P ON" option to limit statistics displayed to only online
CPUs.

6.1.4. Support for Failopen Mode When Using Netfilter's NFQUEUE Target

Adds support for a new failopen mode when using netfilter's NFQUEUE target.
This mode allows users to temporarily disable packet inspection and maintain
connectivity under heavy network traffic.

6.1.5. libvirt Support for QEMU seccomp Sandboxing

QEMU guests spawned by libvirt are exposed to a large number of system calls
that go unused for the entire lifetime of the process.

libvirt's qemu.conf file is updated with a seccomp_sandbox option that can be
used to enable use of QEMU's seccomp sandboxing support. This allows execution
of QEMU guests with reduced exposure to kernel system calls.

6.1.6. Makedumpfile: Enhanced Elimination of Sensitive Data from Dumps

Enhances the current makedumpfile filtering to eliminate complex data
structures and cryptographic keys.

This is possible thanks to support for eppic language. This feature enables us
to specify rules to scrub data in a dumpfile with eppic macro instead of the
current configuration file ( makedumpfile.conf ).

6.1.7. USB3 Power Savings Features

USB3 Link Power Management and Latency Tolerance Messaging have been
implemented for improved power efficiency.

6.1.8. Support for Latest Intel Active Management Technology (AMT)

This Servicepack adds support for Intel AMT version 7 and later by providing
the Intel MEI kernel driver.

In order to use Intel AMT, you also must download the Intel LMS and ACUConfig
components from Intels website:

http://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/
download-the-latest-intel-amt-open-source-drivers

For more information on AMT on Linux, please follow the URLs in the "Additional
Information" found on the above mentioned Intel website.

6.1.9. General Version Information

  • GCC 4.3.4

  • glibc 2.11.3

  • Linux kernel 3.0

  • perl 5.10

  • php 5.3

  • python 2.6.8

  • ruby 1.8.7

6.1.10. SUSE Linux Enterprise Real Time Extension

To take advantage of the Real Time extension the extension must be at the same
version as the base SUSE Linux Enterprise Server. An updated version for SUSE
Linux Enterprise Real Time extension is provided later after the release of
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server.

6.2. Server

Note

Note: in the following text version numbers do not necessarily give the final
patch- and security-status of an application, as SUSE may have added additional
patches to the specific version of an application.

6.2.1. SGI UV Plattform Enablement

This SP adds basic support for upcoming SGI UV platform releases.

6.2.2. Upgrading MySQL to Version 5.5

Replacing an unmaintained version of MySQL.

SLES11-SP3 introduces the upgrade of the MySQL database to version 5.5. This
upgrade involves a change of the database format and the database needs to be
converted before MySQL can run again. Therefore MySQL is not running directly
after the upgrade.

To migrate the MySQL database, run following commands as root:

touch /var/lib/mysql/.force_upgrade
rcmysql restart

To verify failures during the server start check the log files under /var/log/
mysql/ .

We strongly recommend to back up the database before migrating it (mostly /var/
lib/mysql ).

6.3. Desktop

  • GNOME 2.28

    GNOME was updated with SP2 and uses PulseAudio for sound.

  • KDE 4.3.5

    KDE was updated with SP2.

  • X.org 7.4

6.4. Security

6.4.1. Support of SHA-256 Hash Algorithm in opencryptoki CCA Token

SLES 11 SP3 includes opencryptoki 2.4.2 which comes with a CCA token that
exploits the SHA-256 hash algorithm that is provided by System z crypto
hardware.

6.4.2. OpenSCAP Tools and Libraries Added

OpenSCAP is a set of open source libraries providing a path for integration of
SCAP (Security Content Automation Protocol). SCAP is a collection of standards
managed by NIST with the goal of providing a standard language for the
expression of Computer Network Defense related information. For more
information about SCAP, see http://nvd.nist.gov .

6.4.3. OpenSSH Update

SLE 11 SP3 now comes with OpenSSH version 6.2.

This version in SP3 (unlike the one in SP2), ignores .ssh/authorized_keys2 for
new installations and allows using custom AuthorizedKeys file names through the
sshd option AuthorizedKeysFile as described in the sshd_config manual page.

6.4.4. cms feature in openssl

The cms command handles Secure or Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions v3.1
mail. It can encrypt, decrypt, sign and verify, compress and uncompress Secure
or Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (S/MIME) messages.

6.4.5. PAM Configuration

The common PAM configuration files (/etc/pam.d/common-*) are now created and
managed with pam-config.

6.4.6. SELinux Enablement

In addition to AppArmor, SELinux capabilities have been added to SUSE Linux
Enterprise Server. While these capabilities are not enabled by default,
customers can run SELinux with SUSE Linux Enterprise Server if they choose to.

What does SELinux enablement mean?

  • The kernel ships with SELinux support.

  • We will apply SELinux patches to all “common” userland packages.

  • The libraries required for SELinux (libselinux, libsepol, libsemanage,
    etc.) have been added to openSUSE and SUSE Linux Enterprise.

  • Quality Assurance is performed with SELinux disabled—to make sure that
    SELinux patches do not break the default delivery and the majority of
    packages.

  • The SELinux specific tools are shipped as part of the default distribution
    delivery.

  • Arbitrary SELinux policies running on SLES are not supported, though, and
    we will not be shipping any SELinux policies in the distribution. Reference
    and minimal policies may be available from the repositories at some future
    point.

  • Customers and Partners who have an interest in using SELinux in their
    solutions, are encouraged to contact SUSE to evaluate the level of support
    that is needed, and how support and services for the specific SELinux
    policies will be granted.

By enabling SELinux in our codebase, we add community code to offer customers
the option to use SELinux without replacing significant parts of the
distribution.

6.4.7. Enablement for TPM/Trusted Computing

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 comes with support for Trusted Computing
technology. To enable your system's TPM chip, make sure that the "security
chip" option in your BIOS is selected. TPM support is entirely passive, meaning
that measurements are being performed, but no action is taken based on any
TPM-related activity. TPM chips manufactured by Infineon, NSC and Atmel are
supported, in addition to the virtual TPM device for Xen.

The corresponding kernel drivers are not loaded automatically. To do so, enter:

find /lib/modules -type f -name "tpm*.ko"

and load the kernel modules for your system manually or via
MODULES_LOADED_ON_BOOT in /etc/sysconfig/kernel.

If your TPM chip with taken ownership is configured in Linux and available for
use, you may read PCRs from /sys/devices/*/*/pcrs.

The tpm-tools package contains utilities to administer your TPM chip, and the
trousers package provides tcsd—the daemon that allows userland programs to
communicate with the TPM driver in the Linux kernel. tcsd can be enabled as a
service for the runlevels of your choice.

To implement a trusted ("measured") boot path, use the package trustedgrub
instead of the grub package as your bootloader. The trustedgrub bootloader does
not display any graphical representation of a boot menu for informational
reasons.

6.4.8. Linux File System Capabilities

Our kernel is compiled with support for Linux File System Capabilities. This is
disabled by default. The feature can be enabled by adding file_caps=1 as kernel
boot option.

6.5. Network

IPv6 Improvements

    SUSE Linux Enterprise Server has successfully completed the USGv6 test
    program designated by NIST that provides a proof of compliance to IPv6
    specifications outlined in current industry standards for common network
    products.

    Being IPv6 Consortium Member and Contributor Novell/SUSE have worked
    successfully with University of New Hampshire InterOperability Laboratory
    (UNH-IOL) to verify compliance to IPv6 specifications. The UNH-IOL offers
    ISO/IEC 17025 accredited testing designed specifically for the USGv6 test
    program. The devices that have successfully completed the USGv6 testing at
    the UNH-IOL by December 2012 are SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP2.
    Testing for subsequent releases of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server is in
    progress, and current and future results will be listed at http://
    www.iol.unh.edu/services/testing/ipv6/usgv6tested.php?company=105&type=#
    eqplist.

    SUSE Linux Enterprise Server can be installed in an IPv6 environment and
    run IPv6 applications. When installing via network, do not forget to boot
    with "ipv6=1" (accept v4 and v6) or "ipv6only=1" (only v6) on the kernel
    command line. For more information, see the Deployment Guide and also
    Section 14.6, “IPv6 Implementation and Compliance”.

10G Networking Capabilities

OFED 1.5

traceroute 1.2

    Support for traceroute over TCP.

FCoE

    FCoE is an implementation of the Fibre Channel over Ethernet working draft.
    Fibre Channel over Ethernet is the encapsulation of Fibre Channel frames in
    Ethernet packets. It allows users with a FCF (Fibre Channel over Ethernet
    Forwarder) to access their existing Fibre Channel storage using an Ethernet
    adapter. When leveraging DCB's PFC technology to provide a loss-less
    environment, FCoE can run SAN and LAN traffic over the same link.

Data Center Bridging (DCB)

    Data Center Bridging (DCB) is a collection of Ethernet enhancements
    designed to allow network traffic with differing requirements (e.g., highly
    reliable, no drops vs. best effort vs. low latency) to operate and coexist
    on Ethernet. Current DCB features are:

      □ Enhanced Transmission Selection (aka Priority Grouping) to provide a
        framework for assigning bandwidth guarantees to traffic classes.

      □ Priority-based Flow Control (PFC) provides a flow control mechanism
        which can work independently for each 802.1p priority.

      □ Congestion Notification provides a mechanism for end-to-end congestion
        control for protocols, which do not have built-in congestion
        management.

6.5.1. Linux Virtual Server Load Balancer (ipvs) Extends Support for IPv6

The LVS/ipvs load balancing code did not fully support RFC2460 and fragmented
IPv6 packets which could lead to lost packets and interrupted connections when
IPv6 traffic was fragmented.

The load balancer has been enhanced to fully support IPv6 fragmented extension
headers and is now RFC2460 compliant.

6.5.2. Mapping Network Interface Names to Names Written on the Chassis
(biosdevname)

This feature addresses the issue that eth0 does not map to em1 (as labeled on
server chassis), when a server has multiple network adapters.

This issue is solved for Dell hardware, which has the corresponding BIOS
support, by renaming onboard network interfaces to em[1234], which maps to
Embedded NIC[1234] as labeled on server chassis. (em stands for
ethernet-on-motherboard.)

The renaming will be done by using the biosdevname utility.

biosdevname is automatically installed and used if YaST2 detects hardware
suitable to be used with biosdevname. biosdevname can be disabled during
installation by using "biosdevname=0" on the kernel commandline. The usage of
biosdevname can be enforced on every hardware with "biosdevname=1". If the BIOS
has no support, no network interface names are renamed.

6.5.3. pNFS client support for scalable NFS access

The SUSE Linux Enterprise Server now supports the use of parallel NFS as a
client. This allows access to NFS in a scalable way.

6.6. Resource Management

6.6.1. libseccomp

Seccomp filters are expressed as a Berkeley Packet Filter (BPF) program, which
is not a well understood interface for most developers.

The libseccomp library provides an easy to use interface to the Linux Kernel's
syscall filtering mechanism, seccomp. The libseccomp API allows an application
to specify which syscalls, and optionally which syscall arguments, the
application is allowed to execute, all of which are enforced by the Linux
Kernel.

6.6.2. XEN: Support for PCI Pass-through Bind and Unbind in libvirt Xen Driver

virt-manager is now able to set up PCI pass-through for Xen without having to
switch to the command line to free the PCI device before assigning it to the
VM.

6.6.3. Btrfs Quota for Subvolumes

/var/log, /var/crash, or /var/cache btrfs root file system subvolumes may use
up all available disk space during normal operation causing a system
malfunction.

To aid preventing this situation SUSE Linux Enterprise now offers btrfs quota
support. See the btrfs(8) manual page for more information.

6.6.4. LXC Requires Correct Network Configuration

LXC now comes with support for network gateway detection. This feature will
prevent a container from starting, if the network configuration setup of the
container is incorrect. For instance, you must make sure that the network
address of the container is within the host ip range, if it was set up as
brigded on host. You might need to specify the netmask of the container network
address (using the syntax "lxc.network.ipv4 = X.Y.Z.T / cidr") if the netmask
is not the network class default netmask).

When using DHCP to assign a container network address, ensure "lxc.network.ipv4
= 0.0.0.0" is used in your configuration template.

Previously a container would have been started but the network would not have
been working properly. Now a container will refuse to start, and print an error
message stating that the gateway could not be set up. For containers created
before this update we recommend running rcnetwork restart to reestablish a
container network connection.

LXC Maintenance Update

After installing LXC maintenance update, we recommend clearing the LXC SLES
cache template (stored by default in /var/cache/lxc/sles/rootfs-*) to ensure
changes in the SLES template are available in newly created containers.

For containers created before the update, we recommend to install the packages
"supportconfig", "sysconfig", and "iputils" using zypper.

6.7. Systems Management

Improved Update Stack

    SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 provides an improved update stack and the
    new command line tool zypper to manage the repositories and install or
    update packages.

Enhanced YaST Partitioner

Extended Built-in Management Infrastructure

    SUSE Linux Enterprise Server provides CIM/WBEM enablement with the SFCB
    CIMOM.

    The following CIM providers are available:

      □ cmpi-pywbem-base

      □ cmpi-pywbem-power-management (DSP1027)

      □ cmpi-pywbem-software (DSP1023)

      □ libvirt-cim (DSP1041, DSP1043, DSP1045, DSP1057, DSP1059, DSP1076,
        DSP1081)

      □ sblim-cmpi-base

      □ sblim-cmpi-dhcp

      □ sblim-cmpi-ethport_profile (DSP1014)

      □ sblim-cmpi-fsvol

      □ sblim-cmpi-network

      □ sblim-cmpi-nfsv3

      □ sblim-cmpi-nfsv4

      □ sblim-cmpi-sysfs

      □ sblim-gather-provider

      □ smis-providers

      □ sblim-cmpi-dns

      □ sblim-cmpi-samba

      □ sblim-cmpi-smbios

Support for Web Services for Management (WS Management)

    The WS-Management protocol is supported via Openwsman, providing client
    (package: openwsman-client) and server (package: openwsman-server)
    implementations.

    This allows for interoperable management with the Windows 'winrm' stack.

WebYaST — Web-Based Remote Management

    WebYaST is an easy to use, web-based administration tool targeted at casual
    Linux administrators.

    WebYaST is an add-on product. To deploy it, download the WebYaST media from
    http://download.novell.com and install the add-on product e.g., via the
    YaST add-on module. After installation, follow these steps:

      □ Open firewall port (note port number change!):

        SuSEfirewall2 open EXT TCP 4984
        SuSEfirewall2 restart

      □ Start services:

        rccollectd start
        rcwebyast start

    The last command will display the URL to connect to with a Web browser.

    For information about migrating to SP3, see Section 10.4.8, “Migrating SUSE
    Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP2 with WebYaST Installed via wagon”.

6.8. Other

EVMS2 Replaced with LVM2

Default File System

    With SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11, the default file system in new
    installations has been changed from ReiserFS to ext3. A public statement
    can be found at http://www.suse.com/products/server/technical-information/#
    FileSystem.

UEFI Enablement on AMD64/Intel64

SWAP over NFS

Linux Foundation's Carrier Grade Linux (CGL)

    SUSE supports the Linux Foundation's Carrier Grade Linux (CGL)
    specification. SUSE Linux Enterprise 11 meets the latest CGL 4.0 standard,
    and is CGL registered. For more information, see http://www.suse.com/
    products/server/cgl/.

Hot-Add Memory and CPU with vSphere 4.1 or Newer

    Hot-add memory and CPU is supported and tested for both 32-bit and 64-bit
    systems when running vSphere 4.1 or newer. For more information, see the
    VMware Compatibility Guide at http://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility
    /detail.php?device_cat=software&device_id=11287~16&release_id=24.

Chapter 7. Driver Updates

7.1. X.Org: fbdev Used in UEFI Secure Boot Mode (ASpeed Chipset)

The unaccelerated fbdev driver is used as a fallback in UEFI secure boot mode
with the ast KMS driver, EFI VGA, and other currently unknown frame buffer
drivers.

7.2. X.Org Driver Used in UEFI Secure Boot Mode (Matrox)

The unaccelerated "mgag200"/"modesetting" (generic X.Org) driver combo is used
instead of the "mga" X.Org driver if machine is running in UEFI secure boot
mode. The driver does not load in other cases and a warning message is written
into the kernel log.

7.3. Support for Intel 2nd Generation of Atom Microserver

This Service Pack adds support for Intel's 2nd Generation Microserver solution
based on the Intel(R) AtomTM Processor C2xxx Series Product Family codename
Avoton SoC (System On Chip).

Please note, that the Network Adapter for the 2nd Generation Microserver will
require a driver update (igb), that SUSE will provide later in the year.

7.4. Network Drivers

  • Updated bnx driver to version 2.0.4

  • Updated bnx2x driver to version 1.52.1-7

  • Updated e100 driver to version 3.5.24-k2

  • Updated tg3 driver to version 3.106

  • Added bna driver for Brocade 10Gbit LAN card in version 2.1.2.1

  • Updated bfa driver to version 2.1.2.1

  • Updated qla3xxx driver to version 2.03.00-k5

  • Updated sky2 driver to version 1.25

7.4.1. Add Support for TIPC (Transparent Inter-Process Communication)

The Transparent Inter-Process Communication protocol (TIPC) allows applications
in a cluster environment to communicate quickly and reliably with each other,
regardless of their location within the cluster. TIPC includes a network
topology service that lets applications track both functional and physical
changes in the network, helping to synchronize startup of distributed
applications and their responses to failure conditions. A socket API is used to
interact with the topology service and other applications. Address assignment
and bearer configuration is managed from a userspace application called
tipc-config . More information about TIPC can be found at <a href="http://
tipc.sourceforge.net/"

7.4.2. Emulex be2net Driver

Updating Ethernet Firmware

The Emulex Ethernet driver supports updating the firmware image in the UCNA
flash through the request_firmware interface in Linux. You can perform this
update when the UCNA is online and passing network/storage traffic.

To update the ethernet firmware image:

Copy the latest firmware image under the /lib/firmware directory:

cp be3flash.ufi /lib/firmware

Start the update process:

ethtool -f eth<X> be3flash.ufi 0

Firmware Update Needed for SR-IOV Functionality

Emulex 10Gb E Virtual Fabric adapter firmware version 4.6.166.7 or later is
required for SR-IOV functionality.

Limitation in Bridging on Emulex 10Gb E Virtual Fabric Adapter with SR-IOV
Enabled

PING is not working when attempting to bridge the ports of the Emulex 10Gb E
Virtual Fabric adapter to the virtual machines when SR-IOV is enabled in the
BIOS. This issue occurs due to limitations of the virtual Ethernet bridge in
the adapter. Please reference the Emulex Release Notes for further information
before enabling SR-IOV

7.4.3. Intel ixgbe driver update

Support for the follow devices have been added to the SLES11 SP3 ixgbe driver:

  • Intel(R) 82599 10 Gigabit Network Connection

  • Intel(R) Ethernet Converged Network Adapter X520-4

  • Intel(R) Ethernet Controller X540-AT1

Note this includes the following PCI Device ID's: 0x1557, 0x154A and 0x1560

The driver also includes the latest bug fixes to the driver available at the
time of the driver update cutoff date.

7.4.4. Intel igb driver update

Support for the follow devices have been added to the SLES11 SP3 igb driver:

  • Intel(R) Ethernet Server Adapter I210-T1

  • Intel(R) I210 Gigabit Fiber Network Connection

  • Intel(R) I210 Gigabit Backplane Connection

  • Intel(R) I210 Gigabit Network Connection

  • Intel(R) I211 Gigabit Network Connection

Note this includes the following PCI Device ID's: 0x1533, 0x1534, 0x1536,
0x1537, 0x1538 and 0x1539

The driver also includes the latest bug fixes to the driver available at the
time of the driver update cutoff date.

7.4.5. Intel e1000e driver update

Support for the follow devices have been added to the SLES11 SP3 e1000e driver:

  • Intel(R) Ethernet Connection I217-LM

  • Intel(R) Ethernet Connection I217-V

  • Intel(R) Ethernet Connection I218-LM

  • Intel(R) Ethernet Connection I218-V

Note this includes the following PCI Device ID's: 0x153A, 0x153B, 0x155A and
0x1559

The driver also includes the latest bug fixes to the driver available at the
time of the driver update cutoff date.

7.4.6. Updating Firmware for QLogic 82XX based CNA

For QLogic 82XX based CNA, update the firmware to the latest from the QLogic
website or whatever is recommended by the OEM in case you are running 4.7.x FW
version.

7.5. Storage Drivers

  • Updated qla2xxx to version 8.03.01.04.11.1-k8

  • Updated qla4xxx to version v5.03.00.06.11.3-k0

  • Updated megaraid_mbox driver to version 2.20.5.1

  • Updated megaraid_sas to version 4.27

  • Updated MPT Fusion to version 4.22.00.00

  • Updated mpt2sas driver to version 04.100.01.02

  • Updated lpfc driver to version 8.3.5.7

  • Added bnx2i driver for Broadcom NetXtreme II in version 2.1.1

  • Updated bfa driver to version 2.1.2.1

  • The enic driver was updated to version 1.4.2 to support newer Cisco UCS
    systems. This update also replaces LRO (Large Receive Offload) to GRO
    (Generic Receive Offload).

7.5.1. SATA Device Sleep

Device Sleep is a feature as described in AHCI 1.3.1 Technical Proposal. This
feature enables an HBA and SATA storage device to enter the DevSleep interface
state, enabling lower power SATA-based systems.

7.5.2. Update of Intel SCU Driver

The Intel isci driver got updated to the latest upstream status.

7.5.3. iSCSI Update

The Linux-iSCSI.org (LIO) kernel subsystem and related utilities have been
updated to the kernel v3.4 level.

7.5.4. Support for Micron Technology P320 PCIe SSD

This Service Pack adds support for Micron Technology P320 PCIe SSD solutions
through the mtip32xx block driver.

7.5.5. Brocade FCoE Switch Does Not Accept Fabric Logins from Initiator

 1. Once link is up, LLDP query QoS to get the new PFC, send FCoE incapable
    right away, which is right.

 2. After negotiating with neighbor, we got lldp frame with un-recognized ieee
    dcbx, so we declare link is CEE incapable, and send out FCoE Capable event
    with PFC = 0 to fcoe kernel.

 3. Then neighbor adjusts its version to match our CEE version, now we find
    right DCBX tlv in incoming LLDP frame, we declare link CEE capable. At this
    time we did not send FCoE capable again since we already sent it in step 2.

To solve this, upgrade the switch firmware to v6.4.3 or above.

7.6. Other Drivers

  • Updated CIFS to version 1.74

  • Updated intel-i810 driver

  • Added X11 driver for AMD Geode LX 2D (xorg-x11-driver-video-amd)

  • Updated X11 driver for Radeon cards

  • Updated XFS and DMAPI driver

  • Updated Wacom driver to version 1.46

7.6.1. SUSE Linux Enterprise Virtual Machine Driver Pack 2.1

SUSE Linux Enterprise Virtual Machine Driver Pack contains disk and network
device drivers for Microsoft Windows Operating Systems that enable the high
performance hosting of the unmodified guests on top of SUSE Linux Enterprise
Server. Supported host operating systems are SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10
SP4 and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP2 or later. SUSE Linux Enterprise
Virtual Machine Driver Pack contains paravirtualized drivers for both KVM and
Xen hypervisors, available as part of our SUSE Linux Enterprise Server product.
The key update in version 2.1 is a support for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11
SP3 and new Microsoft Windows releases: Microsoft Windows Server 2012 and
Microsoft Windows 8.

7.6.2. New Intel Platform and CPU Support

This SP adds support for the following new Intel CPUs:

  • 4th Generation Intel(R) Core™ Processor

  • Intel(R) Xeon(R) processor E5-2600 v2 product family

  • Intel(R) Xeon(R) processor E5-1600 v2 product family

  • Intel(R) Xeon(R) processor E5-2400 v2 product family

  • Intel(R) Xeon(R) processor E5-4600 v2 product family

  • Next generation Intel(R) Xeon(R) processor E7-8800/4800/2800 v2 product
    families (codenamed ‘Ivy Bridge-EX’)

This covers new support for the following platforms:

  • Brickland-EX

  • Romley

  • Next generation

7.6.3. Recent SSDs and SAS/SATA Interfaces in SMARTmon

Spinning disks and SSDs evolve, exposing new parameters or refurbished SMART
Attributes Data Structure.

To match vendor specific data structures and avoid missleading interpretation,
SMARTmon tools include the new data structures.

7.6.4. Updated Support for Intel Integrated Graphics

This Service Pack adds support for the 4th Generation Intel(R) Core™ Processor
integrated graphics core.

7.6.5. Support for Intel Microserver

This Service Pack adds support for Intel's Microserver solution based on the
Intel(R) AtomTM Processor S1200 Product Family codename Centerton SoC (System
On Chip).

Chapter 8. Other Updates

8.1. Package python-ethtool

The Python bindings for ethtool were updated in SLE11 SP3 to version 0.7. This
update introduced several stability bugfixes and support for handling IPv6.

8.2. Update Python to 2.6.8

Python 2.6.7 and 2.6.8 are security only updates to 2.6.6.

Python 2.6 helps with migrating to Python 3.0, which is a major redesign of the
language. Whenever possible, Python 2.6 incorporates new features and syntax
changes from 3.0 while remaining compatible with existing code. In case of
conflict, Python 2.6 adds compatibility functions in a future_builtins module
and a -3 switch to warn about usages that will become unsupported in 3.0.

Some significant new packages have been added to the standard library, such as
the multiprocessing and json modules.

8.3. Individual Timeout Value for Each Direct AutoFS Mount

If there were two direct mounts with different timeouts configured, the second
one was ignored and the first timeout value was used for both mount points.

AutoFS was patched to support individual timeout values for each direct mount.

8.4. List of Updated Packages

  • Updated acct to version 6.5.5

  • Updated ant to version 1.7.1

  • Updated augeas to version 0.9.0

  • Updated autoyast2 to version 2.17.68

  • Updated binutils to version 2.23.1

  • Updated biosdevname to version 0.4.1

  • Updated bluez to version 4.99

  • Updated brocade-firmware to version 3.1.2.1

  • Updated btrfsprogs to version 0.20

  • Updated checkmedia to version 3.0

  • Updated dapl to version 2.0.34

  • Updated device-mapper to version 1.02.77

  • Updated fuse to version 2.8.7

  • Updated gdb to version 7.5.1

  • Updated gnu-efi to version 3.0q

  • Updated hwinfo to version 15.50

  • Updated hyper-v to version 5

  • Updated i4l-base to version 2013.5.13

  • Updated ibutils to version 1.5.7

  • Updated infiniband-diags to version 1.5.13

  • Updated installation-images to version 11.194

  • Updated ipmitool to version 1.8.12

  • Updated iprutils to version 2.3.13

  • Updated irqbalance to version 1.0.4

  • Updated IBM Java 1.6.0 (java-1_6_0-ibm) to SR13 FP1

  • Updated IBM Java 1.7.0 (java-1_6_0-ibm) to SR4 FP1

  • Updated kdump to version 0.8.4

  • Updated kernel-source to version 3.0.76

  • Updated kexec-tools to version 2.0.3

  • Updated kvm to version 1.4.1

  • Updated ledmon to version 0.76

  • Updated libdfp to version 1.0.8

  • Updated libdrm to version 2.4.41

  • Updated libHBAAPI2 to version 2.2.7

  • Updated libhbalinux2 to version 1.0.14

  • Updated libhugetlbfs to version 2.15

  • Updated libibmad to version 1.3.9

  • Updated libibumad to version 1.3.7

  • Updated libmlx4-rdmav2 to version 1.0.1

  • Updated libnes-rdmav2 to version 1.1.3

  • Updated librdmacm to version 1.0.15

  • Updated libsdp to version 1.1.108

  • Updated libservicelog to version 1.1.12

  • Updated libvirt to version 1.0.5.1

  • Updated libvpd2 to version 2.1.1 (and on ppc64 to version 2.2.0)

  • Updated libzypp to version 9.34.0

  • Updated linuxrc to version 3.3.91

  • Updated lldpad to version 0.9.45

  • Updated lsvpd to version 1.7.0

  • Updated lvm2 to version 2.02.98

  • Updated lxc to version 0.8.0

  • Updated makedumpfile to version 1.5.1

  • Updated mcelog to version 1.0.2013.01.18

  • Updated mdadm to version 3.2.6

  • Updated Mesa to version 9.0.3

  • Updated MozillaFirefox to version 17.0.4esr

  • Updated mysql to version 5.5.31

  • Updated nagios-plugins to version 1.4.16

  • Updated nfsidmap to version 0.25

  • Updated nss-shared-helper to version 1.0.10

  • Updated ofed to version 1.5.4.1

  • Updated openCryptoki to version 2.4.2

  • Updated open-fcoe to version 1.0.26

  • Updated opensm to version 3.3.13

  • Updated openssh to version 6.2p2

  • Updated powerpc-utils to version 1.2.16

  • Updated pciutils-ids to version 2013.2.11

  • Updated perf to version 3.0.76

  • Updated perl-Bootloader to version 0.4.89.55

  • Updated php53 to version 5.3.17

  • Updated pixman to version 0.24.4

  • Updated postfix to version 2.9.4

  • Updated ppc64-diag to version 2.6.1

  • Updated python-lxml to version 2.3.6

  • Updated release-notes-sles to version 11.3.20

  • Updated rng-tools to version 4

  • Updated rsyslog to version 5.10.1

  • Updated servicelog to version 1.1.11

  • Updated sg3_utils to version 1.35

  • Updated sles-admin_de to version 11.3

  • Updated sles-admin_ja to version 11.3

  • Updated sles-admin_zh_CN to version 11.3

  • Updated sles-admin_zh_TW to version 11.3

  • Updated sles-deployment_de to version 11.3

  • Updated sles-deployment_ja to version 11.3

  • Updated sles-deployment_ko to version 11.3

  • Updated sles-deployment_zh_CN to version 11.3

  • Updated sles-deployment_zh_TW to version 11.3

  • Updated sles-installquick_ar to version 11.3

  • Updated sles-installquick_cs to version 12.3

  • Updated sles-installquick_de to version 12.3

  • Updated sles-installquick_es to version 12.3

  • Updated sles-installquick_fr to version 12.3

  • Updated sles-installquick_hu to version 12.3

  • Updated sles-installquick_it to version 12.3

  • Updated sles-installquick_ja to version 12.3

  • Updated sles-installquick_ko to version 12.3

  • Updated sles-installquick_pl to version 12.3

  • Updated sles-installquick_pt_BR to version 12.3

  • Updated sles-installquick_ru to version 12.3

  • Updated sles-installquick_zh_CN to version 12.3

  • Updated sles-installquick_zh_TW to version 12.3

  • Updated sles-manuals_en to version 11.3

  • Updated smartmontools to version 6.0

  • Updated snapper to version 0.1.2

  • Updated sssd to version 1.9.4

  • Updated stunnel to version 4.54

  • Updated sysconfig to version 0.71.61

  • Updated tpm-tools to version 1.3.8

  • Updated trousers to version 0.3.10

  • Updated virt-manager to version 0.9.4

  • Updated virt-utils to version 1.2.1

  • Updated virt-viewer to version 0.5.4

  • Updated vm-install to version 0.6.23

  • Updated x3270 to version 3.3.12

  • Updated xen to version 4.2.2_04

  • Updated yast2 to version 2.17.129

  • Updated yast2-add-on to version 2.17.31

  • Updated yast2-apparmor to version 2.17.14

  • Updated yast2-bootloader to version 2.17.96

  • Updated yast2-country to version 2.17.54

  • Updated yast2-dirinstall to version 2.17.5

  • Updated yast2-fcoe-client to version 2.17.25

  • Updated yast2-firewall to version 2.17.13

  • Updated yast2-firstboot to version 2.17.18

  • Updated yast2-installation to version 2.17.108

  • Updated yast2-iscsi-client to version 2.17.36

  • Updated yast2-kdump to version 2.17.26

  • Updated yast2-kerberos-client to version 2.17.16

  • Updated yast2-ldap to version 2.17.8

  • Updated yast2-ldap-client to version 2.17.37

  • Updated yast2-mail to version 2.17.7

  • Updated yast2-ncurses to version 2.17.22

  • Updated yast2-network to version 2.17.195

  • Updated yast2-nfs-client to version 2.17.17

  • Updated yast2-nis-server to version 2.17.3

  • Updated yast2-ntp-client to version 2.17.15

  • Updated yast2-online-update to version 2.17.23

  • Updated yast2-packager to version 2.17.107

  • Updated yast2-pkg-bindings to version 2.17.59

  • Updated yast2-registration to version 2.17.38

  • Updated yast2-repair to version 2.17.12

  • Updated yast2-samba-client to version 2.17.27

  • Updated yast2-samba-server to version 2.17.15

  • Updated yast2-security to version 2.17.16

  • Updated yast2-slp to version 2.17.0

  • Updated yast2-snapper to version 2.17.19

  • Updated yast2-squid to version 2.17.12

  • Updated yast2-storage to version 2.17.142

  • Updated yast2-trans-ar to version 2.17.37

  • Updated yast2-trans-cs to version 2.17.46

  • Updated yast2-trans-da to version 2.17.35

  • Updated yast2-trans-de to version 2.17.55

  • Updated yast2-trans-el to version 2.17.18

  • Updated yast2-trans-en_GB to version 2.17.29

  • Updated yast2-trans-en_US to version 2.17.34

  • Updated yast2-trans-es to version 2.17.53

  • Updated yast2-trans-fi to version 2.17.38

  • Updated yast2-trans-fr to version 2.17.55

  • Updated yast2-trans-hu to version 2.17.56

  • Updated yast2-trans-it to version 2.17.56

  • Updated yast2-trans-ja to version 2.17.47

  • Updated yast2-trans-ko to version 2.17.53

  • Updated yast2-trans-nb to version 2.17.32

  • Updated yast2-trans-nl to version 2.17.52

  • Updated yast2-trans-pl to version 2.17.49

  • Updated yast2-trans-pt to version 2.17.10

  • Updated yast2-trans-pt_BR to version 2.17.52

  • Updated yast2-trans-ru to version 2.17.47

  • Updated yast2-trans-sv to version 2.17.37

  • Updated yast2-trans-tr to version 2.17.16

  • Updated yast2-trans-uk to version 2.17.28

  • Updated yast2-trans-zh_CN to version 2.17.41

  • Updated yast2-trans-zh_TW to version 2.17.36

  • Updated yast2-update to version 2.17.24

  • Updated yast2-users to version 2.17.54

  • Updated yast2-vm to version 2.17.16

  • Updated yast2-wagon to version 2.17.38

  • Updated yast2-x11 to version 2.17.17

  • Updated zlib to version 1.2.7

  • Updated zypper to version 1.6.307

Chapter 9. Software Development Kit

SUSE provides a Software Development Kit (SDK) for SUSE Linux Enterprise 11
Service Pack 3. This SDK contains libraries, development environments and tools
along the following patterns:

  • C/C++ Development

  • Certification

  • Documentation Tools

  • GNOME Development

  • Java Development

  • KDE Development

  • Linux Kernel Development

  • Programming Libraries

  • .NET Development

  • Miscellaneous

  • Perl Development

  • Python Development

  • Qt 4 Development

  • Ruby on Rails Development

  • Ruby Development

  • Version Control Systems

  • Web Development

  • YaST Development

9.1. Optional GCC Compiler Suite on SDK

The optional compiler on the SDK has been updated to GCC 4.7.2. It brings
better standard compliance (ISO C 11, ISO C++ 11), improved optimizations and
allows to take benefit of new hardware instructions.

For details see http://gcc.gnu.org/gcc-4.7/changes.html

SUSE also added support for the IBM zEnterprise EC12 architecture (options
-march=zEC12 and -mtune=zEC12) and for AMD's new low power core processor
(Family 16h) (options-march=btver2 and -mtune=btver2).

Chapter 10. Update-Related Notes

This section includes update-related information for this release.

10.1. General Notes

10.1.1. Upgrading PostgreSQL Installations from 8.3 to 9.1.

To upgrade a PostgreSQL server installation from version 8.3 to 9.1, the
database files need to be converted to the new version.

Newer versions of PostgreSQL come with the pg_upgrade tool that simplifies and
speeds up the migration of a PostgreSQL installation to a new version. Formerly
dump and restore was needed that was much slower.

pg_upgrade needs to have the server binaries of both versions available. To
allow this, we had to change the way PostgreSQL is packaged as well as the
naming of the packages, so that two or more versions of PostgreSQL can be
installed in parallel.

Starting with version 9.1, PostgreSQL package names contain numbers indicating
the major version. In PostgreSQL terms the major version consists of the first
two components of the version number, i.e. 8.3, 8.4, 9.0, or 9.1. So, the
packages for Postgresql 9.1 are named postgresql91, postgresql91-server, etc.
Inside the packages the files were moved from their standard locations to a
versioned location such as /usr/lib/postgresql83/bin or /usr/lib/postgresql91/
bin to avoid file conflicts if packages are installed in parallel. The
update-alternatives mechanism creates and maintains symbolic links that cause
one version (by default the highest installed version) to re-appear in the
standard locations. By default, database data are stored under /var/lib/pgsql/
data on SUSE Linux.

The following preconditions have to be fulfilled before data migration can be
started:

 1. If not already done, the packages of the old PostgreSQL version must be
    upgraded to the new packaging scheme through a maintenance update. For
    SLE11 this means to install the patch that upgrades PostgreSQL from version
    8.3.14 to 8.3.19 or higher.

 2. The packages of the new PostgreSQL major version need to be installed. For
    SLE11 this means to install postgresql91-server and all the packages it
    depends on. As pg_upgrade is contained in postgresql91-contrib, that one
    has to be installed as well, at least until the migration is done.

 3. Unless pg_upgrade is used in link mode, the server must have enough free
    disk space to temporarily hold a copy of the database files. If the
    database instance was installed in the default location, the needed space
    in megabytes can be determined by running the follwing command as root: "du
    -hs /var/lib/pgsql/data". If space is tight, it might help to run the
    "VACUUM FULL" SQL command on each database in the instance to be migrated,
    but be aware that it might take very long.

Upstream documentation about pg_upgrade including step by step instructions for
performing a database migration can be found under file:///usr/share/doc/
packages/postgresql91/html/pgupgrade.html (if the postgresql91-docs package is
installed), or online under http://www.postgresql.org/docs/9.1/static/
pgupgrade.html . NOTE: The online documentation starts with explaining how you
can install PostgreSQL from the upstream sources (which is not necessary on
SLES) and also uses other directory names ( /usr/local instead of the
update-alternatives based path as described above).

For background information about the inner workings of pg_admin and a
performance comparison with the old dump and restore method, see http://
momjian.us/main/writings/pgsql/pg_upgrade.pdf .

10.1.2. Upgrading from SLES 10 (GA and Service Packs) or SLES 11 GA

There are supported ways to upgrade from SLES 10 GA and SPx or SLES 11 GA and
SP1 to SLES 11 SP3, which may require intermediate upgrade steps:

  • SLES 10 GA -> SLES 10 SP1 -> SLES 10 SP2 -> SLES 10 SP3 -> SLES 10 SP4 ->
    SLES 11 SP3, or

  • SLES 11 GA -> SLES 11 SP1 -> SLES 11 SP2 -> SLES 11 SP3

10.1.3. Online Migration from SP2 to SP3 via "YaST wagon"

The online migration from SP2 to SP3 is supported via the "YaST wagon" module.

10.1.4. Migrating to SLE 11 SP3 Using Zypper

To migrate the system to the Service Pack 3 level with zypper, proceed as
follows:

  • Open a root shell.

  • Run zypper ref -s to refresh all services and repositories.

  • Run zypper patch to install package management updates.

  • Now it is possible to install all available updates for SLES/SLED 11 SP2;
    run zypper patch again.

  • Now the installed products contain information about distribution upgrades
    and which migration products should be installed to perform the migration.
    Read the migration product information from /etc/products.d/*.prod and
    install them.

  • Enter the following command:

    grep '<product' /etc/products.d/*.prod

    A sample output could be as follows:

    <product>sle-sdk-SP3-migration</product>
    <product>SUSE_SLES-SP3-migration</product>

  • Install these migration products (example):

    zypper in -t product sle-sdk-SP3-migration SUSE_SLES-SP3-migration

  • Run suse_register -d 2 -L /root/.suse_register.log to register the products
    in order to get the corresponding SP3 Update repositories.

  • Run zypper ref -s to refresh services and repositores.

  • Check the repositories using zypper lr. Disable SP1 and SP2 repositories
    after the registration and enable the new SP3 repositories (such as
    SP3-Pool, SP3-Updates):

    zypper mr --disable <repo-alias>
    zypper mr --enable <repo-alias>

    Also disable repositories you do not want to update from.

  • Then perform a distribution upgrade by entering the following command:

    zypper dup --from SLES11-SP3-Pool --from SLES11-SP3-Updates \
      --from SLE11-SP2-WebYaST-1.3-Pool --from SLE11-SP2-WebYaST-1.3-Updates

    Add more SP3 repositories here if needed, e.g. in case add-on products are
    installed. For WebYaST, it is actually SLE11-SP2-*, because there is one
    WebYaST release that runs on two SP code bases.

    Note

    If you make sure that only repositories, which you migrate from, are
    enabled, you can omit the --from parameters.

  • zypper will report that it will delete the migration product and update the
    main products. Confirm the message to continue updating the RPM packages.

  • To do a full update, run zypper patch.

  • After the upgrade is finished, register the new products again:

    suse_register -d 2 -L /root/.suse_register.log

  • Run zypper patch after re-registering. Some products donot use the update
    repositories during the migration and they are not active at this point of
    time.

  • Reboot the system.

10.1.5. Migration from SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 SP4 via Bootable Media

Migration is supported from SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 SP4 via bootable
media (incl. PXE boot).

10.1.6. Migrating Hosts Running SMT 11 SP2 to SMT 11 SP3

As part of the release of the SLE 11 SP3 product family, SUSE will also release
Susbscription Management Tool 11 SP3 (SMT 11 SP3). We expect to release SMT 11
SP3 within a month after the release of SLES 11 SP3.

Do not migrate hosts running SMT 11 SP2 to SLES 11 SP3 before SMT 11 SP3 is
available.

You can update SLE 11 SP3 hosts via SMT 11 SP2 without any limitations until
SMT 11 SP3 is released.

10.1.7. Online Migration with Debuginfo Packages Not Supported

Online migration from SP2 to SP3 is not supported if debuginfo packages are
installed.

10.1.8. Upgrading to SLES 11 SP3 with Root File System on iSCSI

The upgrade or the automated migration from SLES 10 to SLES 11 SP3 may fail if
the root file system of the machine is located on iSCSI because of missing boot
options.

There are two approaches to solve it, if you are using AutoYaST (adjust IP
addresses and hostnames according to your environment!):

With Manual Intervention:

    Use as boot options:

    withiscsi=1 autoupgrade=1 autoyast=http://myserver/autoupgrade.xml

    Then, in the dialog of the iSCSI initiator, configure the iSCSI device.

    After successful configuration of the iSCSI device, YaST will find the
    installed system for the upgrade.

Fully Automated Upgrade:

    Add or modify the <iscsi-client> section in your autoupgrade.xml as
    follows:

    <iscsi-client>
      <initiatorname>iqn.2012-01.com.example:initiator-example</initiatorname>
      <targets config:type="list">
        <listentry>
          <authmethod>None</authmethod>
          <iface>default</iface>
          <portal>10.10.42.84:3260</portal>
          <startup>onboot</startup>
          <target>iqn.2000-05.com.example:disk01-example</target>
        </listentry>
      </targets>
      <version>1.0</version>
    </iscsi-client>

    Then, run the automated upgrade with these boot options:

    autoupgrade=1 autoyast=http://myserver/autoupgrade.xml

10.1.9. Kernel Split in Different Packages

With SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 the kernel RPMs are split in different
parts:

  • kernel-flavor-base

    Very reduced hardware support, intended to be used in virtual machine
    images.

  • kernel-flavor

    Extends the base package; contains all supported kernel modules.

  • kernel-flavor-extra

    All other kernel modules which may be useful but are not supported. This
    package will not be installed by default.

10.1.10. Tickless Idle

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server uses tickless timers. This can be disabled by
adding nohz=off as a boot option.

10.1.11. Development Packages

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server will no longer contain any development packages,
with the exception of some core development packages necessary to compile
kernel modules. Development packages are available in the SUSE Linux Enterprise
Software Development Kit.

10.1.12. Displaying Manual Pages with the Same Name

The man command now asks which manual page the user wants to see if manual
pages with the same name exist in different sections. The user is expected to
type the section number to make this manual page visible.

If you want to revert back to the previously used method, please set
MAN_POSIXLY_CORRECT=1 in a shell initialization file such as ~/.bashrc.

10.1.13. YaST LDAP Server No Longer Uses /etc/openldap/slapd.conf

The YaST LDAP Server module no longer stores the configuration of the LDAP
Server in the file /etc/openldap/slapd.conf. It uses OpenLDAP's dynamic
configuration backend, which stores the configuration in an LDAP database
itself. That database consists of a set of .ldif files in the directory /etc/
openldap/slapd.d. You should - usually - not need to access those files
directly. To access the configuration you can either use the yast2-ldap-server
module or any capable LDAP client (e.g., ldapmodify, ldapsearch, etc.). For
details on the dynamic configuration of OpenLDAP, refer to the OpenLDAP
Administration Guide.

10.1.14. AppArmor

This release of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server ships with AppArmor. The AppArmor
intrusion prevention framework builds a firewall around your applications by
limiting the access to files, directories, and POSIX capabilities to the
minimum required for normal operation. AppArmor protection can be enabled via
the AppArmor control panel, located in YaST under Security and Users. For
detailed information about using AppArmor, see the documentation in /usr/share/
doc/packages/apparmor-docs.

The AppArmor profiles included with SUSE Linux have been developed with our
best efforts to reproduce how most users use their software. The profiles
provided work unmodified for many users, but some users may find our profiles
too restrictive for their environments.

If you discover that some of your applications do not function as you expected,
you may need to use the AppArmor Update Profile Wizard in YaST (or use the
aa-logprof(8) command line utility) to update your AppArmor profiles. Place all
your profiles into learning mode with the following: aa-complain /etc/
apparmor.d/*

When a program generates many complaints, the system's performance is degraded.
To mitigate this, we recommend periodically running the Update Profile Wizard
(or aa-logprof(8)) to update your profiles even if you choose to leave them in
learning mode. This reduces the number of learning events logged to disk, which
improves the performance of the system.

10.1.15. Updating with Alternative Boot Loader (Non-Linux) or Multiple Boot
Loader Programs

Note

Before updating, check the configuration of your boot loader to assure that it
is not configured to modify any system areas (MBR, settings active partition or
similar). This will reduce the amount of system areas that you need to restore
after update.

Updating a system where an alternative boot loader (not grub) or an additional
boot loader is installed in the MBR (Master Boot Record) might override the MBR
and place grub as the primary boot loader into the system.

In this case, we recommend the following: First backup your data. Then either
do a fresh installation and restore your data, or run the update nevertheless
and restore the affected system areas (in particular, the MBR). It is always
recommended to keep data separated from the system software. In other words, /
home, /srv, and other volumes containing data should be on separate partitions,
volume groups or logical volumes. The YaST partitioning module will propose
doing this.

Other update strategies (except booting the install media) are safe if the boot
loader is configured properly. But the other strategies are not available, if
you update from SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10.

10.1.16. Upgrading MySQL to SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11

During the upgrade to SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 MySQL is also upgraded to
the latest version. To complete this migration you may have to upgrade your
data as described in the MySQL documentation.

10.1.17. Fine-Tuning Firewall Settings

SuSEfirewall2 is enabled by default, which means you cannot log in from remote
systems. This also interferes with network browsing and multicast applications,
such as SLP and Samba ("Network Neighborhood"). You can fine-tune the firewall
settings using YaST.

10.1.18. Upgrading from SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 SP4 with the Xen
Hypervisor May Have Incorrect Network Configuration

We have improved the network configuration: If you install SUSE Linux
Enterprise Server 11 SP3 and configure Xen, you get a bridged setup through
YaST.

However, if you upgrade from SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 SP4 to SUSE Linux
Enterprise Server 11 SP3, the upgrade does not configure the bridged setup
automatically.

To start the bridge proposal for networking, start the "YaST Control Center",
choose "Virtualization", then "Install Hypervisor and Tools". Alternatively,
call yast2 xen on the commandline.

10.1.19. LILO Configuration Via YaST or AutoYaST

The configuration of the LILO boot loader on the x86 and x86_64 architecture
via YaST or AutoYaST is deprecated, and not supported anymore. For more
information, see Novell TID 7003226 http://www.novell.com/support/
documentLink.do?externalID=7003226.

10.2. Update from SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11

10.2.1. Changed Routing Behavior

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 set
net.ipv4.conf.all.rp_filter = 1 in /etc/sysctl.conf with the intention of
enabling route path filtering. However, the kernel fails to enable routing path
filtering, as intended, by default in these products.

Since SLES 11 SP1, this bug is fixed and most simple single-homed unicast
server setups will not notice a change. But it may cause issues for
applications that relied on reverse path filtering being disabled (e.g.,
multicast routing or multi-homed servers).

For more details, see http://ifup.org/2011/02/03/
reverse-path-filter-rp_filter-by-example/.

10.2.2. Kernel Devel Packages

Starting with SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 Service Pack 1 the configuration
files for recompiling the kernel were moved into their own sub-package:

kernel-flavor-devel

    This package contains only the configuration for one kernel type
    (“flavor”), such as default or desktop.

10.3. Update from SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP1

The direct update from SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP1 to SP3 is not
supported. For more information, see Section 10.1.2, “Upgrading from SLES 10
(GA and Service Packs) or SLES 11 GA”.

10.4. Update from SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP2

10.4.1. Update of python-lxml to 2.3.x

python-lxml has been updated to version 2.3.6. It brings several features and
numerous bug fixes, as well as one API change:

Element.findtext() now returns an empty string instead of None for elements
without text content; it still returns None when there is no element matching
the request. This brings the lxml implementation of the ElementTree API in
conformance with the ElementTree API specification .

10.4.2. Postfix: Incompatibility Issues and New Features

To benefit from enhancements and improvements which have been developed in the
upstream community, postfix is upgraded from version 2.5.13 to the current
version 2.9.4.

Incompatibility Issues:

  • The default milter_protocol setting is increased from 2 to 6; this enables
    all available features up to and including Sendmail 8.14.0.

  • When a mailbox file is not owned by its recipient, the local and virtual
    delivery agents now log a warning and defer delivery. Specify
    "strict_mailbox_ownership = no" to ignore such ownership discrepancies.

  • The Postfix SMTP client(!) no longer tries to use the obsolete SSLv2
    protocol by default, as this may prevent the use of modern SSL features.
    Lack of SSLv2 support should never be a problem, since SSLv3 was defined in
    1996, and TLSv1 in 1999. You can undo the change by specifying empty
    main.cf values for smtp_tls_protocols and lmtp_tls_protocols.

  • Postfix SMTP server replies for address verification have changed.
    unverified_recipient_reject_code and unverified_sender_reject_code now
    handle "5XX" rejects only. The "4XX" rejects are now controlled with
    unverified_sender_defer_code and unverified_recipient_defer_code.

  • postfix-script , postfix-files and post-install are moved away from /etc/
    postfix to $daemon_directory.

  • Postfix now adds (Resent-) From:, Date:, Message-ID: or To: headers only
    when clients match $local_header_rewrite_clients. Specify
    "always_add_missing_headers = yes" for backwards compatibility.

  • The verify(8) service now uses a persistent cache by default
    (address_verify_map = btree:$data_directory/verify_cache). To disable,
    specify "address_verify_map ="

  • The meaning of an empty filter next-hop destination has changed (for
    example, "content_filter = foo:" or "FILTER foo:"). Postfix now uses the
    recipient domain, instead of using $myhostname as in Postfix 2.6 and
    earlier. To restore the old behavior specify "default_filter_nexthop =
    $myhostname", or specify a non-empty next-hop content filter destination.

  • Postfix now requests default delivery status notifications when adding a
    recipient with the Milter smfi_addrcpt action, instead of "never notify" as
    with Postfix automatically-added recipients.

  • Postfix now reports a temporary delivery error when the result of virtual
    alias expansion would exceed the virtual_alias_recursion_limit or
    virtual_alias_expansion_limit.

  • To avoid repeated delivery to mailing lists with pathological nested alias
    configurations, the local(8) delivery agent now keeps the owner-alias
    attribute of a parent alias, when delivering mail to a child alias that
    does not have its own owner alias.

  • The Postfix SMTP client no longer appends the local domain when looking up
    a DNS name without ".". Specify "smtp_dns_resolver_options = res_defnames"
    to get the old behavior, which may produce unexpected results.

  • The format of the "postfix/smtpd[pid]: queueid: client=host[addr]" logfile
    record has changed. When available, the before-filter client information
    and the before-filter queue ID are now appended to the end of the record.

  • Postfix by default no longer adds a "To: undisclosed-recipients:;" header
    when no recipient specified in the message header. For backwards
    compatibility, specify: "undisclosed_recipients_header = To:
    undisclosed-recipients:;"

  • The Postfix SMTP server now always re-computes the SASL mechanism list
    after successful completion of the STARTTLS command. Earlier versions only
    re-computed the mechanism list when the values of
    smtp_sasl_tls_security_options and smtp_sasl_security_options differ. This
    could produce incorrect results, because the Dovecot authentication server
    may change responses when the SMTP session is encrypted.

  • The smtpd_starttls_timeout default value is now stress-dependent. By
    default, TLS negotiations must now complete under overload in 10s instead
    of 300s.

  • Postfix no longer appends the system-supplied default CA certificates to
    the lists specified with *_tls_CAfile or with *_tls_CApath. This prevents
    third-party certificates from getting mail relay permission with the
    permit_tls_all_clientcerts feature. Unfortunately this change may cause
    compatibility problems when configurations rely on certificate verification
    for other purposes. Specify "tls_append_default_CA = yes" for backwards
    compatibility.

  • The VSTREAM error flags are now split into separate read and write error
    flags. As a result of this change, all programs that use Postfix VSTREAMs
    MUST be recompiled.

  • For consistency with the SMTP standard, the (client-side)
    smtp_line_length_limit default value was increased from 990 characters to
    999 (i.e. 1000 characters including <CR><LF>). Specify
    "smtp_line_length_limit = 990" to restore historical Postfix behavior.

  • To simplify integration with third-party applications, the Postfix sendmail
    command now always transforms all input lines ending in <CR><LF> into UNIX
    format (lines ending in <LF>). Specify "sendmail_fix_line_endings = strict"
    to restore historical Postfix behavior.

  • To work around broken remote SMTP servers, the Postfix SMTP client by
    default no longer appends the "AUTH=<>" option to the MAIL FROM command.
    Specify "smtp_send_dummy_mail_auth = yes" to restore the old behavior.

  • Instead of terminating immediately with a "fatal" message when a database
    file can't be opened, a Postfix daemon program now logs an "error" message,
    and continues execution with reduced functionality. Logfile-based alerting
    systems may need to be updated to look for "error" messages in addition to
    "fatal" messages. Specify "daemon_table_open_error_is_fatal = yes" to get
    the historical behavior (immediate termination with "fatal" message).

  • Postfix now logs the result of successful TLS negotiation with TLS logging
    levels of 0.

  • The default inet_protocols value is now "all" instead of "ipv4", meaning
    use both IPv4 and IPv6. To avoid an unexpected loss of performance for
    sites without global IPv6 connectivity, the commands "make upgrade" and
    "postfix upgrade-configuration" now append "inet_protocols = ipv4" to
    main.cf when no explicit inet_protocols setting is already present.

New Features:

  • Support for managing multiple Postfix instances. Multi-instance support
    allows you to do the following and more: - Simplify post-queue content
    filter configuration by using separate Postfix instances before and after
    the filter. - Implement per-user content filters (or no filter) via
    transport map lookups instead of content_filter settings. - Test new
    configuration settings (on a different server IP address or TCP port)
    without disturbing production instances.

  • check_reverse_client_hostname_access, to make access decisions based on the
    unverified client hostname.

  • With "reject_tempfail_action = defer", the Postfix SMTP server immediately
    replies with a 4xx status after some temporary error.

  • The Postfix SMTP server automatically hangs up after replying with "521".
    This makes overload handling more effective. See also RFC 1846 for prior
    art on this topic.

  • Stress-dependent behavior is enabled by default. Under conditions of
    overload, smtpd_timeout is reduced from 300s to 10s, smtpd_hard_error_limit
    is reduced from 20 to 1, and smtpd_junk_command_limit is reduced from 100
    to 1.

  • Specify "tcp_windowsize = 65535" (or less) to work around routers with
    broken TCP window scaling implementations.

  • New "lmtp_assume_final = yes" flag to send correct DSN "success"
    notifications when LMTP delivery is "final" as opposed to delivery into a
    content filter.

  • The Postfix SMTP server's SASL authentication was re-structured. With
    "smtpd_tls_auth_only = yes", SASL support is now activated only after a
    successful TLS handshake. Earlier Postfix SMTP server versions could
    complain about unavailable SASL mechanisms during the plaintext phase of
    the SMTP protocol.

  • Improved before-queue filter performance. With "smtpd_proxy_options =
    speed_adjust", the Postfix SMTP server receives the entire message before
    it connects to a before-queue content filter. This means you can run more
    SMTP server processes with the same number of running content filter
    processes, and thus, handle more mail. This feature is off by default until
    it is proven to create no new problems.

  • sender_dependent_default_transport_maps, a per-sender override for
    default_transport.

  • milter_header_checks: Support for header checks on Milter-generated message
    headers. This can be used, for example, to control mail flow with
    Milter-generated headers that carry indicators for badness or goodness.
    Currently, all header_checks features are implemented except PREPEND.

  • Support to turn off the TLSv1.1 and TLSv1.2 protocols. Introduced with
    OpenSSL version 1.0.1, these are known to cause inter-operability problems
    with for example hotmail. The radical workaround is to temporarily turn off
    problematic protocols globally: smtp_tls_protocols = !SSLv2, !TLSv1.1, !
    TLSv1.2 smtp_tls_mandatory_protocols = !SSLv2, !TLSv1.1, !TLSv1.2

  • Prototype postscreen(8) server that runs a number of time-consuming checks
    in parallel for all incoming SMTP connections, before clients are allowed
    to talk to a real Postfix SMTP server. It detects clients that start
    talking too soon, or clients that appear on DNS blocklists, or clients that
    hang up without sending any command.

  • Support for address patterns in DNS blacklist and whitelist lookup results.

  • The Postfix SMTP server now supports DNS-based whitelisting with several
    safety features: permit_dnswl_client whitelists a client by IP address, and
    permit_rhswl_client whitelists a client by its hostname. These features use
    the same syntax as reject_rbl_client and reject_rhsbl_client, respectively.
    The main difference is that they return PERMIT instead of REJECT.

  • The SMTP server now supports contact information that is appended to
    "reject" responses. This includes SMTP server responses that aren't logged
    to the maillog file, such as responses to syntax errors, or unsupported
    commands.

  • tls_disable_workarounds parameter specifies a list or bit-mask of OpenSSL
    bug work-arounds to disable.

  • The lower-level code in the TLS engine was simplified by removing an
    unnecessary layer of data copying. OpenSSL now writes directly to the
    network.

  • enable_long_queue_ids Introduces support for non-repeating queue IDs (also
    used as queue file names). These names are encoded in a mix of upper case,
    lower case and decimal digit characters. Long queue IDs are disabled by
    default to avoid breaking tools that parse logfiles and that expect queue
    IDs with the smaller [A-F0-9] character set.

  • memcache lookup and update support. This provides a way to share postscreen
    (8) or verify(8) caches between Postfix instances.

  • Support for TLS public key fingerprint matching in the Postfix SMTP client
    (in smtp_tls_policy_maps) and server (in check_ccert access maps).

  • Support for external SASL authentication via the XCLIENT command. This is
    used to accept SASL authentication from an SMTP proxy such as NGINX. This
    support works even without having to specify "smtpd_sasl_auth_enable =
    yes".

10.4.3. Binutils Update

Binutils was updated to the version 2.23.1 to support newer hardware
instructions.

SUSE also added support for IBM zEnterprise EC12 and AMD btver2 processors.

This allows code to be generated to take full effect of the new instructions of
the current versions of Intel x86, AMD x86 and IBM zEnterprise processor. For
IBM POWER systems handling of very large binary objects has been improved.

10.4.4. unixODBC Updated to Version 2.3.1

unixODBC 2.3.1 provides the most recent upstream fixes; this helps for seamless
population of DB2 data using automated tools and improves interoperability with
MS SQL server.

10.4.5. stunnel Update to Version 4.54

The "stunnel" package update adds new service options for sni and tcp socket
handling, improves handling in a FIPS setup and contains some performance
improvements

10.4.6. IBM Java 1.4.2 End of Life

As announced with SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP2, IBM Java 1.4.2 reached
End of Life, and thus we remove support for this specific Java version with
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP3. We recommend to upgrade your environments.

10.4.7. Update from SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP2

Updating from SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP2 with AutoYaST is supported.

10.4.8. Migrating SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP2 with WebYaST Installed
via wagon

For migrating SLES11-SP2 with WebYaST installed to SP3 via wagon, it is
necessary to install the WebYaST product metadata before starting the
migration. To do so, make sure the packages "sle-11-SP2-WebYaST-release" and
"sle-11-SP2-WebYaST-release-cd" are installed. You can ignore, if wagon reports
an unknown registration status of WebYaST at the beginning of the migration.

Note

Without the WebYaST product metadata installed, WebYaST will not be migrated.

The product metadata are not needed when upgrading SLES via booting the
installation media.

Chapter 11. Deprecated Functionality

11.1. X.Org: fbdev Used in UEFI Secure Boot Mode (ASpeed Chipset)

The unaccelerated fbdev driver is used as a fallback in UEFI secure boot mode
with the ast KMS driver, EFI VGA, and other currently unknown frame buffer
drivers.

11.2. X.Org Driver Used in UEFI Secure Boot Mode (Matrox)

The unaccelerated "mgag200"/"modesetting" (generic X.Org) driver combo is used
instead of the "mga" X.Org driver if machine is running in UEFI secure boot
mode. The driver does not load in other cases and a warning message is written
into the kernel log.

11.3. Support for the JFS File System

In connection with the change in the JFS support status the corresponding
kernel module has been moved to the extra kernel RPM (kernel-flavor-extra).

11.4. Support for Portmap to End with SUSE Linux Enterprise 11 SP3

In SUSE Linux Enterprise we provide "rpcbind", which is compatible with
portmap. "rpcbind" provides full IPv6 support. Thus portmap is now deprecated,
and support for portmap will end end with the release of SUSE Linux Enterprise
11 SP3.

11.5. L3 Support for Openswan Is Scheduled to Expire

L3 support for Openswan is scheduled to expire. This decision is driven by the
fact that Openswan development stalled substantially and there are no tangible
signs that this will change in the future.

In contrast to this the strongSwan project is vivid and able to deliver a
complete implementation of current standards. Compared to Openswan all relevant
features are available by the package strongSwan plus strongSwan is the only
complete Open Source implementation of the RFC 5996 IKEv2 standard whereas
Openswan only implements a small mandatory subset. For now and the expected
future only strongSwan qualifies to be an enterprise-ready solution for
encrypted TCP/IP connectivity.

11.6. PHP 5.2 Is Deprecated

Based on significant customer demand, we ship PHP 5.3 parallel to PHP 5.2 with
SUSE Linux Enterprise 11 SP2.

PHP 5.2 is deprecated though, and will be removed with SLES 11 SP3.

11.7. Packages Removed with SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP3

The following packages were removed with the release of SUSE Linux Enterprise
Server 11 SP3:

11.7.1. The (unsupported) Websphere AS CE Package has been removed from SUSE
Linux Enterprise Server 11 with SP3

11.8. Packages Removed with SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 Service Pack 2

The following packages were removed with the release of SUSE Linux Enterprise
Server 11 Service Pack 2:

hyper-v-kmp

    hyper-v-kmp has been removed.

32-bit Xen Hypervisor as a Virtualization Host

    The 32-bit Xen hypervisor as a virtualization host is not supported
    anymore. 32-bit virtual guests are not affected and fully supported with
    the provided 64-bit hypervisor.

11.9. Packages Removed with SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 Service Pack 1

The following packages were removed with the release of SUSE Linux Enterprise
Server 11 Service Pack 1:

brocade-bfa

    The brocade-bfa kernel module is now part of the main kernel package.

enic-kmp

    The enic kernel module is now part of the main kernel package.

fnic-kmp

    The fnic kernel module is now part of the main kernel package.

kvm-kmp

    The KVM kernel modules are now part of the main kernel package.

java-1_6_0-ibm-x86

11.10. Packages Removed with SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11

The following packages were removed with the major release of SUSE Linux
Enterprise Server 11:

dante

JFS

    The JFS file system is no longer supported and the utilities have been
    removed from the distribution.

EVMS

    Replaced with LVM2.

ippl

powertweak

SUN Java

uw-imapd

mapped-base Functionality

    The mapped-base functionality, which is used by 32-bit applications that
    need a larger dynamic data space (such as database management systems), has
    been replaced with flexmap.

zmd

11.11. Packages and Features to Be Removed in the Future

The following packages and features are deprecated and will be removed with the
next Service Pack or major release of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server:

  • The reiserfs file system is fully supported for the lifetime of SUSE Linux
    Enterprise Server 11 specifically for migration purposes. We will however
    remove support for creating new reiserfs file systems starting with SUSE
    Linux Enterprise Server 12.

  • The sendmail package is deprecated and might be discontinued with SUSE
    Linux Enterprise Server 12.

  • The lprng package is deprecated and will be discontinued with SUSE Linux
    Enterprise Server 12.

  • The dhcp-client package is deprecated and will be discontinued with SUSE
    Linux Enterprise Server 12.

  • The qt3 package is deprecated and will be discontinued with SUSE Linux
    Enterprise Server 12.

  • syslog-ng will be replaced with rsyslog.

  • The smpppd package is deprecated and will be discontinued with one of the
    next Service Packs or SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12.

  • The raw block devices (major 162) are deprecated and will be discontinued
    with one of the next Service Packs or SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12.

Chapter 12. Infrastructure, Package and Architecture Specific Information

12.1. 16TB memory support for PPC64

We now support up to 16TB of memory for PPC64.

12.2. Systems Management

12.2.1. Providing the URL of an Add-on Media at the Command Line during
Installation

Add-on media like the Software Development Kit or third party driver media can
be added to SUSE Linux Enterprise during installation or later in the running
system. Sometimes it's advisable that an add-on media is available from the
very beginning, for example to make drivers for new hardware available.

It is now possible to provide one or more URLs that point to the location of
add-on media at the installer's command line by providing an "addon=url"
parameter. Multiple add-ons need to be provided as a comma-separated list
("addon=url1,url2,...").

12.2.2. Snapper Enhancements

Snapper, which was introduced in previous service pack, has been implemented
following enhancements:

  • snapshots can be managed also by non-root users

  • the performance of snapshots comparison has been improved

  • snapper provides a D-Bus interface for better integration into other
    applications

  • added support for LVM Thin Provisioning

For more information, see the Administration Guide.

12.2.3. Individual Timeout Value for Each Direct AutoFS Mount

If there were two direct mounts with different timeouts configured, the second
one was ignored and the first timeout value was used for both mount points.

AutoFS was patched to support individual timeout values for each direct mount.

12.2.4. YaST Repair Tool Limitation

The YaST Repair Tool as available from the boot medium does not detect pseudo
devices like /dev/btrfs and writes a warning about missing partitions instead.

You should skip the repair of such a device, because for such pseudo devices
the availability of a partition is not expected.

12.2.5. Modified Operation against Novell Customer Center

Effective on 2009-01-13, provisional registrations have been disabled in the
Novell Customer Center. Registering an instance of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
or Open Enterprise Server (OES) products now requires a valid, entitled
activation code. Evaluation codes for reviews or proofs of concept can be
obtained from the product pages and from the download pages on novell.com.

If a device is registered without a code at setup time, a provisional code is
assigned to it by Novell Customer Center (NCC), and it will be entered in your
NCC list of devices. No update repositories are assigned to the device at this
time.

Once you are ready to assign a code to the device, start the YaST Novell
Customer Center registration module and replace the un-entitled provisional
code that NCC generated with the appropriate one to fully entitle the device
and activate the related update repositories.

12.2.6. Operation against Subscription Management Tool

Operation under the Subscription Management Tool (SMT) package and registration
proxy is not affected. Registration against SMT will assign codes automatically
from your default pool in NCC until all entitlements have been assigned.
Registering additional devices once the pool is depleted will result in the new
device being assigned a provisional code (with local access to updates) The SMT
server will notify the administrator that these new devices need to be
entitled.

12.2.7. Minimal Pattern

The minimal pattern provided in YaST's Software Selection dialog targets
experienced customers and should be used as a base for your own specific
software selections.

Do not expect a minimal pattern to provide a useful basis for your business
needs without installing additional software.

This pattern does not include any dump or logging tools. To fully support your
configuration, Novell Technical Services (NTS) will request installation of all
tools needed for further analysis in case of a support request.

12.2.8. SPident

SPident is a tool to identify the Service Pack level of the current
installation. On SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 GA, this tool has been
replaced by the new SAM tool (package "suse-sam").

12.3. Performance Related Information

12.3.1. Linux Completely Fair Scheduler Affects Java Performance

Problem (Abstract)

Java applications that use synchronization extensively might perform poorly on
Linux systems that include the Completely Fair Scheduler. If you encounter this
problem, there are two possible workarounds.

Symptom

You may observe extremely high CPU usage by your Java application and very slow
progress through synchronized blocks. The application may appear to hang due to
the slow progress.

Cause

The Completely Fair Scheduler (CFS) was adopted into the mainline Linux kernel
as of release 2.6.23. The CFS algorithm is different from previous Linux
releases. It might change the performance properties of some applications. In
particular, CFS implements sched_yield() differently, making it more likely
that a thread that yields will be given CPU time regardless. More information
on CFS can be found here: "Multiprocessing with the Completely Fair Scheduler",
http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/linux/library/l-cfs/?ca=dgrlnxw06CFC4Linux

The new behavior of sched_yield() might adversely affect the performance of
synchronization in the IBM JVM.

Environment

This problem may affect IBM JDK 5.0 and 6.0 (all versions) running on Linux
kernels that include the Completely Fair Scheduler, including Linux kernel
2.6.27 in SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11.

Resolving the Problem

If you observe poor performance of your Java application, there are two
possible workarounds:

  • Either invoke the JVM with the additional argument "-Xthr:minimizeUserCPU".

  • Or configure the Linux kernel to use the more backward-compatible heuristic
    for sched_yield() by setting the sched_compat_yield tunable kernel property
    to 1. For example:

    echo "1" > /proc/sys/kernel/sched_compat_yield

You should not use these workarounds unless you are experiencing poor
performance.

12.3.2. Tuning Performance of Simple Database Engines

Simple database engines like Berkeley DB use memory mappings (mmap(2)) to
manipulate database files. When the mapped memory is modified, those changes
need to be written back to disk. In SUSE Linux Enterprise 11, the kernel
includes modified mapped memory in its calculations for deciding when to start
background writeback and when to throttle processes which modify additional
memory. (In previous versions, mapped dirty pages were not accounted for and
the amount of modified memory could exceed the overall limit defined.) This can
lead to a decrease in performance; the fix is to increase the overall limit.

The maximum amount of dirty memory is 40% in SUSE Linux Enterprise 11 by
default. This value is chosen for average workloads, so that enough memory
remains available for other uses. The following settings may be relevant when
tuning for database workloads:

  • vm.dirty_ratio

    Maximum percentage of dirty system memory (default 40).

  • vm.dirty_background_ratio

    Percentage of dirty system memory at which background writeback will start
    (default 10).

  • vm.dirty_expire_centisecs

    Duration after which dirty system memory is considered old enough to be
    eligible for background writeback (in centiseconds).

These limits can be observed or modified with the sysctl utility (see sysctl(1)
and sysctl.conf(5)).

12.4. Storage

12.4.1. Improved Support for Intel RSTe

This Service Pack adds improved support for Intel Rapid Storage Technology
Enterprise (RSTe). It now supports RAID levels 0,1,4,5,6 and 10.

12.4.2. Define disk order for MD Raid with YaST

This enables to specify the disk order if a RAID device is created. Thus you
can influence which data of the RAID is written on which disk.

12.4.3. Multipathing: SCSI Hardware Handler

Some storage devices, e.g. IBM DS4K, require special handling for path failover
and failback. In SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 SP2, dm layer served as
hardware handler.

One drawback of this implementation was that the underlying SCSI layer did not
know about the existence of the hardware handler. Hence, during device probing,
SCSI would send I/O on the passive path, which would fail after a timeout and
also print extraneous error messages in the console.

In SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11, this problem is resolved by moving the
hardware handler to the SCSI layer, hence the term SCSI Hardware Handler. These
handlers are modules created under the SCSI directory in the Linux Kernel.

In SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11, there are four SCSI Hardware Handlers:
scsi_dh_alua, scsi_dh_rdac, scsi_dh_hp_sw, scsi_dh_emc.

These modules need to be included in the initrd image so that SCSI knows about
the special handling during probe time itself.

To do so, carry out the following steps:

  • Add the device handler modules to the INITRD_MODULES variable in /etc/
    sysconfig/kernel

  • Create a new initrd with:

    mkinitrd -k /boot/vmlinux-<flavour> \
    -i /boot/initrd-<flavour>-scsi_dh \
    -M /boot/System.map-<flavour>

  • Update the grub.conf/lilo.conf/yaboot.conf file with the newly built
    initrd.

  • Reboot.

12.4.4. Local Mounts of iSCSI Shares

An iSCSI shared device should never be mounted directly on the local machine.
In an OCFS2 environment, doing so causes all hardware to hard hang.

12.5. Hyper-V

12.5.1. Hyper-V: driver to support host initiated backup

This driver supports host initiated backup of the guest. On Windows guests, the
host can generate application consistent backups using the Windows VSS
framework. On Linux, we ensure that the backup will be file system consistent.
This driver allows the host to initiate a "Freeze" operation on all the mounted
file systems in the guest. Once the mounted file systems in the guest are
frozen, the host snapshots the guest's file systems. Once this is done, the
guest's file systems are "thawed".

12.5.2. Hyper-V: Framebuffer Driver

The guest window size was limited to standard VGA resolutions. To select a
resolution the guest had to be booted with the "vga=number" kernel command line
option.

There is now a framebuffer driver for Hyper-V guests. It allows for screen
resolution up to Full HD 1920x1080 on Windows Server 2012 host, and 1600x1200
on Windows Server 2008 R2 or earlier.

When upgrading from earlier releases the "vga=number" option has to be replaced
with the "video=hyperv_fb:resolution" option to specifiy the desired guest
window size. Example: To force the guest window size to 800x600 add "video=
hyperv_fb:800x600" to the kernel command line options.

12.5.3. Hyper-V: Update the Vmbus protocol

This feature brings our driver to the Win8 (Windows Server 2012) level. This
code will dynamically negotiate the most efficient protocol that the host can
support - the same code can be deployed on all supported hosts (WS2008,
WS2008R2 and WS2012). Following are some of the key features implemented in
this patch-set:

  • More efficient signaling protocol between the host and the guest

  • Distribution of interrupt load across available CPUs in the guest

  • Per-channel interrupt binding (as part of item 2)

  • More efficient demultiplexing of incoming interrupts

  • Per-channel signaling mechanism for host to guest communication

12.5.4. Hyper-V: Memory Ballooning Support

Windows hosts dynamically manage the guest memory allocation via a combination
memory hot add and ballooning. Memory hot add is used to grow the guest memory
upto the maximum memory that can be allocated to the guest. Ballooning is used
to both shrink as well as expand up to the max memory.

12.5.5. Hyper-V: KVP IP Injection

Hyper-V now supports the KVP (Key Value Pair) functionality to implement the
mechanism to GET/SET IP addresses in the guest. This functionality is used in
Windows Server 2012 to implement VM replication functionality.

12.5.6. Xen Support for Booting the Hypervisor to UEFI X64

The hypervisor is now able to boot to UEFI.

12.5.7. Change of Kernel Device Names in Hyper-V Guests

Starting with SP2, SLES 11 has a newer block device driver, which presents all
configured virtual disks as SCSI devices. Disks, which used to appear as /dev/
hda in SLES 11 SP1 will from now on appear as /dev/sda.

12.5.8. Using the "Virtual Machine Snapshot" Feature

The Windows Server Manager GUI allows to take snapshots of a Hyper-V guest.
After a snapshot is taken the guest will fail to reboot. By default, the
guest's root file system is referenced by the serial number of the virtual
disk. This serial number changes with each snapshot. Since the guest expects
the initial serial number, booting will fail.

The solution is to either delete all snapshots using the Windows GUI, or
configure the guest to mount partitions by file system UUID. This change can be
made with the YaST partitioner and boot loader configurator.

12.6. Architecture Independent Information

12.6.1. Current Limitations in a UEFI Secure Boot Context

When booting in Secure Boot mode, the following restrictions apply:

  • bootloader, kernel and kernel modules must be signed

  • kexec and kdump are disabled

  • hibernation (suspend on disk) is disabled

  • access to /dev/kmem and /dev/mem is not possible, even as root user

  • access to IO port is not possible, even as root user. All X11 graphical
    drivers must use a kernel driver

  • PCI BAR access through sysfs is not possible

  • 'custom_method' in ACPI is not available

  • debugfs for "asus-wmi" module is not available

  • 'acpi_rsdp' parameter doesn't have any effect on kernel

12.6.2. Change of libzypp History

The libzypp history in /var/log/zypp/history now contains a transaction ID
added to each record. Any scripts, which parse the history file and which rely
on the order of data fields, need to be checked that they still parse the
history file properly.

12.6.3. Changes in Packaging and Delivery

12.6.3.1. Video and Stream Processing

To support video and stream processing the v4l tools and gstreamer-plugins were
added.

12.6.3.2. New or Removed Packages

New Packages (Compared with SLES 11 SP2 GA):

  • apache2-mod_auth_kerb

  • apache2-mod_security2

  • cachefilesd

  • cgdcbxd

  • createrepo

  • dapl-debug

  • grub2-x86_64-efi

  • gstreamer-0_10-plugins-v4l

  • libguestfs

  • ipset

  • IBM Java 1.7

  • kernelshark

  • libapr-util1-dbd-sqlite3

  • libboost_thread1_36_0

  • libbtrfs0

  • libconfig9

  • libecpg6

  • libgcc_s1

  • libgcc_s1-32bit

  • libgcc_s1-x86

  • libgnutls-extra26

  • libgomp1

  • libgomp1-32bit

  • libipset2

  • libmnl0

  • libnetfilter_queue1

  • libnfnetlink0

  • libopenscap1

  • libossp-uuid16

  • libpq5

  • libpq5-32bit

  • libsanlock1

  • libseccomp1

  • libsnapper2

  • libsoftokn3

  • libsoftokn3-32bit

  • libsoftokn3-x86

  • libsss_idmap0

  • libstdc++6

  • libstdc++6-32bit

  • libstdc++6-x86

  • libv4l

  • libv4l1-0

  • libv4l1-0-32bit

  • libv4l2-0

  • libv4l2-0-32bit

  • libv4lconvert0

  • libv4lconvert0-32bit

  • libvirt-lock-sanlock

  • mokutil

  • nut-drivers-net

  • OpenIPMI-python

  • openscap

  • openscap-content

  • openscap-utils

  • perl-Module-Build

  • perl-String-ShellQuote

  • perl-Sys-Virt

  • perl-Test-Simple

  • pesign

  • pesign-obs-integration

  • postgresql91

  • postgresql91-contrib

  • postgresql91-docs

  • postgresql91-server

  • postgresql-init

  • python-configobj

  • python-configshell

  • python-configshell-doc

  • python-deltarpm

  • python-ipaddr

  • python-netifaces

  • python-ordereddict

  • python-pyasn1

  • python-rtslib

  • python-sanlock

  • python-simpleparse

  • python-urwid

  • sanlock

  • sces-client

  • shim

  • targetcli

  • tipcutils

  • trace-cmd

  • unixODBC_23

  • yast2-iscsi-lio-server

  • yast2-lxc

  • yum-common

  • yum-metadata-parser

Removed Packages (Compared with SLES 11 SP2 GA):

  • php-5.2

  • IBM Java 1.4.2

  • openswan

  • portmap

  • tvflash

  • websphere-as_ce

12.6.3.3. Python Updated to Version 2.6.8 with "collections.OrderedDict"
Functionality

The "OrderedDict" functionality ensures that Python dictionaries emitted for
conversion into strings maintain their original order. This functionality is
important for data analytics applications.

12.6.3.4. Postfix: Incompatibility Issues and New Features

To benefit from enhancements and improvements which have been developed in the
upstream community, postfix is upgraded from version 2.5.13 to the current
version 2.9.4.

Incompatibility Issues:

  • The default milter_protocol setting is increased from 2 to 6; this enables
    all available features up to and including Sendmail 8.14.0.

  • When a mailbox file is not owned by its recipient, the local and virtual
    delivery agents now log a warning and defer delivery. Specify
    "strict_mailbox_ownership = no" to ignore such ownership discrepancies.

  • The Postfix SMTP client(!) no longer tries to use the obsolete SSLv2
    protocol by default, as this may prevent the use of modern SSL features.
    Lack of SSLv2 support should never be a problem, since SSLv3 was defined in
    1996, and TLSv1 in 1999. You can undo the change by specifying empty
    main.cf values for smtp_tls_protocols and lmtp_tls_protocols.

  • Postfix SMTP server replies for address verification have changed.
    unverified_recipient_reject_code and unverified_sender_reject_code now
    handle "5XX" rejects only. The "4XX" rejects are now controlled with
    unverified_sender_defer_code and unverified_recipient_defer_code.

  • postfix-script , postfix-files and post-install are moved away from /etc/
    postfix to $daemon_directory.

  • Postfix now adds (Resent-) From:, Date:, Message-ID: or To: headers only
    when clients match $local_header_rewrite_clients. Specify
    "always_add_missing_headers = yes" for backwards compatibility.

  • The verify(8) service now uses a persistent cache by default
    (address_verify_map = btree:$data_directory/verify_cache). To disable,
    specify "address_verify_map ="

  • The meaning of an empty filter next-hop destination has changed (for
    example, "content_filter = foo:" or "FILTER foo:"). Postfix now uses the
    recipient domain, instead of using $myhostname as in Postfix 2.6 and
    earlier. To restore the old behavior specify "default_filter_nexthop =
    $myhostname", or specify a non-empty next-hop content filter destination.

  • Postfix now requests default delivery status notifications when adding a
    recipient with the Milter smfi_addrcpt action, instead of "never notify" as
    with Postfix automatically-added recipients.

  • Postfix now reports a temporary delivery error when the result of virtual
    alias expansion would exceed the virtual_alias_recursion_limit or
    virtual_alias_expansion_limit.

  • To avoid repeated delivery to mailing lists with pathological nested alias
    configurations, the local(8) delivery agent now keeps the owner-alias
    attribute of a parent alias, when delivering mail to a child alias that
    does not have its own owner alias.

  • The Postfix SMTP client no longer appends the local domain when looking up
    a DNS name without ".". Specify "smtp_dns_resolver_options = res_defnames"
    to get the old behavior, which may produce unexpected results.

  • The format of the "postfix/smtpd[pid]: queueid: client=host[addr]" logfile
    record has changed. When available, the before-filter client information
    and the before-filter queue ID are now appended to the end of the record.

  • Postfix by default no longer adds a "To: undisclosed-recipients:;" header
    when no recipient specified in the message header. For backwards
    compatibility, specify: "undisclosed_recipients_header = To:
    undisclosed-recipients:;"

  • The Postfix SMTP server now always re-computes the SASL mechanism list
    after successful completion of the STARTTLS command. Earlier versions only
    re-computed the mechanism list when the values of
    smtp_sasl_tls_security_options and smtp_sasl_security_options differ. This
    could produce incorrect results, because the Dovecot authentication server
    may change responses when the SMTP session is encrypted.

  • The smtpd_starttls_timeout default value is now stress-dependent. By
    default, TLS negotiations must now complete under overload in 10s instead
    of 300s.

  • Postfix no longer appends the system-supplied default CA certificates to
    the lists specified with *_tls_CAfile or with *_tls_CApath. This prevents
    third-party certificates from getting mail relay permission with the
    permit_tls_all_clientcerts feature. Unfortunately this change may cause
    compatibility problems when configurations rely on certificate verification
    for other purposes. Specify "tls_append_default_CA = yes" for backwards
    compatibility.

  • The VSTREAM error flags are now split into separate read and write error
    flags. As a result of this change, all programs that use Postfix VSTREAMs
    MUST be recompiled.

  • For consistency with the SMTP standard, the (client-side)
    smtp_line_length_limit default value was increased from 990 characters to
    999 (i.e. 1000 characters including <CR><LF>). Specify
    "smtp_line_length_limit = 990" to restore historical Postfix behavior.

  • To simplify integration with third-party applications, the Postfix sendmail
    command now always transforms all input lines ending in <CR><LF> into UNIX
    format (lines ending in <LF>). Specify "sendmail_fix_line_endings = strict"
    to restore historical Postfix behavior.

  • To work around broken remote SMTP servers, the Postfix SMTP client by
    default no longer appends the "AUTH=<>" option to the MAIL FROM command.
    Specify "smtp_send_dummy_mail_auth = yes" to restore the old behavior.

  • Instead of terminating immediately with a "fatal" message when a database
    file can't be opened, a Postfix daemon program now logs an "error" message,
    and continues execution with reduced functionality. Logfile-based alerting
    systems may need to be updated to look for "error" messages in addition to
    "fatal" messages. Specify "daemon_table_open_error_is_fatal = yes" to get
    the historical behavior (immediate termination with "fatal" message).

  • Postfix now logs the result of successful TLS negotiation with TLS logging
    levels of 0.

  • The default inet_protocols value is now "all" instead of "ipv4", meaning
    use both IPv4 and IPv6. To avoid an unexpected loss of performance for
    sites without global IPv6 connectivity, the commands "make upgrade" and
    "postfix upgrade-configuration" now append "inet_protocols = ipv4" to
    main.cf when no explicit inet_protocols setting is already present.

New Features:

  • Support for managing multiple Postfix instances. Multi-instance support
    allows you to do the following and more: - Simplify post-queue content
    filter configuration by using separate Postfix instances before and after
    the filter. - Implement per-user content filters (or no filter) via
    transport map lookups instead of content_filter settings. - Test new
    configuration settings (on a different server IP address or TCP port)
    without disturbing production instances.

  • check_reverse_client_hostname_access, to make access decisions based on the
    unverified client hostname.

  • With "reject_tempfail_action = defer", the Postfix SMTP server immediately
    replies with a 4xx status after some temporary error.

  • The Postfix SMTP server automatically hangs up after replying with "521".
    This makes overload handling more effective. See also RFC 1846 for prior
    art on this topic.

  • Stress-dependent behavior is enabled by default. Under conditions of
    overload, smtpd_timeout is reduced from 300s to 10s, smtpd_hard_error_limit
    is reduced from 20 to 1, and smtpd_junk_command_limit is reduced from 100
    to 1.

  • Specify "tcp_windowsize = 65535" (or less) to work around routers with
    broken TCP window scaling implementations.

  • New "lmtp_assume_final = yes" flag to send correct DSN "success"
    notifications when LMTP delivery is "final" as opposed to delivery into a
    content filter.

  • The Postfix SMTP server's SASL authentication was re-structured. With
    "smtpd_tls_auth_only = yes", SASL support is now activated only after a
    successful TLS handshake. Earlier Postfix SMTP server versions could
    complain about unavailable SASL mechanisms during the plaintext phase of
    the SMTP protocol.

  • Improved before-queue filter performance. With "smtpd_proxy_options =
    speed_adjust", the Postfix SMTP server receives the entire message before
    it connects to a before-queue content filter. This means you can run more
    SMTP server processes with the same number of running content filter
    processes, and thus, handle more mail. This feature is off by default until
    it is proven to create no new problems.

  • sender_dependent_default_transport_maps, a per-sender override for
    default_transport.

  • milter_header_checks: Support for header checks on Milter-generated message
    headers. This can be used, for example, to control mail flow with
    Milter-generated headers that carry indicators for badness or goodness.
    Currently, all header_checks features are implemented except PREPEND.

  • Support to turn off the TLSv1.1 and TLSv1.2 protocols. Introduced with
    OpenSSL version 1.0.1, these are known to cause inter-operability problems
    with for example hotmail. The radical workaround is to temporarily turn off
    problematic protocols globally: smtp_tls_protocols = !SSLv2, !TLSv1.1, !
    TLSv1.2 smtp_tls_mandatory_protocols = !SSLv2, !TLSv1.1, !TLSv1.2

  • Prototype postscreen(8) server that runs a number of time-consuming checks
    in parallel for all incoming SMTP connections, before clients are allowed
    to talk to a real Postfix SMTP server. It detects clients that start
    talking too soon, or clients that appear on DNS blocklists, or clients that
    hang up without sending any command.

  • Support for address patterns in DNS blacklist and whitelist lookup results.

  • The Postfix SMTP server now supports DNS-based whitelisting with several
    safety features: permit_dnswl_client whitelists a client by IP address, and
    permit_rhswl_client whitelists a client by its hostname. These features use
    the same syntax as reject_rbl_client and reject_rhsbl_client, respectively.
    The main difference is that they return PERMIT instead of REJECT.

  • The SMTP server now supports contact information that is appended to
    "reject" responses. This includes SMTP server responses that aren't logged
    to the maillog file, such as responses to syntax errors, or unsupported
    commands.

  • tls_disable_workarounds parameter specifies a list or bit-mask of OpenSSL
    bug work-arounds to disable.

  • The lower-level code in the TLS engine was simplified by removing an
    unnecessary layer of data copying. OpenSSL now writes directly to the
    network.

  • enable_long_queue_ids Introduces support for non-repeating queue IDs (also
    used as queue file names). These names are encoded in a mix of upper case,
    lower case and decimal digit characters. Long queue IDs are disabled by
    default to avoid breaking tools that parse logfiles and that expect queue
    IDs with the smaller [A-F0-9] character set.

  • memcache lookup and update support. This provides a way to share postscreen
    (8) or verify(8) caches between Postfix instances.

  • Support for TLS public key fingerprint matching in the Postfix SMTP client
    (in smtp_tls_policy_maps) and server (in check_ccert access maps).

  • Support for external SASL authentication via the XCLIENT command. This is
    used to accept SASL authentication from an SMTP proxy such as NGINX. This
    support works even without having to specify "smtpd_sasl_auth_enable =
    yes".

12.6.3.5. Postfix Banner Less Verbose

The SMTP MTA banner sent to the client upon connection was too verbose and
could help attackers to more easily exploit security vulnerabilities.

The SMTP MTA banner sent to the client upon connection is less verbose now. It
does not print the services name and version number anymore.

12.6.3.6. IBM Java 1.4.2 End of Life

As announced with SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP2, IBM Java 1.4.2 reached
End of Life, and thus we remove support for this specific Java version with
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP3. We recommend to upgrade your environments.

12.6.3.7. Ftrace Linux Kernel Internal Tracer Enablement

trace-cmd is now provided to make ftrace kernel facility accessible to SLE
users. See trace-cmd(1) manual page and /usr/src/linux/Documentation/trace/
ftrace.txt for more details.

12.6.3.8. SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension 11

With the SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension 11, SUSE offers the
most modern open source High Availability Stack for Mission Critical
environments.

12.6.3.9. Kernel Has Memory Cgroup Support Enabled By Default

While this functionality is welcomed in most environments, it requires about 1%
of memory. Memory allocation is done at boot time and is using 40 Bytes per 4
KiB page which results in 1% of memory.

In virtualized environments, specifically but not exclusively on s390x systems,
this may lead to a higher basic memory consumption: e.g., a 20GiB host with 200
x 1GiB guests consumes 10% of the real memory.

This memory is not swappable by Linux itself, but the guest cgroup memory is
pageable by a z/VM host on an s390x system and might be swappable on other
hypervisors as well.

Cgroup memory support is activated by default but it can be deactivated by
adding the Kernel Parameter cgroup_disable=memory

A reboot is required to deactivate or activate this setting.

12.6.3.10. Kernel Development Files Moved to Individual kernel-$flavor-devel
Packages

Up to SLE 11 GA, the kernel development files (.config, Module.symvers, etc.)
for all flavors were packaged in a single kernel-syms package. Starting with
SLE 11 SP1, these files are packaged in individual kernel-$flavor-devel
packages, allowing to build KMPs for only the required kernel flavors. For
compatibility with existing spec files, the kernel-syms package still exists
and depends on the individual kernel-$flavor-devel packages.

12.6.3.11. Live Migration of KVM Guest with Device Hot-Plugging

Hot-plugging a device (network, disk) works fine for a KVM guest on a SLES 11
host since SP1. However, migrating the same guest with the hotplugged device
(available on the destination host) fails.

Since SLES 11 SP1, supports the hotplugging of the device to the KVM guest, but
migrating the guest with the hot-plugged device is not supported and expected
to fail.

12.6.4. Security

12.6.4.1. Removable Media

To allow a specific user (“joe”) to mount removable media, run the following
command as root:

polkit-auth --user joe \
--grant org.freedesktop.hal.storage.mount-removable


To allow all locally logged in users on the active console to mount removable
media, run the following commands as root:

echo 'org.freedesktop.hal.storage.mount-removable no:no:yes' \
  >> /etc/polkit-default-privs.local
/sbin/set_polkit_default_privs

12.6.4.2. Verbose Audit Records for System User Management Tools

Install the package "pwdutils-plugin-audit". To enable this plugin, add "audit"
to /etc/pwdutils/logging. See the “Security Guide” for more information.

12.6.5. Networking

12.6.5.1. Kerberos User to System User mapping for NFSv4

SLES (up to SP2) did not support a Kerberos User to System User mapping
functionality for NFSv4 with Kerberos authentification (nsswitch method). This
functionality is similar to the NFSv4 standard user mapping functionality, but
it is meant specifically for Kerberos users.

nfsidmap was upgraded to fix this as described in:

http://www.citi.umich.edu/projects/nfsv4/linux/faq/#nameid

12.6.5.2. Mounting NFS Volumes Locally on the Exporting Server

Mounting NFS volumes locally on the exporting server is not supported on SUSE
Linux Enterprise systems, as it is the case on all Enterprise class Linux
systems.

12.6.5.3. Loading the mlx4_en Adapter Driver with the Mellanox ConnectX2
Ethernet Adapter

There is a reported problem that the Mellanox ConnectX2 Ethernet adapter does
not trigger the automatic load of the mlx4_en adapter driver. If you experience
problems with the mlx4_en driver not automatically loading when a Mellanox
ConnectX2 interface is available, create the file mlx4.conf in the directory /
etc/modprobe.d with the following command:

install mlx4_core /sbin/modprobe --ignore-install mlx4_core \
  && /sbin/modprobe mlx4_en

12.6.5.4. Using the System as a Router

As long as the firewall is active, the option ip_forwarding will be reset by
the firewall module. To activate the system as a router, the variable FW_ROUTE
has to be set, too. This can be done through yast2 firewall or manually.

12.6.6. Cross Architecture Information

12.6.6.1. Myricom 10-Gigabit Ethernet Driver and Firmware

SUSE Linux Enterprise 11 (x86, x86_64 and IA64) is using the Myri10GE driver
from mainline Linux kernel. The driver requires a firmware file to be present,
which is not being delivered with SUSE Linux Enterprise 11.

Download the required firmware at http://www.myricom.com.

12.7. AMD64/Intel64 64-Bit (x86_64) and Intel/AMD 32-Bit (x86) Specific
Information

12.7.1. System and Vendor Specific Information

12.7.1.1. Installation on 4KB Sector Drives Not Supported

Legacy installations are not supported on 4KB sector drives that are installed
in x86/x86_64 servers. (UEFI installations and the use of the 4KB sector disks
as non-boot disks are supported).

12.7.1.2. Insecurity with XEN on Some AMD Processors

This hardware flaw ("AMD Erratum #121") is described in "Revision Guide for AMD
Athlon 64 and AMD Opteron Processors" (http://support.amd.com/us/
Processor_TechDocs/25759.pdf):

The following 130nm and 90nm (DDR1-only) AMD processors are subject to this
erratum:

  • First-generation AMD-Opteron(tm) single and dual core processors in either
    939 or 940 packages:

      □ AMD Opteron(tm) 100-Series Processors

      □ AMD Opteron(tm) 200-Series Processors

      □ AMD Opteron(tm) 800-Series Processors

      □ AMD Athlon(tm) processors in either 754, 939 or 940 packages

      □ AMD Sempron(tm) processor in either 754 or 939 packages

      □ AMD Turion(tm) Mobile Technology in 754 package

  • This issue does not affect Intel processors.

(End quoted text.)

As this is a hardware flaw. It is not fixable except by upgrading your hardware
to a newer revision, or not allowing untrusted 64-bit guest systems, or
accepting that someone stops your machine. The impact of this flaw is that a
malicious PV guest user can halt the host system.

The SUSE XEN updates will fix it via disabling the boot of XEN GUEST systems.
The HOST will boot, just not start guests. In other words: If the update is
installed on the above listed AMD64 hardware, the guests will no longer boot by
default.

To reenable booting, the "allow_unsafe" option needs to be added to XEN_APPEND
in /etc/sysconfig/bootloader as follows:

XEN_APPEND="allow_unsafe"

12.7.1.3. Boot Device Larger than 2 TiB

Due to limitations in the legacy x86/x86_64 BIOS implementations, booting from
devices larger than 2 TiB is technically not possible using legacy partition
tables (DOS MBR).

Since SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 Service Pack 1 we support installation
and boot using uEFI on the x86_64 architecture and certified hardware.

12.7.1.4. i586 and i686 Machines with More than 16 GB of Memory

Depending on the workload, i586 and i686 machines with 16GB-48GB of memory can
run into instabilities. Machines with more than 48GB of memory are not
supported at all. Lower the memory with the mem= kernel boot option.

In such memory scenarios, we strongly recommend using a x86-64 system with
64-bit SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, and run the (32-bit) x86 applications on
it.

12.7.1.5. Directly Addressable Memory on x86 Machines

When running SLES on an x86 machine, the kernel can only address 896MB of
memory directly. In some cases, the pressure on this memory zone increases
linearly according to hardware resources such as number of CPUs, amount of
physical memory, number of LUNs and disks, use of multipath, etc.

To workaround this issue, we recommend running an x86_64 kernel on such large
server machines.

12.7.1.6. NetXen 10G Ethernet Expansion Card on IBM BladeCenter HS12 System

When installing SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 on a HS12 system with a "NetXen
Incorporated BladeCenter-H 10 Gigabit Ethernet High Speed Daughter Card", the
boot parameter pcie_aspm=off should be added.

12.7.1.7. NIC Enumeration

Ethernet interfaces on some hardware do not get enumerated in a way that
matches the marking on the chassis.

12.7.1.8. HP Linux ProLiant Support Pack for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11

The hpilo driver is included in SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11. Therefore, no
hp-ilo package will be provided in the Linux ProLiant Support Pack for SUSE
Linux Enterprise Server 11.

For more details, see Novell TID 7002735.

12.7.1.9. HP High Performance Mouse for iLO Remote Console.

The desktop in SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 now recognizes the HP High
Performance Mouse for iLO Remote Console and is configured to accept and
process events from it. For the desktop mouse and the HP High Performance Mouse
to stay synchronized, it is necessary to turn off mouse acceleration. As a
result, the HP iLO2 High-Performance mouse (hpmouse) package is no longer
needed with SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 once one of the following three
options are implemented.

 1. In a terminal run xset m 1 — this setting will not survive a reset of the
    desktop.

 2. (Gnome) In a terminal run gconf-editor and go to desktop->gnome->
    peripherals->mouse. Edit the "motion acceleration" field to be 1.

    (KDE) Open "Personal Settings (Configure Desktop)" in the menu and go to
    "Computer Administration->Keyboard&Mouse->Mouse->Advanced" and change
    "Pointer Acceleration" to 1.

 3. (Gnome) In a terminal run "gnome-mouse-properties" and adjust the "Pointer
    Speed" slide scale until the HP High Performance Mouse and the desktop
    mouse run at the same speed across the screen. The recommended adjustment
    is close to the middle, slightly on the "Slow" side.

After acceleration is turned off, sync the desktop mouse and the ILO mouse by
moving to the edges and top of the desktop to line them up in the vertical and
horizontal directions. Also if the HP High Performance Mouse is disabled,
pressing the <Ctrl> key will stop the desktop mouse and allow easier synching
of the two pointers.

For more details, see Novell TID 7002735.

12.7.1.10. Missing 32-Bit Compatibility Libraries for libstdc++ and libg++ on
64-Bit Systems (x86_64)

32-bit (x86) compatibility libraries like "libstdc++-libc6.2-2.so.3" have been
available on x86_64 in the package "compat-32-bit" with SUSE Linux Enterprise
Server 9, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10, and are also available on the SUSE
Linux Enterprise Desktop 11 medium (compat-32-bit-2009.1.19), but are not
included in SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11.

Background

The respective libraries have been deprecated back in 2001 and shipped in the
compatibility package with the release of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 9 in
2004. The package was still shipped with SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 to
provide a longer transition period for applications requiring the package.

With the release of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 the compatibility package
is no longer supported.

Solution

In an effort to enable a longer transition period for applications still
requiring this package, it has been moved to the unsupported "Extras" channel.
This channel is visible on every SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 system, which
has been registered with the Novell Customer Center. It is also mirrored via
SMT alongside the supported and maintained SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11
channels.

Packages in the "Extras" channel are not supported or maintained.

The compatibility package is part of SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 11 due to a
policy difference with respect to deprecation and deprecated packages as
compared to SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11.

We encourage customers to work with SUSE and SUSE's partners to resolve
dependencies on these old libraries.

12.7.1.11. 32-Bit Devel-Packages Missing from the Software Development Kit
(x86_64)

Example: libpcap0-devel-32-bit package was available in Software Development
Kit 10, but is missing from Software Development Kit 11

Background

SUSE supports running 32-bit applications on 64-bit architectures; respective
runtime libraries are provided with SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 and fully
supported. With SUSE Linux Enterprise 10 we also provided 32-bit devel packages
on the 64-bit Software Development Kit. Having 32-bit devel packages and 64-bit
devel packages installed in parallel may lead to side-effects during the build
process. Thus with SUSE Linux Enterprise 11 we started to remove some (but not
yet all) of the 32-bit devel packages from the 64-bit Software Development Kit.

Solution

With the development tools provided in the Software Development Kit 11,
customers and partners have two options to build 32-bit packages in a 64-bit
environment (see below). Beyond that, SUSE's appliance offerings provide
powerful environments for software building, packaging and delivery.

  • Use the "build" tool, which creates a chroot environment for building
    packages.

  • The Software Development Kit contains the software used for the Open Build
    Service. Here the abstraction is provided by virtualization.

12.7.2. Virtualization

12.7.2.1. Xen Support for Booting the Hypervisor to UEFI X64

The hypervisor is now able to boot to UEFI.

12.7.2.2. KVM

Since SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP1, KVM is fully supported on the x86_64
architecture. KVM is designed around hardware virtualization features included
in both AMD (AMD-V) and Intel (VT-x) CPUs produced within the past few years,
as well as other virtualization features in even more recent PC chipsets and
PCI devices. For example, device assignment using IOMMU and SR-IOV.

The following websites identify processors, which support hardware
virtualization:

  • http://wiki.xensource.com/xenwiki/HVM_Compatible_Processors

  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X86_virtualization

The KVM kernel modules will not load if the basic hardware virtualization
features are not present and enabled in the BIOS. If KVM does not start, please
check the BIOS settings.

KVM allows for memory overcommit and disk space overcommit. It is up to the
user to understand the impact of doing so. Hard errors resulting from exceeding
available resources will result in guest failures. CPU overcommit is supported
but carries performance implications.

KVM supports a number of storage caching strategies which may be employed when
configuring a guest VM. There are important data integrity and performance
implications when choosing a caching mode. As an example, cache=writeback is
not as safe as cache=none. See the online "SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
Virtualization with KVM" documentation for details.

The following guest operating systems are supported:

  • Starting with SLES 11 SP2, Windows guest operating systems are fully
    supported on the KVM hypervisor, in addition to Xen. For the best
    experience, we recommend using WHQL-certified virtio drivers, which are
    part of SLE VMDP.

    SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP2 and SP3 as fully virtualized. The
    following virtualization aware drivers are available: kvm-clock,
    virtio-net, virtio-block, virtio-balloon

  • SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 SP3 and SP4 as fully virtualized. The
    following virtualization aware drivers are available: kvm-clock,
    virtio-net, virtio-block, virtio-balloon

  • SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 9 SP4 as fully virtualized. For 32-bit kernel,
    specify clock=pmtmr on the Linux boot line; for 64-bit kernel, specify
    ignore_lost_ticks on the Linux boot line.

For more information, see /usr/share/doc/packages/kvm/kvm-supported.txt.

12.7.2.3. VMI Kernel (x86, 32-bit only)

VMware, SUSE and the community improved the kernel infrastructure in a way that
VMI is no longer necessary. Starting with SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP1,
the separate VMI kernel flavor is obsolete and therefore has been dropped from
the media. When upgrading the system, it will be automatically replaced by the
PAE kernel flavor. The PAE kernel provides all features, which were included in
the separate VMI kernel flavor.

12.7.2.4. CPU Overcommit and Fully Virtualized Guest

Unless the hardware supports Pause Loop Exiting (Intel) or Pause Intercept
Filter (AMD) there might be issues with fully virtualized guests with CPU
overcommit in place becoming unresponsive or hang under heavy load.

Paravirtualized guests work flawlessly with CPU overcommit under heavy load.

This issue is currently being worked on.

12.7.2.5. IBM System X x3850/x3950 with ATI Radeon 7000/VE Video Cards and Xen
Hypervisor

When installing SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 on IBM System X x3850/x3950
with ATI Radeon 7000/VE video cards, the boot parameter 'vga=0x317' needs to be
added to avoid video corruption during the installation process.

Graphical environment (X11) in Xen is not supported on IBM System X x3850/x3950
with ATI Radeon 7000/VE video cards.

12.7.2.6. Video Mode Selection for Xen Kernels

In a few cases, following the installation of Xen, the hypervisor does not boot
into the graphical environment. To work around this issue, modify /boot/grub/
menu.lst and replace vga=<number> with vga=mode-<number>. For example, if the
setting for your native kernel is vga=0x317, then for Xen you will need to use
vga=mode-0x317.

12.7.2.7. Time Synchronization in virtualized Domains with NTP

Paravirtualized (PV) DomUs usually receive the time from the hypervisor. If you
want to run "ntp" in PV DomUs, the DomU must be decoupled from the Dom0's time.
At runtime, this is done with:

echo 1 > /proc/sys/xen/independent_wallclock

To set this at boot time:

 1. either append "independent_wallclock=1" to kernel cmd line in DomU's grub
    configuration file

 2. or append "xen.independent_wallclock = 1" to /etc/sysctl.conf in the DomU.

If you encounter time synchronization issues with Paravirtualized Domains, we
encourage you to use NTP.

12.7.3. RAS

12.7.3.1. Update to mcelog for current and next generation Intel CPUs

The mcelog tool and subsystem was updated to support the current and upcoming
Intel CPU generation. This also includes the Predictive Failure Analysis
feature.

12.8. Intel Itanium (ia64) Specific Information

12.8.1. Installation on Systems with Many LUNs (Storage)

While the number of LUNs for a running system is virtually unlimited, we
suggest not having more than 64 LUNs online while installing the system, to
reduce the time to initialize and scan the devices and thus reduce the time to
install the system in general.

12.9. POWER (ppc64) Specific Information

12.9.1. Support for the IBM POWER7+ Accelerated Encryption and Random Number
Generation

For more information on making use of the IBM POWER7+ crypto and RNG
accelerators, please see: https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/mydeveloperworks/
files/form/anonymous/api/library/f57fde24-5f30-4295-91fb-e612c6a7a75a/document/
4a8d6ce4-6e1f-4203-b9b9-1d7747cec644/media/
power7%2B-accelerated-encryption-for-linux-v3.pdf

12.9.2. POWER7+ Random Number Generator

Support the POWER7+ on-chip Random Number Generator.

12.9.3. Add Per-process Data Stream Control Register (DSCR) Support

The current kernel supports setting system-wide DSCR (Data Stream Control
Register) value using sysfs interface (/sys/devices/system/cpu/dscr_default).
This system-wide DSCR value will be inherited by new processes until user
changes this value again. So users cannot modify and/or retrieve DSCR value for
each process separately.

The powerpc-utils package shipped in this release provides the modified
ppc64_cpu command. This command allows users to set and read DSCR value per
process basis.

12.9.4. Check Sample Instruction Address Register (SIAR) Valid Bit before
Saving Contents of SIAR

The POWER7 processor has a register, referred to as Sample Instruction Address
Register. This register is loaded with the contents of instruction address when
a sample of a performance monitoring event is taken. If an instruction that was
executed speculatively is rolled back, the event is also rolled back but the
contents of SIAR are not cleared and thus invalid. The kernel has no way of
detecting that the contents of SIAR are invalid. This can result in a few
profiling samples with incorrect instruction addresses.

The POWER7+ processor adds a new bit, referred to as SIAR-Valid bit and sets
this bit to indicate when the contents of the SIAR are valid. The new SLES 11
SP3 kernel checks this bit before saving the contents of the SIAR in a sample.
This ensures that the instruction addresses saved in profiling samples are
correct.

12.9.5. LightPath Diagnostics Framework for IBM Power

IBM Power systems have Service indicators (LED) that help identify components
(Guiding Light) and also to indicate a component in error (Light Path).
Currently, Linux only has a couple of commands that cater to LightPath
services.

Deliver a LightPath framework that will help customers to identify a hardware
component in error on IBM Power Systems

12.9.6. PRRN Event Handling

The latest versions of firmware for IBM Power Systems provide customers the
opportunity to have the affinity for the resources on their systems dynamically
updated. This procedure occurs via a Platform Resource Reassignment
Notification (PRRN) Event.

The updates to the ppc64-diag, powerpc-utils, and librtas packages allow Linux
systems to handle these PRRN events and update the affinity for system cpu and
memory resources.

12.9.7. Increase Number of Partitions per Core on IBM POWER7+

Enable support for 20 partitions per core on IBM POWER7+

12.9.8. Enable Firmware Assisted Dump for IBM Power Systems

Starting from IBM POWER6 and above the Power firmware now has a capability to
preserve the partition memory dump during system crash and boot into a fresh
copy of the kernel with fully-reset system. This feature adds support to
exploit the dump capture capability provided by Power firmware

12.9.9. Kernel cpuidle Framework for POWER7

Enable POWER systems to leverage the generic cpuidle framework by taking
advantage of advanced heuristics, tunables and features provided by the cpuidle
framework. This enables better power management on the systems and helps tune
the system and applications accordingly.

12.9.10. Supported Hardware and Systems

All POWER3, POWER4, PPC970 and RS64–based models that were supported by SUSE
Linux Enterprise Server 9 are no longer supported.

12.9.11. Using btrfs as /root File System on IBM Power Systems

Configure a minimum of 32MB for the PReP partition when using btrfs as the /
root file system.

12.9.12. Loading the Installation Kernel via Network on POWER

With SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 the bootfile DVD1/suseboot/inst64 can not
be booted directly via network anymore, because its size is larger than 12MB.
To load the installation kernel via network, copy the files yaboot.ibm,
yaboot.cnf and inst64 from the DVD1/suseboot directory to the TFTP server.
Rename the yaboot.cnf file to yaboot.conf. yaboot can also load config files
for specific Ethernet MAC addresses. Use a name like
yaboot.conf-01-23-45-ab-cd-ef to match a MAC address. An example yaboot.conf
for TFTP booting looks like this:

default=sles11
timeout=100
image[64-bit]=inst64
    label=sles11
    append="quiet install=nfs://hostname/exported/sles11dir"

12.9.13. Huge Page Memory Support on POWER

Huge Page Memory (16GB pages, enabled via HMC) is supported by the Linux
kernel, but special kernel parameters must be used to enable this support. Boot
with the parameters "hugepagesz=16G hugepages=N" in order to use the 16GB huge
pages, where N is the number of 16GB pages assigned to the partition via the
HMC. The number of 16GB huge pages available can not be changed once the
partition is booted. Also, there are some restrictions if huge pages are
assigned to a partition in combination with eHEA / eHCA adapters:

IBM eHEA Ethernet Adapter:

The eHEA module will fail to initialize any eHEA ports if huge pages are
assigned to the partition and Huge Page kernel parameters are missing. Thus, no
huge pages should be assigned to the partition during a network installation.
To support huge pages after installation, the huge page kernel parameters need
to be added to the boot loader configuration before huge pages are assigned to
the partition.

IBM eHCA InfiniBand Adapter:

The current eHCA device driver is not compatible with huge pages. If huge pages
are assigned to a partition, the device driver will fail to initialize any eHCA
adapters assigned to the partition.

12.9.14. Installation on POWER onto IBM VSCSI Target

The installation on a vscsi client will fail with old versions of the AIX VIO
server. Please upgrade the AIX VIO server to version 1.5.2.1-FP-11.1 or later.

12.9.15. iSCSI Installations with Multiple NICs Losing Network Connectivity at
the End of Firstboot Stage

After installing SLES 11 SP1 on an iSCSI target, the system boots properly,
network is up and the iSCSI root device is found as expected. The install
completes (firstboot part) as usual. However, at the end of firstboot, the
network is shut down before the root file system is unmounted, leading to read
failures accessing the root (iSCSI) device; the system hangs.

Solution: reboot the system.

12.9.16. IBM Linux VSCSI Server Support in SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11

Customers using SLES 9 or SLES 10 to serve Virtual SCSI to other LPARs, using
the ibmvscsis driver, who wish to migrate from these releases, should consider
migrating to the IBM Virtual I/O server. The IBM Virtual I/O server supports
all the IBM PowerVM virtual I/O features and also provides integration with the
Virtual I/O management capabilities of the HMC. It can be downloaded from:
http://www14.software.ibm.com/webapp/set2/sas/f/vios/download/home.html

12.9.17. Virtual Fibre Channel Devices

When using IBM Power Virtual Fibre Channel devices utilizing N-Port ID
Virtualization, the Virtual I/O Server may need to be updated in order to
function correctly. Linux requires VIOS 2.1, Fixpack 20.1, and the LinuxNPIV
I-Fix for this feature to work properly. These updates can be downloaded from:
http://www14.software.ibm.com/webapp/set2/sas/f/vios/home.html

12.9.18. Virtual Tape Devices

When using virtual tape devices served by an AIX VIO server, the Virtual I/O
Server may need to be updated in order to function correctly. The latest
updates can be downloaded from: http://www14.software.ibm.com/webapp/set2/sas/f
/vios/home.html

For more information about IBM Virtual I/O Server, see http://
www14.software.ibm.com/webapp/set2/sas/f/vios/documentation/home.html.

12.9.19. Chelsio cxgb3 iSCSI Offload Engine

The Chelsio hardware supports ~16K packet size (the exact value depends on the
system configuration). It is recommended that you set the parameter
MaxRecvDataSegmentLength in /etc/iscsid.conf to 8192.

For the cxgb3i driver to work properly, this parameter needs to be set to 8192.

In order to use the cxgb3i offload engine, the cxgb3i module needs to be loaded
manually after open-scsi has been started.

For additional information, refer to /usr/src/linux/Documentation/scsi/
cxgb3i.txt in the kernel source tree.

12.9.20. Known TFTP Issues with Yaboot

When attempting to netboot yaboot, users may see the following error message:

Can't claim memory for TFTP download (01800000 @ 01800000-04200000)

and the netboot will stop and immediately display the yaboot "boot:" prompt.
Use the following steps to work around the problem.

  • Reboot the system and at the IBM splash screen select '8' to get to an Open
    Firmware prompt "0>"

  • At the Open Firmware prompt, type the following commands:

    setenv load-base 4000
    setenv real-base c00000
    dev /packages/gui obe

  • The second command will take the system back to the IBM splash screen and
    the netboot can be attempted again.

12.9.21. Graphical Administration of Remotely Installed Hardware

If you do a remote installation in text mode, but want to connect to the
machine later in graphical mode, be sure to set the default runlevel to 5 via
YaST. Otherwise xdm/kdm/gdm might not be started.

12.9.22. InfiniBand - SDP Protocol Not Supported on IBM Hardware

To disable SDP on IBM hardware set SDP=no in openib.conf so that by default SDP
is not loaded. After you have set this setting in openib.conf to 'no' run
openibd restart or reboot the system for this setting to take effect.

12.9.23. RDMA NFS Server May Hang During Shutdown (OFED)

If your system is configured as an NFS over RDMA server, the system may hang
during a shutdown if a remote system has an active NFS over RDMA mount. To
avoid this problem, prior to shutting down the system, run "openibd stop"; run
it in the background, because the command will hang and otherwise block the
console:

/etc/init.d/openibd stop &

A shutdown can now be run cleanly.

The steps to configure and start NFS over RDMA are as follows:

  • On the server system:

     1. Add an entry to the file /etc/exports, for example:

        /home   192.168.0.34/255.255.255.0(fsid=0,rw,async,insecure,no_root_squash)

     2. As the root user run the commands:

        /etc/init.d/nfsserver start
        echo rdma 20049 > /proc/fs/nfsd/portlist

  • On the client system:

     1. Run the command: modprobe xprtrdma.

     2. Mount the remote file system using the command /sbin/mount.nfs. Specify
        the ip address of the ip-over-ib network interface (ib0, ib1...) of the
        server and the options: proto=rdma,port=20049, for example:

        /sbin/mount.nfs 192.168.0.64:/home /mnt \
        -o proto=rdma,port=20049,nolock

12.9.24. XFS stack overflow

Under heavy IO load on a fragmented filesystem, XFS can overflow the stack on
ppc64 architecture leading to system crash. The fix for this problem is going
to be released with the first SLE11 SP3 maintenance update.

12.10. System z (s390x) Specific Information

Look at http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/linux/linux390/
documentation_novell_suse.html for more information.

IBM zEnterprise 196 (z196) and IBM zEnterprise 114 (z114) further on referred
to as z196 and z114.

12.10.1. Hardware

12.10.1.1. Leverage Cross Memory Attach Functionality for System z

Cross memory attach reduces the number of data copies needed for intra-node
interprocess communication. In particular, MPI libraries engaged in intra-node
communication can now perform a single copy of the message to shared memory
rather than performing a double copy.

12.10.1.2. CryptoExpress4 - Device Driver Exploitation

With SLES 11 SP3 the z90crypt device driver supports the Crypto Express 4
(CEX4) adapter card.

12.10.1.3. Implement lscpu and chcpu

This feature improves handling of CPU hotplug. The lscpu command now displays
detailed information about available CPUs. Using a new command, chcpu , you can
change the CPU state, disable and enable CPUs, and configure specified CPUs.

12.10.1.4. CPACF Exploitation (libica Part 2)

This feature extends the libica library with new modes of operation for DES,
3DES and AES. These modes of operation (CBC-CS, CCM, GCM, CMAC) are supported
by Message Security Assist (CPACF) extension 4, which can be used with z196 and
later System z mainframes.

12.10.1.5. Exploitation of Data Routing for FCP

This feature supports the enhanced mode of the System z FCP adapter card. In
this mode, the adapter passes data directly from memory to the SAN when there
is no free memory on the adapter card because of large or slow I/O requests.

12.10.2. Virtualization

12.10.2.1. VEPA Mode Support

VEPA mode routes traffic between virtual machines on the same mainframe through
an external switch. The switch then becomes a single point of control for
security, filtering, and management.

12.10.2.2. Technology preview: KVM support on s390x

KVM is now included on the s390x platform as a technology preview.

12.10.2.3. Support of Live Guest Relocation (LGR) with z/VM 6.2

Live guest relocation (LGR) with z/VM 6.2 requires z/VM service applied,
especially with Collaborative Memory Management (CMMA) active (cmma=on).

Apply z/VM APAR VM65134.

12.10.2.4. Linux Guests Running on z/VM 5.4 and 6.1 Require z/VM Service
Applied

Linux guests using dedicated devices may experience a loop, if an available
path to the device goes offline prior to the IPL of Linux.

Apply recommended z/VM service APARs VM65017 and VM64847.

12.10.3. Storage

12.10.3.1. Safe Offline Interface for DASD Devices

Instead of setting a DASD device offline and returning all outstanding I/O
requests as failed, with this interface you can set a DASD device offline and
write all outstanding data to the device before setting the device offline.

12.10.3.2. Flash Express Support for IBM System z

Flash Express memory is accessed as storage-class memory increments.
Storage-class memory for IBM System z is a class of data storage devices that
combine properties of both storage and memory. This feature improves the paging
rate and access performance for temporary storage, for example, for data
warehousing.

12.10.3.3. Detect DASD Path Connection Error

This feature enables the Linux DASD device driver to detect path configuration
errors that cannot be detected by hardware or microcode. The device driver then
does not use such paths. For example, with this feature, the DASD device driver
detects paths that are assigned to a specific subchannel, but lead to different
storage servers.

12.10.3.4. SAN Utilities for zFCP, hbaapi Completion

Improves systems manageability by supporting pass-through for generic services
and retrieving events in the SAN. Improves SAN setup by retrieving information
about the SAN fabric including all involved interconnect elements, such as
switches.

12.10.3.5. Enhanced DASD Statistics for PAV and HPF

This feature improves DASD I/O diagnosis, especially for Parallel Access Volume
(PAV) and High Performance FICON (HPF) environments, to analyze and tune DASD
performance.

12.10.3.6. New Partition Types Added to the fdasd Command

In SLES11 SP2 new partition types were added to the fdasd command in the
s390-tools package. Anyone using YaST in SP3 to create partitions will not see
this happening. If fdasd is used from the command line, it will work as
documented and desired.

12.10.4. Network

12.10.4.1. YaST May Fail to Activate Hipersocket Devices in Layer 2 Mode

In rare occasions Hipersocket devices in layer 2 mode may remain in softsetup
state when configured via YaST.

Perform ifup manually.

12.10.4.2. YaST Sets an Invalid Default MAC Address for OSA Devices in Layer 2
Mode

OSA devices in layer 2 mode remain in softsetup state when "Set default MAC
address" is used in Yast

Do not select "Set default MAC address" in YaST. If default MAC address got
selected in YaST remove the line LLADR='00:00:00:00:00:00' from the ifcfg file
in /etc/sysconfig/network.

12.10.4.3. Limitations with the "qetharp" Utility

qetharp -d

    Deleting: An ARP entry, which is part of Shared OSA should not get deleted
    from the arp cache.

    Current Behavior: An ARP entry, which is part of shared OSA is getting
    deleted from the arp cache.

qetharp -p

    Purging: It should remove all the remote entries, which are not part of
    shared OSA.

    Current Behavior: It is only flushing out the remote entries, which are not
    part of shared OSA for first time. Then, if the user pings any of the
    purged ip address, the entry gets added back to the arp cache. Later, if
    the user runs purge for a second time, that particular entry is not getting
    removed from the arp cache.

12.10.5. Security

12.10.5.1. Support of SHA-256 Hash Algorithm in opencryptoki CCA Token

SLES 11 SP3 includes opencryptoki 2.4.2 which comes with a CCA token that
exploits the SHA-256 hash algorithm that is provided by System z crypto
hardware.

12.10.5.2. CryptoExpress4 - Device Driver Exploitation

With SLES 11 SP3 the z90crypt device driver supports the Crypto Express 4
(CEX4) adapter card.

12.10.5.3. CPACF Exploitation (libica Part 2)

This feature extends the libica library with new modes of operation for DES,
3DES and AES. These modes of operation (CBC-CS, CCM, GCM, CMAC) are supported
by Message Security Assist (CPACF) extension 4, which can be used with z196 and
later System z mainframes.

12.10.5.4. Existing Data Execution Protection Removed for System z

The existing data execution protection for Linux on System z relies on the
System z hardware to distinguish instructions and data through the secondary
memory space mode. As of System z10, new load-relative-long instructions do not
make this distinction. As a consequence, applications that have been compiled
for System z10 or later fail when running with the existing data execution
protection.

Therefore, data execution protection for Linux on System z has been removed.

12.10.6. RAS

12.10.6.1. Crypto Adapter Resiliency

This feature provides System z typical RAS for cryptographic adapters through
comprehensive failure recovery. For example, this feature handles unexpected
failures or changes caused by Linux guest relocation, suspend and resume
activities or configuration changes.

12.10.6.2. Fuzzy Live Dump for System z

With this feature kernel dumps from running Linux systems can be created, to
allow problem analysis without taking down systems. Because the Linux system
continues running while the dump is written, and kernel data structures are
changing during the dump process, the resulting dump contains inconsistencies.

12.10.6.3. kdump Support for System z

kdump can be used to create system dumps for instances of SUSE Linux Enterprise
Server. kdump reduces both dump time and dump size and facilitates dump disk
storage sharing. A setup GUI is provided by YaST. When performing an upgrade to
SLES 11 SP3 and enabling kdump, please note that kdump reserves approximately
128 MB by default and sufficient disk space must be available for storing the
dump.

Depending on the number of devices that are used in the system the memory
reserved for kdump needs to be adjusted. If less than fourty devices are
configured for the respective system, no action is required. If more than
fourty devices are configured, please add one megabyte of system main storage
for each additional 25 devices.

If too many devices are used in the system the setup of kdump may fail, because
too many devices are written to kernel command line. This line may not exceed
896 characters. One way to shorten the line is to specify ranges of
devicenumbers instead of listing each device individually (!0800,!0801,!0802
becomes !0800-0802).

This shortened devicenumber list needs to be added to the kdump command line.
If you configure kdump please go to the Expert Settings and insert the
shortened devicelist in to the field Kdump Command Line Append .

12.10.6.4. Distinguish Dump System and Boot System

A dump system is not necessarily identical to the system that was booted. Linux
guest relocation or suspend and resume activities might introduce problems. To
help analyze such problems, a system dump now provides location information
about the original Linux system.

12.10.6.5. Support for zPXE Boot

zPXE provide a simular function to the PXE boot on x86/x86-64: have a parameter
driven executable, retrieving installation source and instance specific
parameters from specified network location, download automatically the
respective kernel, initrd, and paramenter files for that instane and start an
automated installation.

12.10.7. Performance

12.10.7.1. Leverage Cross Memory Attach Functionality for System z

Cross memory attach reduces the number of data copies needed for intra-node
interprocess communication. In particular, MPI libraries engaged in intra-node
communication can now perform a single copy of the message to shared memory
rather than performing a double copy.

12.10.7.2. Support of the Transactional Execution Facility and Runtime
Instrumentation

With the facility the Linux kernel supports hardware runtime instrumentation,
an advanced mechanism that improves analysis of and optimization of the code
generated by the new IBM JVM. Software locking overhead is minimized and
scalability and parallelism increased.

12.10.7.3. System z Performance Counters in the Linux perf Tool

This feature provides simplified performance analysis for software on Linux on
System z. It uses the perf tool to access the hardware performance counters.

12.10.7.4. Optimized Compression Library zlib

This feature provides optimization of and support for the general purpose data
compression library zlib. This library improves compression performance on
System z.

12.10.7.5. Libhugetlbfs support for System z

Enables the transparent exploitation of large pages in C/C++ programs.
Applications and middleware programs can profit from the performance benefits
of large pages without changes or recompilation.

12.10.8. Miscellaneous

12.10.8.1. IBM System z Architecture Level Set (ALS) Preparation

To exploit new IBM System z architecture capabilities during the lifecycle of
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11, support for machines of the types z900, z990,
z800, z890 is deprecated in this release. SUSE plans to introduce an ALS
earliest with SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 Service Pack 1 (SP1), latest with
SP2. After ALS, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 only executes on z9 or newer
processors.

With SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 GA, only machines of type z9 or newer are
supported.

When developing software, we recommend to switch gcc to z9/z10 optimization:

  • install gcc

  • install gcc-z9 package (change gcc options to -march=z9-109 -mtune=z10)

12.10.8.2. Minimum Storage Firmware Level for LUN Scanning

For LUN Scanning to work properly, the minimum storage firmware level should
be:

  • DS8000 Code Bundle Level 64.0.175.0

  • DS6000 Code Bundle Level 6.2.2.108

12.10.8.3. Large Page Support in IBM System z

Large Page support allows processes to allocate process memory in chunks of 1
MiB instead of 4 KiB. This works through the hugetlbfs.

12.10.8.4. Collaborative Memory Management Stage II (CMM2) Lite

SLES 11 SP2 supports CMM2 Lite for optimized memory usage and to handle memory
overcommitment via memory page state transitions based on "stable" and "unused"
memory pages of z/VM guests using the existing arch_alloc_page and
arch_free_page callbacks.

12.10.8.5. Issue with SLES 11 and NSS under z/VM

Starting SLES 11 under z/VM with NSS sometimes causes a guest to logoff by
itself.

Solution: IBM addresses this issue with APAR VM64578.

Chapter 13. Resolved Issues

  • Bugfixes

    This Service Pack contains all the latest bugfixes for each package
    released via the maintenance Web since the GA version.

  • Security Fixes

    This Service Pack contains all the latest security fixes for each package
    released via the maintenance Web since the GA version.

  • Program Temporary Fixes

    This Service Pack contains all the PTFs (Program Temporary Fix) for each
    package released via the maintenance Web since the GA version which were
    suitable for integration into the maintained common codebase.

Chapter 14. Technical Information

This section contains information about system limits, a number of technical
changes and enhancements for the experienced user.

When talking about CPUs we are following this terminology:

CPU Socket

    The visible physical entity, as it is typically mounted to a motherboard or
    an equivalent.

CPU Core

    The (usually not visible) physical entity as reported by the CPU vendor.

    On System z this is equivalent to an IFL.

Logical CPU

    This is what the Linux Kernel recognizes as a "CPU".

    We avoid the word "thread" (which is sometimes used), as the word "thread"
    would also become ambiguous subsequently.

Virtual CPU

    A logical CPU as seen from within a Virtual Machine.

14.1. Kernel Limits

http://www.suse.com/products/server/technical-information/#Kernel

This table summarizes the various limits which exist in our recent kernels and
utilities (if related) for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11.

┌──────────────────────┬─────────┬─────────┬────────────┬──────────┬──────────┐
│    SLES 11 (3.0)     │   x86   │  ia64   │   x86_64   │  s390x   │  ppc64   │
├──────────────────────┼─────────┼─────────┼────────────┼──────────┼──────────┤
│CPU bits              │32       │64       │64          │64        │64        │
├──────────────────────┼─────────┼─────────┼────────────┼──────────┼──────────┤
│max. # Logical CPUs   │32       │4096     │4096        │64        │1024      │
├──────────────────────┼─────────┼─────────┼────────────┼──────────┼──────────┤
│max. RAM (theoretical │64/16 GiB│1 PiB/8+ │64 TiB/16   │4 TiB/256 │1 PiB/512 │
│/ certified)          │         │TiB      │TiB         │GiB       │GiB       │
├──────────────────────┼─────────┼─────────┼────────────┼──────────┼──────────┤
│max. user-/kernelspace│3/1 GiB  │2 EiB/φ  │128 TiB/128 │φ/φ       │2 TiB/2   │
│                      │         │         │TiB         │          │EiB       │
├──────────────────────┼─────────┴─────────┴────────────┴──────────┴──────────┤
│max. swap space       │up to 29 * 64 GB (i386 and x86_64) or 30 * 64 GB      │
│                      │(other architectures)                                 │
├──────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│max. # processes      │1048576                                               │
├──────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│max. # threads per    │tested with more than 120000; maximum limit depends on│
│process               │memory and other parameters                           │
├──────────────────────┼─────────┬────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│max. size per block   │up to 16 │and up to 8 EiB on all 64-bit architectures │
│device                │TiB      │                                            │
├──────────────────────┼─────────┴────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│FD_SETSIZE            │1024                                                  │
└──────────────────────┴──────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

14.2. KVM Limits

┌────────────────┬────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│Guest RAM size  │2 TiB                                                       │
├────────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│Virtual CPUs per│160                                                         │
│guest           │                                                            │
├────────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│Maximum number  │                                                            │
│of NICs per     │8                                                           │
│guest           │                                                            │
├────────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│Block devices   │4 emulated, 20 para-virtual                                 │
│per guest       │                                                            │
├────────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│Maximum number  │Limit is defined as the total number of vCPUs in all guests │
│of guests       │being no greater than eight times the number of CPU cores in│
│                │the host.                                                   │
└────────────────┴────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

14.2.1. QEMU: Version 1.4 Master Feature

SLES11 SP3 will be shipped with QEMU version 1.4.1. More information about this
version is available at: http://wiki.qemu.org/ChangeLog/1.4 To have the list of
supported features in SLES11 SP3 please refer to the /usr/share/doc/kvm/
kvm-supported.txt file in the "KVM" package.

14.2.2. XEN/KVM: virt-manager Can Configure PCI Pass-through Devices at VM
Creation

Virt-Manager is now capable to allow the configuration of PCI pass-through
devices at VM creation in Xen and KVM.

14.2.3. libseccomp

Seccomp filters are expressed as a Berkeley Packet Filter (BPF) program, which
is not a well understood interface for most developers.

The libseccomp library provides an easy to use interface to the Linux Kernel's
syscall filtering mechanism, seccomp. The libseccomp API allows an application
to specify which syscalls, and optionally which syscall arguments, the
application is allowed to execute, all of which are enforced by the Linux
Kernel.

14.2.4. libvirt Support for QEMU seccomp Sandboxing

QEMU guests spawned by libvirt are exposed to a large number of system calls
that go unused for the entire lifetime of the process.

libvirt's qemu.conf file is updated with a seccomp_sandbox option that can be
used to enable use of QEMU's seccomp sandboxing support. This allows execution
of QEMU guests with reduced exposure to kernel system calls.

14.2.5. libvirt Bridged Networking for Unprivileged Users

libvirt can already spawn QEMU guests with bridged networking support when
running under a privileged user ID, however it cannot do the same when run
under an unprivileged user ID.

libvirt is updated to enable QEMU guests to be spawned with bridged networking
when libvirt is run under an unprivileged user ID. This benefits installations
that connect to the libvirtd instance with the qemu:///session URI. This was
achieved by using the new QEMU network helper support when libvirt is running
under an unprivileged user ID.

14.2.6. libvirt DAC Isolation

libvirt spawns all QEMU guests created through the qemu:///system URI under the
user ID and group ID defined in /etc/libvirt/qemu.conf. This means all guests
are run under the same user ID and group ID, removing all Discretionary Access
Control (DAC). While Mandatory Access Control (MAC) may already be isolating
guests, it would be nice to also have DAC isolation for an added layer of
security.

libvirt has been updated to allow spawning of guests under unique user and
group IDs. The libvirt domain XML's <seclabel> tag is updated with model='dac'
to provide this support, and libvirt APIs are updated to allow applications to
inspect the full list of security labels of a domain.

14.2.7. QEMU Network Helper for Unprivileged Users

QEMU guests previously could not be started with bridged networking support
when run under an unprivileged user ID.

Infrastructure is introduced to enable a network helper to be executed by QEMU.
This also allows third parties to implement user-visible network backends
without having to introduce them into QEMU itself. A default network helper is
introduced that implements the same bridged networking functionality as the
common qemu-ifup script. It creates a tap file descriptor, attaches it to a
bridge, and passes it back to QEMU. This helper runs with higher privileges,
allowing QEMU to be invoked with bridged networking support under an
unprivileged user.

14.2.8. QEMU: Sandboxing with seccomp

New seccomp kernel functionality is intended to be used to declare the
whitelisted syscalls and syscall parameters. This will limit QEMU's syscall
footprint, and therefore the potential kernel attack surface. The idea is that
if an attacker were to execute arbitrary code, they would only be able to use
the whitelisted syscalls.

QEMU has been updated with the '-sandbox' option. When set to 'on', the
'-sandbox' option will enable seccomp system call filtering for QEMU, allowing
only a subset of system calls to be used.

14.2.9. KVM: Export Platform Power Management Capability through libvirt
Framework

Libvirt can now discover and update tags in the capabilities XML field based on
power management features supported by the platform.

14.2.10. KVM: Support INVPCID's Haswell Instructions

KVM now support the new Intel Haswell microarchitecture instructions: INVPCID.
Process-context identifiers (PCIDs) are a facility by which a logical processor
may cache information for multiple linear-address spaces so that the processor
may retain cached information when software switches to a different linear
address space. INVPCID instruction is used for fine-grained TLB flush which is
benefit for kernel. This features is now exposed to the guest. Modern guest can
use this new instructiosn to improve the efficiency of KVM. qemu-kvm is
required to selects PCID via "-cpu" option.

14.2.11. KVM: TSC Deadline Timer Support

TSC deadline timer is a new mode in LAPIC timer, which will generate one-shot
timer interrupt based on TSC deadline, in place of current APIC clock count
interval. It will provide more precise timer interrupt (less than 1 ticks) to
benefit OS scheduler etc.

14.2.12. KVM: TSC Offset Timer

TSC is only writable via MSR 0x10 which is a moving target. TSC offset timer
feature will provide a new MSR 0x3b that exposes the "Thread Offset" directly.

14.2.13. KVM: Support for APIC Virtualization

This Service Pack adds support for APIC Virtualization provided by more current
Intel CPUs. This improves VMM interrupt handling efficiency.

14.2.14. KVM: Haswell New Instructions Support

KVM now support the Intel Haswell microarchitecture new instructions (ie: FP
fused Multiply Add, 256-bit Integer vectors, MOVBE support...). Using some of
these new instructions will improve the efficiency of KVM.

14.2.15. KVM: support for Supervisor Mode Execution Protection (SMEP)

KVM now support tje Supervisor mode execution protection (SMEP) wich prevents
execution of user mode pages while in supervisor mode and addresses class of
exploits for hijacking kernel execution.

14.2.16. XEN/KVM/libvirt: Virtual Machine Lock Manager

The virtual machine lock manager is a daemon which will ensure that a virtual
machine's disk image cannot be written to by two QEMU/KVM processes at the same
time. It provides protection against starting the same virtual machine twice,
or adding the same disk to two different virtual machines.

14.3. Xen Limits

┌─────────────────────────────────────────┬───────────────┐
│               SLES 11 SP2               │      x86      │
├─────────────────────────────────────────┼───────────────┤
│CPU bits                                 │64             │
├─────────────────────────────────────────┼───────────────┤
│Logical CPUs (Xen Hypervisor)            │255            │
├─────────────────────────────────────────┼───────────────┤
│Virtual CPUs per VM                      │32             │
├─────────────────────────────────────────┼───────────────┤
│Maximum supported memory (Xen Hypervisor)│2 TiB          │
├─────────────────────────────────────────┼───────────────┤
│Maximum supported memory (Dom0)          │512 GiB        │
├─────────────────────────────────────────┼───────────────┤
│Virtual memory per VM                    │128 MiB-256 GiB│
├─────────────────────────────────────────┼───────────────┤
│Total virtual devices per host           │2048           │
├─────────────────────────────────────────┼───────────────┤
│Maximum number of NICs per host          │8              │
├─────────────────────────────────────────┼───────────────┤
│Maximum number of vNICs per guest        │8              │
├─────────────────────────────────────────┼───────────────┤
│Maximum number of guests per host        │128            │
└─────────────────────────────────────────┴───────────────┘

In Xen 4.1, the hypervisor bundled with SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP2,
dom0 is able to see and handle a maximum of 512 logical CPUs. The hypervisor
itself, however, can access up to logical 256 logical CPUs and schedule those
for the VMs.

With SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP2, we removed the 32-bit hypervisor as a
virtualization host. 32-bit virtual guests are not affected and are fully
supported with the provided 64-bit hypervisor.

14.3.1. XEN: Secure Boot

Xen hypervisor is shipped as an EFI application, and signed. It will negotiate
with the shim loader to validate the Dom0 kernel signature before booting it.
Enabling the alternative kernel image format takes as a prerequisite the
bumping of the backward compatibility level from 3.2 to 4.X, so we are not able
to boot a SLE11 SP3 PV guest on SLE10 SP4, even if secure boot is not enable.

14.3.2. AMD iommu: enable ats devices

XEN now support the AMD iommu: enable ats (address transaltion services)
devices.

14.3.3. Add support for AMD's OSVW feature in guests

This feature enables AMD OSVW (OS Visible Workaround) feature for Xen and KVM.
New AMD errata will have a OSVW id assigned in the future. OS is supposed to
check OSVW status MSR to find out whether CPU has a specific erratum.

14.3.4. Do not intercept RDTSC(P) when TSC scaling is supported by hardware

Orochi-C AMD CPUs now supports TSC scaling. This feature enables TSC scaling
ratio for SVM. Guest VMs don't need take #VMEXIT to calculate a translated TSC
value when it is running under TSC emulation mode. This can substancially
reduce the rdtsc overhead.

14.3.5. XEN/KVM: virt-manager Can Configure PCI Pass-through Devices at VM
Creation

Virt-Manager is now capable to allow the configuration of PCI pass-through
devices at VM creation in Xen and KVM.

14.3.6. XEN: Netconsole Support to Netfront Device

XEN now support netconsole on its netfront device.

14.3.7. XEN: TSC Deadline Timer Support

TSC deadline timer is a new mode in LAPIC timer, which will generate one-shot
timer interrupt based on TSC deadline, in place of current APIC clock count
interval. It will provide more precise timer interrupt (less than 1 ticks) to
benefit OS scheduler etc.

14.3.8. XEN: JKT Core Error Recovery

Xen now support the new MCA type to handle errors in the core (like L1/L2 cache
error). Previously only uncore errors (like L3 cache error) was handled.

14.3.9. XEN: TSC Offset Support

TSC is only writable via MSR 0x10 which is a moving target. TSC offset timer
feature will provide a new MSR 0x3b that exposes the "Thread Offset" directly.

14.3.10. XEN: Haswell New Instructions Support

XEN now support the Intel Haswell microarchitecture new instructions (ie: FP
fused Multiply Add, 256-bit Integer vectors, MOVBE support...). Using some of
these new instructions will improve the efficiency of XEN.

14.3.11. APIC Virtuatization in Xen and KVM

This Service Pack adds support for the APIC virtualization feature for Intel's
IvyBridge and later CPUs. Both hypervisors - Xen and KVM - support APICv.

14.3.12. XEN: Large VT-d Pages

This is an IOMMU performance enhancement to reduce IOMMU page table and IOTLB
footprint.

14.3.13. XEN/KVM/libvirt: Virtual Machine Lock Manager

The virtual machine lock manager is a daemon which will ensure that a virtual
machine's disk image cannot be written to by two QEMU/KVM processes at the same
time. It provides protection against starting the same virtual machine twice,
or adding the same disk to two different virtual machines.

14.3.14. XEN: Bios Information to XEN HVM Guest

Bios information of the physical server can now be passed to XEN HVM guest
system.

14.3.15. XEN: Support for PCI Pass-through Bind and Unbind in libvirt Xen
Driver

virt-manager is now able to set up PCI pass-through for Xen without having to
switch to the command line to free the PCI device before assigning it to the
VM.

14.3.16. XEN: xenstore-chmod Command Now Support 256 Permissions

To be able to manage permission using the xenstore-chmod command on more than
16 domUs at the same time, xenstore-chmod command now support 256 permissions.

14.3.17. XEN VNC implementation to correctly map keyboard layouts

XEN VNC implementation has now the support for the ExtendedKeyEvent client
message. This message allows a client to send raw scan codes directly to the
server. If the client and server are using the same keymap, then it's
unnecessary to use the '-k' option with QEMU when this extension is supported.
This is extension is currently only implemented by gtk-vnc based clients
(gvncviewer, virt-manager, vinagre, etc.).

14.4. File Systems

https://www.suse.com/products/server/technical-information/#FileSystem

SUSE Linux Enterprise was the first enterprise Linux distribution to support
journaling file systems and logical volume managers back in 2000. Today, we
have customers running XFS and ReiserFS with more than 8TiB in one file system,
and our own SUSE Linux Enterprise engineering team is using all 3 major Linux
journaling file systems for all its servers.

We are excited to add the OCFS2 cluster file system to the range of supported
file systems in SUSE Linux Enterprise.

We propose to use XFS for large-scale file systems, on systems with heavy load
and multiple parallel read- and write-operations (e.g., for file serving with
Samba, NFS, etc.). XFS has been developed for such conditions, while typical
desktop use (single write or read) will not necessarily benefit from its
capabilities.

Due to technical limitations (of the bootloader), we do not support XFS to be
used for /boot.

┌───────────┬──────────┬────────────────┬────────┬─────────────┬──────────────┐
│  Feature  │  Ext 3   │  Reiserfs 3.6  │  XFS   │   Btrfs *   │  OCFS 2 **   │
├───────────┼──────────┼────────────────┼────────┼─────────────┼──────────────┤
│Data/      │          │                │        │             │              │
│Metadata   │•/•       │○/•             │○/•     │n/a *        │○/•           │
│Journaling │          │                │        │             │              │
├───────────┼──────────┼────────────────┼────────┼─────────────┼──────────────┤
│Journal    │          │                │        │             │              │
│internal/  │•/•       │•/•             │•/•     │n/a *        │•/○           │
│external   │          │                │        │             │              │
├───────────┼──────────┼────────────────┼────────┼─────────────┼──────────────┤
│Offline    │          │                │        │             │              │
│extend/    │•/•       │•/•             │○/○     │○/○          │•/○           │
│shrink     │          │                │        │             │              │
├───────────┼──────────┼────────────────┼────────┼─────────────┼──────────────┤
│Online     │          │                │        │             │              │
│extend/    │•/○       │•/○             │•/○     │•/•          │•/○           │
│shrink     │          │                │        │             │              │
├───────────┼──────────┼────────────────┼────────┼─────────────┼──────────────┤
│Sparse     │•         │•               │•       │•            │•             │
│Files      │          │                │        │             │              │
├───────────┼──────────┼────────────────┼────────┼─────────────┼──────────────┤
│Tail       │○         │•               │○       │•            │○             │
│Packing    │          │                │        │             │              │
├───────────┼──────────┼────────────────┼────────┼─────────────┼──────────────┤
│Defrag     │○         │○               │•       │•            │○             │
├───────────┼──────────┼────────────────┼────────┼─────────────┼──────────────┤
│Extended   │          │                │        │             │              │
│Attributes/│          │                │        │             │              │
│Access     │•/•       │•/•             │•/•     │•/•          │•/•           │
│Control    │          │                │        │             │              │
│Lists      │          │                │        │             │              │
├───────────┼──────────┼────────────────┼────────┼─────────────┼──────────────┤
│Quotas     │•         │•               │•       │^            │•             │
├───────────┼──────────┼────────────────┼────────┼─────────────┼──────────────┤
│Dump/      │•         │○               │•       │○            │○             │
│Restore    │          │                │        │             │              │
├───────────┼──────────┼────────────────┼────────┼─────────────┼──────────────┤
│Blocksize  │4 KiB     │4 KiB           │4 KiB   │4/64 KiB     │4 KiB         │
│default    │          │                │        │             │              │
├───────────┼──────────┼────────────────┼────────┼─────────────┼──────────────┤
│max. File  │16 TiB    │16 TiB          │8 EiB   │16 EiB       │16 TiB        │
│System Size│          │                │        │             │              │
├───────────┼──────────┼────────────────┼────────┼─────────────┼──────────────┤
│max.       │2 TiB     │1 EiB           │8 EiB   │16 EiB       │1 EiB         │
│Filesize   │          │                │        │             │              │
├───────────┼──────────┴────────────────┴────────┴─────────────┴──────────────┤
│           │* Btrfs is supported in SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 Service  │
│           │Pack3; Btrfs is a copy-on-write logging-style file system. Rather│
│           │than journaling changes before writing them in-place, it writes  │
│           │them to a new location, then links it in. Until the last write,  │
│           │the new changes are not "committed". Due to the nature of the    │
│           │filesystem, quotas will be implemented based on subvolumes in a  │
│           │future release. The blocksize default varies with different host │
│           │architectures. 64KiB is used on ppc64 and IA64, 4KiB on most     │
│           │other systems. The actual size used can be checked with the      │
│           │command "getconf PAGE_SIZE".                                     │
├───────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│           │** OCFS2 is fully supported as part of the SUSE Linux Enterprise │
│           │High Availability Extension.                                     │
└───────────┴─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

The maximum file size above can be larger than the file system's actual size
due to usage of sparse blocks. Note that unless a file system comes with large
file support (LFS), the maximum file size on a 32-bit system is 2 GB (2^31
bytes). Currently all of our standard file systems (including ext3 and
ReiserFS) have LFS, which gives a maximum file size of 2^63 bytes in theory.
The numbers in the above tables assume that the file systems are using 4 KiB
block size. When using different block sizes, the results are different, but 4
KiB reflects the most common standard.

In this document: 1024 Bytes = 1 KiB; 1024 KiB = 1 MiB; 1024 MiB = 1 GiB; 1024
GiB = 1 TiB; 1024 TiB = 1 PiB; 1024 PiB = 1 EiB. See also http://
physics.nist.gov/cuu/Units/binary.html.

NFSv4 with IPv6 is only supported for the client side. A NFSv4 server with IPv6
is not supported.

This version of Samba delivers integration with Windows 7 Active Directory
Domains. In addition we provide the clustered version of Samba as part of SUSE
Linux Enterprise High Availability 11 SP3.

14.4.1. XFS Realtime Volumes

XFS Realtime Volumes is an experimental feature, available for testing and
experimenting. If you encounter any issues, SUSE is interested in feedback.
Please, submit a support request through the usual access methods.

14.4.2. ext4: Runtime Switch for Write Support

The SLE 11 SP3 kernel contains a fully supported ext4 file system module, which
provides read-only access to the file system.

Read-write access to an ext4 file system can be acquired by setting the rw
kernel module parameter to 1, either through module load time options or after
module load through the kernel sysctl interface. Be aware that this action will
render the kernel module and the kernel as the whole as unsupported upon first
read-write mount of an ext4 file system.

ext4 is not supported for the installation of the SUSE Linux Enterprise
operating system.

Since SUSE Linux Enterprise 11 SP2 we support offline migration from ext4 to
the supported btrfs file system.

14.5. Kernel Modules

An important requirement for every Enterprise operating system is the level of
support a customer receives for his environment. Kernel modules are the most
relevant connector between hardware ("controllers") and the operating system.
Every kernel module in SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 has a flag 'supported'
with three possible values: "yes", "external", "" (empty, not set,
"unsupported").

The following rules apply:

  • All modules of a self-recompiled kernel are by default marked as
    unsupported.

  • Kernel Modules supported by SUSE partners and delivered using SUSE's
    Partner Linux Driver process are marked "external".

  • If the "supported" flag is not set, loading this module will taint the
    kernel. Tainted kernels are not supported. To avoid this, not supported
    Kernel modules are included in an extra RPM (kernel-<flavor>-extra) and
    will not be loaded by default ("flavor"=default|smp|xen|...). In addition,
    these unsupported modules are not available in the installer, and the
    package kernel-$flavor-extra is not on the SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
    media.

  • Kernel Modules not provided under a license compatible to the license of
    the Linux kernel will also taint the kernel; see /usr/src/linux/
    Documentation/sysctl/kernel.txt and the state of /proc/sys/kernel/tainted.

Technical Background

  • Linux Kernel

    The value of /proc/sys/kernel/unsupported defaults to 2 on SUSE Linux
    Enterprise Server 11 ("do not warn in syslog when loading unsupported
    modules"). This is the default used in the installer as well as in the
    installed system. See /usr/src/linux/Documentation/sysctl/kernel.txt for
    more information.

  • modprobe

    The modprobe utility for checking module dependencies and loading modules
    appropriately checks for the value of the "supported" flag. If the value is
    "yes" or "external" the module will be loaded, otherwise it will not. See
    below, for information on how to override this behavior.

    Note: SUSE does not generally support removing of storage modules via
    modprobe -r.

Working with Unsupported Modules

While the general supportability is important, there might occur situations
where loading an unsupported module is required (e.g., for testing or debugging
purposes, or if your hardware vendor provides a hotfix):

  • You can override the default by changing the variable
    allow_unsupported_modules in /etc/modprobe.d/unsupported-modules and set
    the value to "1".

    If you only want to try loading a module once, the
    --allow-unsupported-modules command-line switch can be used with modprobe.
    (For more information, see man modprobe).

  • During installation, unsupported modules may be added through driver update
    disks, and they will be loaded.

    To enforce loading of unsupported modules during boot and afterwards,
    please use the kernel command line option oem-modules.

    While installing and initializing the module-init-tools package, the kernel
    flag "TAINT_NO_SUPPORT" (/proc/sys/kernel/tainted) will be evaluated. If
    the kernel is already tainted, allow_unsupported_modules will be enabled.
    This will prevent unsupported modules from failing in the system being
    installed. (If no unsupported modules are present during installation and
    the other special kernel command line option is not used, the default will
    still be to disallow unsupported modules.)

  • If you install unsupported modules after the initial installation and want
    to enable those modules to be loaded during system boot, please do not
    forget to run depmod and mkinitrd.

Remember that loading and running unsupported modules will make the kernel and
the whole system unsupported by SUSE.

14.6. IPv6 Implementation and Compliance

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 is compliant to IPv6 Logo Phase 2. However,
when running the respective tests, you may see some tests failing. For various
reasons, we cannot enable all the configuration options by default, which are
necessary to pass all the tests. For details, see below.

  • Section 3: RFC 4862 - IPv6 Stateless Address Autoconfiguration

    Some tests fail because of the default DAD handling in Linux; disabling the
    complete interface is possible, but not the default behavior (because
    security-wise, this might open a DoS attack vector, a malicious node on a
    network could shutdown the complete segment) this is still conforming to
    RFC 4862: the shutdown of the interface is a "should", not a mandatory
    ("must") rule.

    The Linux kernel allows you to change the default behavior with a sysctl
    parameter. To do this on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11, you need to make
    the following changes in configuration:

      □ Add ipv6 to the modules load early on boot

        Edit /etc/sysconfig/kernel and add ipv6 to MODULES_LOADED_ON_BOOT e.g.
        MODULES_LOADED_ON_BOOT="ipv6". This is needed for the second change to
        work, if ipv6 is not loaded early enough, setting the sysctl fails.

      □ Add the following lines to /etc/sysctl.conf

        ## shutdown IPV6 on MAC based duplicate address detection
        net.ipv6.conf.default.accept_dad = 2
        net.ipv6.conf.all.accept_dad = 2
        net.ipv6.conf.eth0.accept_dad = 2
        net.ipv6.conf.eth1.accept_dad = 2


        Note: if you use other interfaces (e.g., eth2), modify the lines. With
        these changes, all tests for RFC 4862 should pass.

  • Section 4: RFC 1981 - Path MTU Discovery for IPv6

      □ Test v6LC.4.1.10: Multicast Destination - One Router

      □ Test v6LC.4.1.11: Multicast Destination - Two Routers

    On these two tests ping6 needs to be told to allow defragmentation of
    multicast packets. Newer ping6 versions have this disabled by default. Use:
    ping6 -M want <other parameters>. See man ping6 for more information.

  • Enable IPv6 in YaST for SCTP Support

    SCTP is dependent on IPv6, so in order to successfully insert the SCTP
    module, IPv6 must be enabled in YaST. This allows for the IPv6 module to be
    automatically inserted when modprobe sctp is called.

14.6.1. IPv6 Support for NFSv3

Kernel configuration and NFS userland utilities have been updated to fully
support NFSv3 over the IPv6 protocol. The same functionality for NFSv4 has
already been enabled since SUSE Linux Enterprise 11 SP2.

14.6.2. IPv6 Support to AutoFS

AutoFS now mounts NFS volumes over IPv6.

14.6.3. Linux Virtual Server Load Balancer (ipvs) Extends Support for IPv6

The LVS/ipvs load balancing code did not fully support RFC2460 and fragmented
IPv6 packets which could lead to lost packets and interrupted connections when
IPv6 traffic was fragmented.

The load balancer has been enhanced to fully support IPv6 fragmented extension
headers and is now RFC2460 compliant.

14.6.4. IP Set Support

Large firewall configurations that match against a multitude of IP addresses,
ports, and network interfaces can take a long time to load and consume CPU
cycles during evaluation.

IP set is an optimized extension module for iptables allowing to match large
volumes of IP, network, or MAC addresses. Typical use of the module is creating
an IP set and employing the iptables '-m set' option.

14.7. Other Technical Information

14.7.1. libica 2.1.0 Available since SLES 11 SP2 for s390x

The libica package contains the interface library routines used by IBM modules
to interface with IBM Cryptographic Hardware (ICA). Starting with SLES 11 SP1,
libica is provided in the s390x distribution in three flavors of packages:
libica-1_3_9, libica-2_0_2, and libica-2_1_0 providing libica versions 1.3.9,
2.0.2, and 2.1.0 respectively.

libica 1.3.9 is provided for compatibility reasons with legacy hardware present
e.g. in the ppc64 architecture. For s390x users it is always recommended to use
the new libica 2.1.0 library since it supports all newer s390x hardware, larger
key sizes and is backwards compatible with any ICA device driver in the s390x
architecture.

You may choose to continue using libica 1.3.9 or 2.0.2 if you do not have newer
Cryptographic hardware to exploit or wish continue using custom applications
that do not support the libica 2.1.0 library yet. Both openCryptoki and
openssl-ibmca, the two main exploiters for the libica interface, are provided
starting with SLES 11 SP2 to support the newer libica 2.1.0 library.

14.7.2. YaST Support for Layer 2 Devices

YaST writes the MAC address for layer 2 devices only if they are of the
card_types:

 1. OSD_100

 2. OSD_1000

 3. OSD_10GIG

 4. OSD_FE_LANE

 5. OSD_GbE_LANE

 6. OSD_Express

Per intent YaST does not write the MAC address for devices of the types:

 1. HiperSockets

 2. GuestLAN/VSWITCH QDIO

 3. OSM

 4. OSX

14.7.3. Changes to Network Setup

The script modify_resolvconf is removed in favor of a more versatile script
called netconfig. This new script handles specific network settings from
multiple sources more flexibly and transparently. See the documentation and
man-page of netconfig for more information.

14.7.4. Memory cgroups

Memory cgroups are now disabled for machines where they cause memory exhaustion
and crashes. Namely, X86 32-bit systems with PAE support and more than 8G in
any memory node have this feature disabled.

14.7.5. MCELog

The mcelog package logs and parses/translates Machine Check Exceptions (MCE) on
hardware errors (also including memory errors). Formerly this has been done by
a cron job executed hourly. Now hardware errors are immediately processed by an
mcelog daemon.

However, the mcelog service is not enabled by default resulting in memory and
CPU errors also not being logged by default. In addition, mcelog has a new
feature to also handle predictive bad page offlining and automatic core
offlining when cache errors happen.

The service can either be enabled via the YaST runlevel editor or via
commandline with:

chkconfig mcelog on
rcmcelog start

14.7.6. Locale Settings in ~/.i18n

If you are not satisfied with locale system defaults, change the settings in ~
/.i18n. Entries in ~/.i18n override system defaults from /etc/sysconfig/
language. Use the same variable names but without the RC_ namespace prefixes;
for example, use LANG instead of RC_LANG. For more information about locales in
general, see "Language and Country-Specific Settings" in the Administration
Guide.

14.7.7. Configuration of kdump

kdump is useful, if the kernel is crashing or otherwise misbehaving and a
kernel core dump needs to be captured for analysis.

Use YaST (System+Kernel Kdump) to configure your environment.

14.7.8. Configuring Authentication for kdump through YaST with ssh/scp as
Target

When kdump is configured through YaST with ssh/scp as target and the target
system is SUSE Linux Enterprise, then enable authentication using either of the
following ways:

 1. Copy the public keys to the target system:

    ssh-copy-id -i ~/.ssh/id_*.pub  <username>@<target system IP>

    or

 2. Change the PasswordAuthentication setting in /etc/ssh/sshd_config of the
    target system from:

    PasswordAuthentication no

    to:

    PasswordAuthentication yes

 3. After changing PasswordAuthentication in /etc/ssh/sshd_config restart the
    sshd service on the target system with:

    rcsshd restart

14.7.9. JPackage Standard for Java Packages

Java packages are changed to follow the JPackage Standard (http://
www.jpackage.org/). For more information, see the documentation in /usr/share/
doc/packages/jpackage-utils/.

14.7.10. Stopping Cron Status Messages

To avoid the mail-flood caused by cron status messages, the default value of
SEND_MAIL_ON_NO_ERROR in /etc/sysconfig/cron is set to "no" for new
installations. Even with this setting to "no", cron data output will still be
send to the MAILTO address, as documented in the cron manpage.

In the update case it is recommended to set these values according to your
needs.

Chapter 15. Documentation and Other Information

  • Read the READMEs on the DVDs.

  • Get the detailed changelog information about a particular package from the
    RPM (with filename <FILENAME>):

    rpm --changelog -qp <FILENAME>.rpm


  • Check the ChangeLog file in the top level of DVD1 for a chronological log
    of all changes made to the updated packages.

  • Find more information in the docu directory of DVD1 of the SUSE Linux
    Enterprise Server 11 Service Pack 3 DVDs. This directory includes PDF
    versions of the SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 Installation Quick Start
    and Deployment Guides.

  • These Release Notes are identical across all architectures, and are
    available online at http://www.suse.com/releasenotes/.

15.1. Additional or Update Documentation

  • http://www.suse.com/documentation/sles11/ contains additional or updated
    documentation for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 Service Pack 3.

  • Find a collection of White Papers in the SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
    Ressource Library at https://www.suse.com/products/server/resource-library
    /?ref=b#WhitePapers.

15.2. Product and Source Code Information

Visit http://www.suse.com/products/ for the latest product news from SUSE and
http://www.suse.com/download-linux/source-code.html for additional information
on the source code of SUSE Linux Enterprise products.

Chapter 16. Miscellaneous

Chapter 17. Legal Notices

SUSE makes no representations or warranties with respect to the contents or use
of this documentation, and specifically disclaims any express or implied
warranties of merchantability or fitness for any particular purpose. Further,
SUSE reserves the right to revise this publication and to make changes to its
content, at any time, without the obligation to notify any person or entity of
such revisions or changes.

Further, SUSE makes no representations or warranties with respect to any
software, and specifically disclaims any express or implied warranties of
merchantability or fitness for any particular purpose. Further, SUSE reserves
the right to make changes to any and all parts of SUSE software, at any time,
without any obligation to notify any person or entity of such changes.

Any products or technical information provided under this Agreement may be
subject to U.S. export controls and the trade laws of other countries. You
agree to comply with all export control regulations and to obtain any required
licenses or classifications to export, re-export, or import deliverables. You
agree not to export or re-export to entities on the current U.S. export
exclusion lists or to any embargoed or terrorist countries as specified in U.S.
export laws. You agree to not use deliverables for prohibited nuclear, missile,
or chemical/biological weaponry end uses. Please refer to http://www.novell.com
/info/exports/ for more information on exporting SUSE software. SUSE assumes no
responsibility for your failure to obtain any necessary export approvals.

Copyright (c) 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 SUSE LLC. All rights reserved. No part of
this publication may be reproduced, photocopied, stored on a retrieval system,
or transmitted without the express written consent of the publisher.

SUSE has intellectual property rights relating to technology embodied in the
product that is described in this document. In particular, and without
limitation, these intellectual property rights may include one or more of the
U.S. patents listed at http://www.novell.com/company/legal/patents/ and one or
more additional patents or pending patent applications in the U.S. and other
countries.

For SUSE trademarks, see Novell Trademark ad Service Mark list (http://
www.novell.com/company/legal/trademarks/tmlist.html). All third-party
trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

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Thanks for using SUSE Linux Enterprise Server in your business.

The SUSE Linux Enterprise Server Team.

