Chapter 9. Technology Previews
This part provides a list of all Technology Previews available in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.9.
For information on Red Hat scope of support for Technology Preview features, see Technology Preview Features Support Scope.
9.1. Infrastructure services
Socket API for TuneD available as a Technology Preview
The socket API for controlling TuneD through a UNIX domain socket is now available as a Technology Preview. The socket API maps one-to-one with the D-Bus API and provides an alternative communication method for cases where D-Bus is not available. By using the socket API, you can control the TuneD daemon to optimize the performance, and change the values of various tuning parameters. The socket API is disabled by default, you can enable it in the tuned-main.conf
file.
9.2. Networking
AF_XDP
available as a Technology Preview
Address Family eXpress Data Path
(AF_XDP
) socket is designed for high-performance packet processing. It accompanies XDP
and grants efficient redirection of programmatically selected packets to user space applications for further processing.
Bugzilla:1633143[1]
XDP features that are available as Technology Preview
Red Hat provides the usage of the following eXpress Data Path (XDP) features as unsupported Technology Preview:
-
Loading XDP programs on architectures other than AMD and Intel 64-bit. Note that the
libxdp
library is not available for architectures other than AMD and Intel 64-bit. - The XDP hardware offloading.
Multi-protocol Label Switching for TC available as a Technology Preview
The Multi-protocol Label Switching (MPLS) is an in-kernel data-forwarding mechanism to route traffic flow across enterprise networks. In an MPLS network, the router that receives packets decides the further route of the packets based on the labels attached to the packet. With the usage of labels, the MPLS network has the ability to handle packets with particular characteristics. For example, you can add tc filters
for managing packets received from specific ports or carrying specific types of traffic, in a consistent way.
After packets enter the enterprise network, MPLS routers perform multiple operations on the packets, such as push
to add a label, swap
to update a label, and pop
to remove a label. MPLS allows defining actions locally based on one or multiple labels in RHEL. You can configure routers and set traffic control (tc
) filters to take appropriate actions on the packets based on the MPLS label stack entry (lse
) elements, such as label
, traffic class
, bottom of stack
, and time to live
.
For example, the following command adds a filter to the enp0s1 network interface to match incoming packets having the first label 12323 and the second label 45832. On matching packets, the following actions are taken:
- the first MPLS TTL is decremented (packet is dropped if TTL reaches 0)
- the first MPLS label is changed to 549386
the resulting packet is transmitted over enp0s2, with destination MAC address 00:00:5E:00:53:01 and source MAC address 00:00:5E:00:53:02
# tc filter add dev enp0s1 ingress protocol mpls_uc flower mpls lse depth 1 label 12323 lse depth 2 label 45832 \ action mpls dec_ttl pipe \ action mpls modify label 549386 pipe \ action pedit ex munge eth dst set 00:00:5E:00:53:01 pipe \ action pedit ex munge eth src set 00:00:5E:00:53:02 pipe \ action mirred egress redirect dev enp0s2
Bugzilla:1814836[1], Bugzilla:1856415
act_mpls
module available as a Technology Preview
The act_mpls
module is now available in the kernel-modules-extra
rpm as a Technology Preview. The module allows the application of Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) actions with Traffic Control (TC) filters, for example, push and pop MPLS label stack entries with TC filters. The module also allows the Label, Traffic Class, Bottom of Stack, and Time to Live fields to be set independently.
Bugzilla:1839311[1]
The systemd-resolved
service is now available as a Technology Preview
The systemd-resolved
service provides name resolution to local applications. The service implements a caching and validating DNS stub resolver, a Link-Local Multicast Name Resolution (LLMNR), and Multicast DNS resolver and responder.
Note that, even if the systemd
package provides systemd-resolved
, this service is an unsupported Technology Preview.
9.3. Kernel
Soft-RoCE available as a Technology Preview
Remote Direct Memory Access (RDMA) over Converged Ethernet (RoCE) is a network protocol that implements RDMA over Ethernet. Soft-RoCE is the software implementation of RoCE which maintains two protocol versions, RoCE v1 and RoCE v2. The Soft-RoCE driver, rdma_rxe
, is available as an unsupported Technology Preview in RHEL 8.
Bugzilla:1605216[1]
eBPF available as a Technology Preview
Extended Berkeley Packet Filter (eBPF) is an in-kernel virtual machine that allows code execution in the kernel space, in the restricted sandbox environment with access to a limited set of functions.
The virtual machine includes a new system call bpf()
, which enables creating various types of maps, and also allows to load programs in a special assembly-like code. The code is then loaded to the kernel and translated to the native machine code with just-in-time compilation. Note that the bpf()
syscall can be successfully used only by a user with the CAP_SYS_ADMIN
capability, such as the root user. See the bpf(2)
manual page for more information.
The loaded programs can be attached onto a variety of points (sockets, tracepoints, packet reception) to receive and process data.
There are numerous components shipped by Red Hat that utilize the eBPF virtual machine. Each component is in a different development phase. All components are available as a Technology Preview, unless a specific component is indicated as supported.
The following notable eBPF components are currently available as a Technology Preview:
-
AF_XDP
, a socket for connecting the eXpress Data Path (XDP) path to user space for applications that prioritize packet processing performance.
Bugzilla:1559616[1]
The kexec
fast reboot feature is available as a Technology Preview
The kexec
fast reboot feature continues to be available as a Technology Preview. The kexec
fast reboot significantly speeds the boot process as you can boot directly into the second kernel without passing through the Basic Input/Output System (BIOS) or firmware first. To use this feature:
-
Load the
kexec
kernel manually. - Reboot for changes to take effect.
Note that the kexec
fast reboot capability is available with a limited scope of support on RHEL 9 and later releases.
The Intel data streaming accelerator driver for kernel is available as a Technology Preview
The Intel data streaming accelerator driver (IDXD) for the kernel is currently available as a Technology Preview. It is an Intel CPU integrated accelerator and includes a shared work queue with process address space ID (pasid) submission and shared virtual memory (SVM).
Bugzilla:1837187[1]
The accel-config
package available as a Technology Preview
The accel-config
package is now available on Intel EM64T
and AMD64
architectures as a Technology Preview. This package helps in controlling and configuring data-streaming accelerator (DSA) sub-system in the Linux Kernel. Also, it configures devices through sysfs
(pseudo-filesystem), saves and loads the configuration in the json
format.
Bugzilla:1843266[1]
SGX available as a Technology Preview
Software Guard Extensions (SGX) is an Intel® technology for protecting software code and data from disclosure and modification. The RHEL kernel partially provides the SGX v1 and v1.5 functionality. Version 1 enables platforms using the Flexible Launch Control mechanism to use the SGX technology. Version 2 adds Enclave Dynamic Memory Management (EDMM). Notable features include:
- Modifying EPCM permissions of regular enclave pages that belong to an initialized enclave.
- Dynamic addition of regular enclave pages to an initialized enclave.
- Expanding an initialized enclave to accommodate more threads.
- Removing regular and TCS pages from an initialized enclave.
Bugzilla:1660337[1]
9.4. File systems and storage
File system DAX is now available for ext4 and XFS as a Technology Preview
In Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8, the file system DAX is available as a Technology Preview. DAX provides a means for an application to directly map persistent memory into its address space. To use DAX, a system must have some form of persistent memory available, usually in the form of one or more Non-Volatile Dual In-line Memory Modules (NVDIMMs), and a file system that provides the capability of DAX must be created on the NVDIMM(s). Also, the file system must be mounted with the dax
mount option. Then, a mmap
of a file on the dax-mounted file system results in a direct mapping of storage into the application’s address space.
Bugzilla:1627455[1]
OverlayFS
OverlayFS is a type of union file system. It enables you to overlay one file system on top of another. Changes are recorded in the upper file system, while the lower file system remains unmodified. This allows multiple users to share a file-system image, such as a container or a DVD-ROM, where the base image is on read-only media.
OverlayFS remains a Technology Preview under most circumstances. As such, the kernel logs warnings when this technology is activated.
Full support is available for OverlayFS when used with supported container engines (podman
, cri-o
, or buildah
) under the following restrictions:
-
OverlayFS is supported for use only as a container engine graph driver or other specialized use cases, such as squashed
kdump
initramfs. Its use is supported primarily for container COW content, not for persistent storage. You must place any persistent storage on non-OverlayFS volumes. You can use only the default container engine configuration: one level of overlay, one lowerdir, and both lower and upper levels are on the same file system. - Only XFS is currently supported for use as a lower layer file system.
Additionally, the following rules and limitations apply to using OverlayFS:
- The OverlayFS kernel ABI and user-space behavior are not considered stable, and might change in future updates.
OverlayFS provides a restricted set of the POSIX standards. Test your application thoroughly before deploying it with OverlayFS. The following cases are not POSIX-compliant:
-
Lower files opened with
O_RDONLY
do not receivest_atime
updates when the files are read. -
Lower files opened with
O_RDONLY
, then mapped withMAP_SHARED
are inconsistent with subsequent modification. Fully compliant
st_ino
ord_ino
values are not enabled by default on RHEL 8, but you can enable full POSIX compliance for them with a module option or mount option.To get consistent inode numbering, use the
xino=on
mount option.You can also use the
redirect_dir=on
andindex=on
options to improve POSIX compliance. These two options make the format of the upper layer incompatible with an overlay without these options. That is, you might get unexpected results or errors if you create an overlay withredirect_dir=on
orindex=on
, unmount the overlay, then mount the overlay without these options.
-
Lower files opened with
To determine whether an existing XFS file system is eligible for use as an overlay, use the following command and see if the
ftype=1
option is enabled:# xfs_info /mount-point | grep ftype
- SELinux security labels are enabled by default in all supported container engines with OverlayFS.
- Several known issues are associated with OverlayFS in this release. For details, see Non-standard behavior in the Linux kernel documentation.
For more information about OverlayFS, see the Linux kernel documentation.
Bugzilla:1690207[1]
Stratis is now available as a Technology Preview
Stratis is a new local storage manager, which provides managed file systems on top of pools of storage with additional features. It is provided as a Technology Preview.
With Stratis, you can perform the following storage tasks:
- Manage snapshots and thin provisioning
- Automatically grow file system sizes as needed
- Maintain file systems
To administer Stratis storage, use the stratis
utility, which communicates with the stratisd
background service. For more information, see the Setting up Stratis file systems documentation.
RHEL 8.5 updated Stratis to version 2.4.2. For more information, see the Stratis 2.4.2 Release Notes.
Jira:RHELPLAN-1212[1]
NVMe/TCP host is available as a Technology Preview
Accessing and sharing Nonvolatile Memory Express (NVMe) storage over TCP/IP networks (NVMe/TCP) and its corresponding nvme_tcp.ko
kernel module has been added as a Technology Preview. The use of NVMe/TCP as a host is manageable with tools provided by the nvme-cli
package. The NVMe/TCP host Technology Preview is included only for testing purposes and is not currently planned for full support.
Bugzilla:1696451[1]
Setting up a Samba server on an IdM domain member is provided as a Technology Preview
With this update, you can now set up a Samba server on an Identity Management (IdM) domain member. The new ipa-client-samba
utility provided by the same-named package adds a Samba-specific Kerberos service principal to IdM and prepares the IdM client. For example, the utility creates the /etc/samba/smb.conf
with the ID mapping configuration for the sss
ID mapping back end. As a result, administrators can now set up Samba on an IdM domain member.
Due to IdM Trust Controllers not supporting the Global Catalog Service, AD-enrolled Windows hosts cannot find IdM users and groups in Windows. Additionally, IdM Trust Controllers do not support resolving IdM groups using the Distributed Computing Environment / Remote Procedure Calls (DCE/RPC) protocols. As a consequence, AD users can only access the Samba shares and printers from IdM clients.
For details, see Setting up Samba on an IdM domain member.
Jira:RHELPLAN-13195[1]
9.5. High availability and clusters
Pacemaker podman
bundles available as a Technology Preview
Pacemaker container bundles now run on Podman, with the container bundle feature being available as a Technology Preview. There is one exception to this feature being Technology Preview: Red Hat fully supports the use of Pacemaker bundles for Red Hat OpenStack.
Bugzilla:1619620[1]
Heuristics in corosync-qdevice
available as a Technology Preview
Heuristics are a set of commands executed locally on startup, cluster membership change, successful connect to corosync-qnetd
, and, optionally, on a periodic basis. When all commands finish successfully on time (their return error code is zero), heuristics have passed; otherwise, they have failed. The heuristics result is sent to corosync-qnetd
where it is used in calculations to determine which partition should be quorate.
New fence-agents-heuristics-ping
fence agent
As a Technology Preview, Pacemaker now provides the fence_heuristics_ping
agent. This agent aims to open a class of experimental fence agents that do no actual fencing by themselves but instead exploit the behavior of fencing levels in a new way.
If the heuristics agent is configured on the same fencing level as the fence agent that does the actual fencing but is configured before that agent in sequence, fencing issues an off
action on the heuristics agent before it attempts to do so on the agent that does the fencing. If the heuristics agent gives a negative result for the off
action it is already clear that the fencing level is not going to succeed, causing Pacemaker fencing to skip the step of issuing the off
action on the agent that does the fencing. A heuristics agent can exploit this behavior to prevent the agent that does the actual fencing from fencing a node under certain conditions.
A user might want to use this agent, especially in a two-node cluster, when it would not make sense for a node to fence the peer if it can know beforehand that it would not be able to take over the services properly. For example, it might not make sense for a node to take over services if it has problems reaching the networking uplink, making the services unreachable to clients, a situation which a ping to a router might detect in that case.
Bugzilla:1775847[1]
9.6. Identity Management
Identity Management JSON-RPC API available as Technology Preview
An API is available for Identity Management (IdM). To view the API, IdM also provides an API browser as a Technology Preview.
Previously, the IdM API was enhanced to enable multiple versions of API commands. These enhancements could change the behavior of a command in an incompatible way. Users are now able to continue using existing tools and scripts even if the IdM API changes. This enables:
- Administrators to use previous or later versions of IdM on the server than on the managing client.
- Developers can use a specific version of an IdM call, even if the IdM version changes on the server.
In all cases, the communication with the server is possible, regardless if one side uses, for example, a newer version that introduces new options for a feature.
For details on using the API, see Using the Identity Management API to Communicate with the IdM Server (TECHNOLOGY PREVIEW).
DNSSEC available as Technology Preview in IdM
Identity Management (IdM) servers with integrated DNS now implement DNS Security Extensions (DNSSEC), a set of extensions to DNS that enhance security of the DNS protocol. DNS zones hosted on IdM servers can be automatically signed using DNSSEC. The cryptographic keys are automatically generated and rotated.
Users who decide to secure their DNS zones with DNSSEC are advised to read and follow these documents:
Note that IdM servers with integrated DNS use DNSSEC to validate DNS answers obtained from other DNS servers. This might affect the availability of DNS zones that are not configured in accordance with recommended naming practices.
ACME available as a Technology Preview
The Automated Certificate Management Environment (ACME) service is now available in Identity Management (IdM) as a Technology Preview. ACME is a protocol for automated identifier validation and certificate issuance. Its goal is to improve security by reducing certificate lifetimes and avoiding manual processes from certificate lifecycle management.
In RHEL, the ACME service uses the Red Hat Certificate System (RHCS) PKI ACME responder. The RHCS ACME subsystem is automatically deployed on every certificate authority (CA) server in the IdM deployment, but it does not service requests until the administrator enables it. RHCS uses the acmeIPAServerCert
profile when issuing ACME certificates. The validity period of issued certificates is 90 days. Enabling or disabling the ACME service affects the entire IdM deployment.
It is recommended to enable ACME only in an IdM deployment where all servers are running RHEL 8.4 or later. Earlier RHEL versions do not include the ACME service, which can cause problems in mixed-version deployments. For example, a CA server without ACME can cause client connections to fail, because it uses a different DNS Subject Alternative Name (SAN).
Currently, RHCS does not remove expired certificates. Because ACME certificates expire after 90 days, the expired certificates can accumulate and this can affect performance.
To enable ACME across the whole IdM deployment, use the
ipa-acme-manage enable
command:# ipa-acme-manage enable The ipa-acme-manage command was successful
To disable ACME across the whole IdM deployment, use the
ipa-acme-manage disable
command:# ipa-acme-manage disable The ipa-acme-manage command was successful
To check whether the ACME service is installed and if it is enabled or disabled, use the
ipa-acme-manage status
command:# ipa-acme-manage status ACME is enabled The ipa-acme-manage command was successful
Bugzilla:1628987[1]
sssd-idp sub-package available as a Technology Preview
The sssd-idp
sub-package for SSSD contains the oidc_child
and krb5 idp
plugins, which are client-side components that perform OAuth2 authentication against Identity Management (IdM) servers. This feature is available only with IdM servers on RHEL 8.7 and later.
SSSD internal krb5 idp plugin available as a Technology Preview
The SSSD krb5 idp
plugin allows you to authenticate against an external identity provider (IdP) using the OAuth2 protocol. This feature is available only with IdM servers on RHEL 8.7 and later.
RHEL IdM allows delegating user authentication to external identity providers as a Technology Preview
As a Technology Preview in RHEL IdM, you can now associate users with external identity providers (IdP) that support the OAuth 2 device authorization flow. When these users authenticate with the SSSD version available in RHEL 8.7 or later, they receive RHEL IdM single sign-on capabilities with Kerberos tickets after performing authentication and authorization at the external IdP.
Notable features include:
-
Adding, modifying, and deleting references to external IdPs with
ipa idp-*
commands -
Enabling IdP authentication for users with the
ipa user-mod --user-auth-type=idp
command
For additional information, see Using external identity providers to authenticate to IdM.
9.7. Desktop
GNOME for the 64-bit ARM architecture available as a Technology Preview
The GNOME desktop environment is available for the 64-bit ARM architecture as a Technology Preview.
You can now connect to the desktop session on a 64-bit ARM server using VNC. As a result, you can manage the server using graphical applications.
A limited set of graphical applications is available on 64-bit ARM. For example:
- The Firefox web browser
-
Red Hat Subscription Manager (
subscription-manager-cockpit
) -
Firewall Configuration (
firewall-config
) -
Disk Usage Analyzer (
baobab
)
Using Firefox, you can connect to the Cockpit service on the server.
Certain applications, such as LibreOffice, only provide a command-line interface, and their graphical interface is disabled.
Jira:RHELPLAN-27394[1], Bugzilla:1667225, Bugzilla:1724302, Bugzilla:1667516
GNOME for the IBM Z architecture available as a Technology Preview
The GNOME desktop environment is available for the IBM Z architecture as a Technology Preview.
You can now connect to the desktop session on an IBM Z server using VNC. As a result, you can manage the server using graphical applications.
A limited set of graphical applications is available on IBM Z. For example:
- The Firefox web browser
-
Red Hat Subscription Manager (
subscription-manager-cockpit
) -
Firewall Configuration (
firewall-config
) -
Disk Usage Analyzer (
baobab
)
Using Firefox, you can connect to the Cockpit service on the server.
Certain applications, such as LibreOffice, only provide a command-line interface, and their graphical interface is disabled.
Jira:RHELPLAN-27737[1]
9.8. Graphics infrastructures
VNC remote console available as a Technology Preview for the 64-bit ARM architecture
On the 64-bit ARM architecture, the Virtual Network Computing (VNC) remote console is available as a Technology Preview. Note that the rest of the graphics stack is currently unverified for the 64-bit ARM architecture.
Bugzilla:1698565[1]
9.9. Virtualization
KVM virtualization is usable in RHEL 8 Hyper-V virtual machines
As a Technology Preview, nested KVM virtualization can now be used on the Microsoft Hyper-V hypervisor. As a result, you can create virtual machines on a RHEL 8 guest system running on a Hyper-V host.
Note that currently, this feature only works on Intel and AMD systems. In addition, nested virtualization is in some cases not enabled by default on Hyper-V. To enable it, see the following Microsoft documentation:
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/virtualization/hyper-v-on-windows/user-guide/nested-virtualization
Bugzilla:1519039[1]
AMD SEV and SEV-ES for KVM virtual machines
As a Technology Preview, RHEL 8 provides the Secure Encrypted Virtualization (SEV) feature for AMD EPYC host machines that use the KVM hypervisor. If enabled on a virtual machine (VM), SEV encrypts the VM’s memory to protect the VM from access by the host. This increases the security of the VM.
In addition, the enhanced Encrypted State version of SEV (SEV-ES) is also provided as Technology Preview. SEV-ES encrypts all CPU register contents when a VM stops running. This prevents the host from modifying the VM’s CPU registers or reading any information from them.
Note that SEV and SEV-ES work only on the 2nd generation of AMD EPYC CPUs (codenamed Rome) or later. Also note that RHEL 8 includes SEV and SEV-ES encryption, but not the SEV and SEV-ES security attestation.
Bugzilla:1501618[1], Jira:RHELPLAN-7677, Bugzilla:1501607
Intel vGPU available as a Technology Preview
As a Technology Preview, it is possible to divide a physical Intel GPU device into multiple virtual devices referred to as mediated devices
. These mediated devices can then be assigned to multiple virtual machines (VMs) as virtual GPUs. As a result, these VMs share the performance of a single physical Intel GPU.
Note that only selected Intel GPUs are compatible with the vGPU feature.
In addition, it is possible to enable a VNC console operated by Intel vGPU. By enabling it, users can connect to a VNC console of the VM and see the VM’s desktop hosted by Intel vGPU. However, this currently only works for RHEL guest operating systems.
Note that this feature is deprecated and will be removed entirely in a future RHEL major release.
Bugzilla:1528684[1]
Creating nested virtual machines
Nested KVM virtualization is provided as a Technology Preview for KVM virtual machines (VMs) running on Intel, AMD64, IBM POWER, and IBM Z systems hosts with RHEL 8. With this feature, a RHEL 7 or RHEL 8 VM that runs on a physical RHEL 8 host can act as a hypervisor, and host its own VMs.
Jira:RHELPLAN-14047[1], Jira:RHELPLAN-24437
Technology Preview: Select Intel network adapters now provide SR-IOV in RHEL guests on Hyper-V
As a Technology Preview, Red Hat Enterprise Linux guest operating systems running on a Hyper-V hypervisor can now use the single-root I/O virtualization (SR-IOV) feature for Intel network adapters that are supported by the ixgbevf
and iavf
drivers. This feature is enabled when the following conditions are met:
- SR-IOV support is enabled for the network interface controller (NIC)
- SR-IOV support is enabled for the virtual NIC
- SR-IOV support is enabled for the virtual switch
- The virtual function (VF) from the NIC is attached to the virtual machine
The feature is currently provided with Microsoft Windows Server 2016 and later.
Bugzilla:1348508[1]
Intel TDX in RHEL guests
As a Technology Preview, the Intel Trust Domain Extension (TDX) feature can now be used in RHEL 8.8 and later guest operating systems. If the host system supports TDX, you can deploy hardware-isolated RHEL 9 virtual machines (VMs), called trust domains (TDs). Note, however, that TDX currently does not work with kdump
, and enabling TDX will cause kdump
to fail on the VM.
Bugzilla:1836977[1]
Sharing files between hosts and VMs using virtiofs
As a Technology Preview, RHEL 8 now provides the virtio file system (virtiofs
). Using virtiofs
, you can efficiently share files between your host system and its virtual machines (VM).
Bugzilla:1741615[1]
9.10. RHEL in cloud environments
RHEL confidential VMs are now available on Azure as a Technology Preview
With the updated RHEL kernel, you can now create and run confidential virtual machines (VMs) on Microsoft Azure as a Technology Preview. However, it is not yet possible to encrypt RHEL confidential VM images during boot on Azure.
Jira:RHELPLAN-122316[1]
9.11. Containers
SQLite database backend for Podman is available as a Technology Preview
Beginning with Podman v4.6, the SQLite database backend for Podman is available as a Technology Preview. To set the database backend to SQLite, add the database_backend = "sqlite"
option in the /etc/containers/containers.conf
configuration file. Run the podman system reset
command to reset storage back to the initial state before you switch to the SQLite database backend. Note that you have to recreate all containers and pods. The SQLite database guarantees good stability and consistency. Other databases in the containers stack will be moved to SQLite as well. The BoltDB remains the default database backend.
Jira:RHELPLAN-154428[1]
The podman-machine
command is unsupported
The podman-machine
command for managing virtual machines, is available only as a Technology Preview. Instead, run Podman directly from the command line.
Jira:RHELDOCS-16861[1]