Chapter 4. New features

A new and improved way to create blueprints and images in the image builder web console

With this enhancement, you have access to a unified version of the image builder tool and a significant improvement in your user experience.

Ability to create customized files and directories in the /etc directory

With this enhancement, two new blueprint customizations are available. The [[customizations.files]] and the [[customizations.directories]] blueprint customizations enable you to create customized files and directories in the /etc directory of your image. Currently, you can use these customization only in the /etc directory.

Ability to specify user in a blueprint for simplified-installer images

Previously, when creating a blueprint for a simplified-installer image, you could not specify a user in the blueprint customization, because the customization was not used and was discarded. With this update, when you create an image from the blueprint, this blueprint creates a user under the /usr/lib/passwd directory and a password under the /usr/etc/shadow directory during installation time. You can log in to the device with the username and the password you created for the blueprint. Note that after you access the system, you need to create users, for example, using the useradd command.

Support for 64-bit ARM for .vhd images built with image builder

Previously, Microsoft Azure .vhd images created with the image builder tool were not supported on 64-bit ARM architectures. This update adds support for 64-bit ARM Microsoft Azure .vhd images and now you can build your .vhd images using image builder and upload them to the Microsoft Azure cloud.

Minimal RHEL installation now installs only the s390utils-core package

In RHEL 8.4 and later, the s390utils-base package is split into an s390utils-core package and an auxiliary s390utils-base package. As a result, setting the RHEL installation to minimal-environment installs only the necessary s390utils-core package and not the auxiliary s390utils-base package. If you want to use the s390utils-base package with a minimal RHEL installation, you must manually install the package after completing the RHEL installation or explicitly install s390utils-base using a kickstart file.

Ignition support in RHEL for Edge Simplified images

With this enhancement, you can add an Ignition file to the Simplified Installer images by customizing your blueprint. Both GUI and CLI have support for the Ignition customization. RHEL for Edge uses the Ignition provisioning utility to inject the user configuration into the images at an early stage of the boot process. On the first boot, Ignition reads its configuration either from a remote URL or a file embedded in the Simplified Installer image and applies that configuration into the image.

Simplified Installer images can now be composed without the FDO customization section in the blueprint

Previously, to build a RHEL for Edge Simplified Installer image, you had to add details to the FIDO device onboarding (FDO) customization section. Otherwise, the image build would fail. With this update, the FDO customization in blueprints is now optional, and you can build RHEL for Edge Simplified Installer image with no errors.

Red Hat build of MicroShift enablement for RHEL for Edge images

With this enhancement, you can enable Red Hat build of MicroShift services in a RHEL for Edge system. By using the [[customizations.firewalld.zones]] blueprint customization, you can add support for firewalld sources in the blueprint customization. For that, specify a name for the zone and a list of sources in that specific zone. Sources can be of the form source[/mask]|MAC|ipset:ipset.

New dnf offline-upgrade command for offline updates on RHEL

With this enhancement, you can apply offline updates to RHEL by using the new dnf offline-upgrade command from the DNF system-upgrade plug-in.

Applying advisory security filters to dnf offline-upgrade is now supported

With this enhancement, the new functionality for advisories filtering has been added. As a result, you can now download packages and their dependencies only from the specified advisory by using the dnf offline-upgrade command with advisory security filters (--advisory, --security, --bugfix, and other filters).

The unload_plugins function is now available for the DNF API

With this enhancement, a new unload_plugins function has been added to the DNF API to allow plug-ins unloading.

New --nocompression option for rpm2archive

With this enhancement, the --nocompression option has been added to the rpm2archive utility. You can use this option to avoid compression when directly unpacking an RPM package.

ReaR is now fully supported also on the 64-bit IBM Z architecture

Basic Relax and Recover (ReaR) functionality, previously available on the 64-bit IBM Z architecture as a Technology Preview, is fully supported with the rear package version 2.6-17.el9 or later. You can create a ReaR rescue image on the IBM Z architecture in the z/VM environment only. Backing up and recovering logical partitions (LPARs) is not supported at the moment. ReaR supports saving and restoring disk layout only on Extended Count Key Data (ECKD) direct access storage devices (DASDs). Fixed Block Access (FBA) DASDs and SCSI disks attached through Fibre Channel Protocol (FCP) are not supported for this purpose. The only output method currently available is Initial Program Load (IPL), which produces a kernel and an initial ramdisk (initrd) compatible with the zIPL bootloader.

systemd rebased to version 252

The systemd package has been upgraded to version 252. Notable changes include:

Updated systemd-udevd assigns consistent network device names to InfiniBand interfaces

Introduced in RHEL 9, the new version of the systemd package contains the updated systemd-udevd device manager. The device manager changes the default names of InfiniBand interfaces to consistent names selected by systemd-udevd.

chrony rebased to version 4.3

The chrony suite has been updated to version 4.3. Notable enhancements over version 4.2 include:

frr rebased to version 8.3.1

The frr package for managing dynamic routing stack has been updated to version 8.3.1. Notable changes over version 8.2.2 include:

vsftpd rebased to version 3.0.5

The Very Secure FTP Daemon (vsftpd) provides a secure method of transferring files between hosts. The vsftpd package has been updated to version 3.0.5. Notable changes and enhancements include the following SSL modernizations:

The frr package now contains targeted SELinux policy

Due to the fast development of the frr package for managing dynamic routing stack, new features and access vector cache (AVC) issues arose frequently. With this enhancement, the SELinux rules are now packaged together with FRR to address any issues faster. SELinux adds an additional level of protection to the package by enforcing mandatory access control policies.

powertop rebased to version 2.15

The powertop package for improving the energy efficiency has been updated to version 2.15. Notable changes and enhancements include:

The systemd-sysusers utility is available in the chrony, dhcp, radvd, and squid packages

The systemd-sysusers utility creates system users and groups during package installation and removes them during a removal of the package. With this enhancement, the following packages contain the systemd-sysusers utility in their scriptlets:

New synce4l package for frequency synchronization is now available

SyncE (Synchronous Ethernet) is a hardware feature that enables PTP clocks to achieve precise synchronization of frequency at the physical layer. SyncE is supported in certain network interface cards (NICs) and network switches.

tuned rebased to version 2.20.0

The TuneD utility for optimizing the performance of applications and workloads has been updated to version 2.20.0. Notable changes and enhancements over version 2.19.0 include:

Libreswan rebased to 4.9

The libreswan packages have been upgraded to version 4.9. Notable changes over the previous version include:

OpenSSL rebased to 3.0.7

The OpenSSL packages have been rebased to version 3.0.7, which contains various bug fixes and enhancements. Most notably, the default provider now includes the RIPEMD160 hash function.

libssh now supports smart cards

You can now use smart cards through Public-Key Cryptography Standard (PKCS) #11 Uniform Resource Identifier (URI). As a result, you can use smart cards with the libssh SSH library and with applications that use libssh.

libssh rebased to 0.10.4

The libssh library, which implements the SSH protocol for secure remote access and file transfer between machines, has been updated to version 0.10.4.

SELinux user-space packages updated to 3.5

The SELinux user-space packages libselinux, libsepol, libsemanage, checkpolicy, mcstrans, and policycoreutils, which includes the sepolicy utility, have been updated to version 3.5. Notable enhancements and bug fixes include:

OpenSCAP rebased to 1.3.7

The OpenSCAP packages have been rebased to upstream version 1.3.7. This version provides various bug fixes and enhancements, most notably:

SCAP Security Guide rebased to 0.1.66

The SCAP Security Guide (SSG) packages have been rebased to upstream version 0.1.66. This version provides various enhancements and bug fixes, most notably:

New SCAP rule for idle session termination

New SCAP rule logind_session_timeout has been added to the scap-security-guide package in ANSSI-BP-028 profiles for Enhanced and High levels. This rule uses a new feature of the systemd service manager and terminates idle user sessions after a certain time. This rule provides automatic configuration of a robust idle session termination mechanism which is required by multiple security policies. As a result, OpenSCAP can automatically check the security requirement related to terminating idle user sessions and, if necessary, remediate it.

scap-security-guide rules for Rsyslog log files are compatible with RainerScript logs

Rules in scap-security-guide for checking and remediating ownership, group ownership, and permissions of Rsyslog log files are now also compatible with the RainerScript syntax. Modern systems already use the RainerScript syntax in Rsyslog configuration files and the respective rules were not able to recognize this syntax. As a result, scap-security-guide rules can now check and remediate ownership, group ownership, and permissions of Rsyslog log files in both available syntaxes.

Keylime rebased to 6.5.2

The keylime packages have been rebased to upstream version - keylime-6.5.2-5.el9. This version contains various enhancements and bug fixes, most notably the following:

Clevis accepts external tokens

With the new -e option introduced to the Clevis automated encryption tool, you can provide an external token ID to avoid entering your password during cryptsetup. This feature makes the configuration process more automated and convenient, and is useful particularly for packages such as stratis that use Clevis.

Rsyslog TLS-encrypted logging now supports multiple CA files

With the new NetstreamDriverCaExtraFiles directive, you can specify a list of additional certificate authority (CA) files for TLS-encrypted remote logging. Note that the new directive is available only for the ossl (OpenSSL) Rsyslog network stream driver.

Rsyslog privileges are limited

The privileges of the Rsyslog log processing system are now limited to only the privileges explicitly required by Rsyslog. This minimizes security exposure in case of a potential error in input resources, for example, a networking plugin. As a result, Rsyslog has the same functionality but does not have unnecessary privileges.

SELinux policy allows Rsyslog to drop privileges at start

Because the privileges of the Rsyslog log processing system are now more limited to minimize security exposure (RHBZ#2127404), the SELinux policy has been updated to allow the rsyslog service to drop privileges at start.

Tang now uses systemd-sysusers

The Tang network presence server now adds system users and groups through the systemd-sysusers service instead of shell scripts containing useradd commands. This simplifies checking of the system user list, and you can also override definitions of system users by providing sysuser.d files with higher priority.

opencryptoki rebased to 3.19.0

The opencryptoki package has been rebased to version 3.19.0, which provides many enhancements and bug fixes. Most notably, opencryptoki now supports the following features:

SELinux now confines mptcpd and udftools

With this update of the selinux-policy packages, SELinux confines the following services:

fapolicyd now provides filtering of the RPM database

With the new configuration file /etc/fapolicyd/rpm-filter.conf, you can customize the list of RPM-database files that the fapolicyd software framework stores in the trust database. This way, you can block certain applications installed by RPM or allow an application denied by the default configuration filter.

GnuTLS can add and remove padding during decryption and encryption

The implementation of certain protocols requires PKCS#7 padding during decryption and encryption. The gnutls_cipher_encrypt3 and gnutls_cipher_decrypt3 block cipher functions have been added to GnuTLS to transparently handle padding. As a result, you can now use these functions in combination with the GNUTLS_CIPHER_PADDING_PKCS7 flag to automatically add or remove padding if the length of the original plaintext is not a multiple of the block size.

NSS no longer support RSA keys shorter than 1023 bits

The update of the Network Security Services (NSS) libraries changes the minimum key size for all RSA operations from 128 to 1023 bits. This means that NSS no longer perform the following functions:

The Extended Master Secret TLS Extension is now enforced on FIPS-enabled systems

With the release of the RHSA-2023:3722 advisory, the TLS Extended Master Secret (EMS) extension (RFC 7627) is mandatory for TLS 1.2 connections on FIPS-enabled RHEL 9 systems. This is in accordance with FIPS-140-3 requirements. TLS 1.3 is not affected.

NetworkManager rebased to version 1.42.2

The NetworkManager packages have been upgraded to upstream version 1.42.2, which provides a number of enhancements and bug fixes over the previous version:

Introduction of the weight property in ECMP routing with NetworkManager

With this update, RHEL 9 supports a new property weight when defining IPv4 Equal-Cost Multi-Path (ECMP) routes. You can configure multipath routing using NetworkManager to load-balance and stabilize network traffic. This allows for multiple paths to be used for data transmission between two nodes, which improves the network efficiency and provides redundancy in the event of a link failure. Conditions for using the weight property include:

NetworkManager update brings improved flexibility for DNS configuration across multiple networks

With this update, you can use the existing [global-dns] section in the /etc/Networkmanager/NetworkManager.conf file to configure DNS options without specifying the nameserver value in the [global-dns-domain-*] section. This enables you to configure DNS options in the /etc/resolv.conf file while still relying on the DNS servers provided by the network connection for actual DNS resolution. As a result, the feature makes it easier and more flexible to manage your DNS settings when connecting to different networks with different DNS servers. Especially when you use the /etc/resolv.conf file to configure DNS options.

NetworkManager now supports a new vlan.protocol property

With this update, the vlan interface type now accepts a new protocol property. The property type is string. The accepted values are either 802.1Q (default), or 802.1ad. The new property specifies which VLAN protocol controls the tag identifier for encapsulation.

NetworkManager now allows VLAN configuration over unmanaged interface

With this enhancement, you can use an unmanaged networking interface as a base interface when configuring virtual LAN (VLAN) with NetworkManager. As a result, the VLAN base interface remains intact unless changed explicitly through the nmcli device set enp1s0 managed true command or other API of NetworkManager.

Configuring Multipath TCP using NetworkManager is now fully supported

With this update, the NetworkManager utility provides you with the Multipath TCP (MPTCP) functionality. You can use nmcli commands to control MPTCP and make its settings persistent.

The NetworkManager utility now supports activating connections on the loopback interface

Administrators can manage the loopback interface to:

The balance-slb bonding mode is now supported

The new balance-slb bonding mode Source load balancing requires no switch configuration. The balance-slb divides traffic on the source ethernet address using xmit_hash_policy=vlan+srcmac, and NetworkManager adds necessary nftables rules for traffic filtering. As a result, you can now create bond profiles with the balance-slb option enabled by using NetworkManager.

firewalld rebased to version 1.2

The firewalld package has been upgraded to version 1.2, which provides multiple enhancements. Notable changes include:

The firewalld now supports the startup failsafe mechanism

With this enhancement, firewalld will fall back to failsafe defaults in case of a startup failure. This feature protects the host in case of invalid configurations or other startup issues. As a result, even if the user configuration is invalid, hosts running firewalld are now startup failsafe.

conntrack-tools rebased to version 1.4.7

The conntrack-tools package has been upgraded to version 1.4.7, which provides multiple bug fixes and enhancements. Notable changes include:

The nmstate API now supports IPv6 link-local addresses as DNS servers

With this enhancement, you can use the nmstate API to set IPv6 link-local addresses as DNS servers. Use the <link-local_address>%<interface> format, for example:

The nmstate API now supports MPTCP flags

This update enhances the nmstate API with support for MultiPath TCP (MPTCP) flags. As a result, you can use nmstate to set MPTCP address flags on interfaces with static or dynamic IP addresses.

The min-mtu and max-mtu properties added to MTU on all interfaces

Previously, an exception message was not clear enough to understand the supported MTU ranges. This update introduces the min-mtu and max-mtu properties to all interfaces. As a result, nmstate will indicate the supported MTU range when the desired MTU is out of range.

NetworkManager now allows VLAN configuration over unmanaged interface

With this enhancement, you can use an unmanaged networking interface as a base interface when configuring virtual LAN (VLAN) with NetworkManager. As a result, the VLAN base interface remains intact unless changed explicitly through the nmcli device set enp1s0 managed true command or other API of NetworkManager.

The balance-slb bonding mode is now supported

The new balance-slb bonding mode Source load balancing requires no switch configuration. The balance-slb divides traffic on the source Ethernet address using xmit_hash_policy=vlan+srcmac, and NetworkManager adds necessary nftables rules for traffic filtering. As a result, you can now create bond profiles with the balance-slb option enabled by using NetworkManager.

A new weight property in Nmstate

This update introduces the weight property in the Nmstate API and tooling suite. You can use weight to specify the relative weight of each path in the Equal Cost Multi-Path routes (ECMP) group. The weight is a number between 1 and 256. As a result, weight property in Nmstate provides greater flexibility and control over traffic distribution in an ECMP group.

xdp-tools rebased to version 1.3.1

The xdp-tools packages have been upgraded to upstream version 1.3.1, which provides a number of enhancements and bug fixes over the previous version:

iproute rebased to version 6.1.0

The iproute package has been upgraded to version 6.1.0, which provides multiple bug fixes and enhancements. Notable changes include:

The kernel now logs the listening address in SYN flood messages

This enhancement adds the listening IP address to SYN flood messages:

Introduction of new nmstate attributes for the VLAN interface

With this update of the nmstate framework, the following VLAN attributes were introduced:

Kernel version in RHEL 9.2

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.2 is distributed with the kernel version 5.14.0-284.11.1.

The 64k page size kernel is now available

In addition to the RHEL 9 for ARM kernel which supports 4k pages, Red Hat now offers an optional kernel package that supports 64k pages: kernel-64k.

virtiofs support for kexec-tools enabled

This enhancement adds the virtiofs feature for kexec-tools by introducing the new option, virtiofs myfs, where myfs is a variable tag name to set in the qemu command line, for example, -device vhost-user-fs-pci,tag=myfs

The kexec-tools package now adds improvements on remote kdump targets

With this enhancement, the kexec-tools package adds significant bug fixes and enhancements. The most notable changes include:

BPF rebased to version 6.0

The Berkeley Packet Filter (BPF) facility has been rebased to Linux kernel version 6.0 with multiple enhancements. This update enables all the BPF features that depend on the BPF Type Format (BTF) for kernel modules. Such features include the usage of BPF trampolines for tracing, the availability of the Compile Once - Run Everywhere (CO-RE) mechanism, and several networking-related features. Furthermore, the kernel modules now contain debugging information, which means that you no longer need to install debuginfo packages to inspect the running modules.

The rtla meta-tool adds the osnoise and timerlat tracers for improved tracing capabilities

The Real-Time Linux Analysis (rtla) is a meta-tool that includes a set of commands that analyze the real-time properties of Linux. rtla leverages kernel tracing capabilities to provide precise information about the properties and root causes of unexpected system results. rtla currently adds support for osnoise and timerlat tracer commands:

The argparse module of Tuna now supports configuring CPU sockets

With this enhancement, you can specify a specific CPU socket when you have multiple CPU sockets. You can view the help usage by using the -h on a subcommand, for example, tuna show_threads -h.

The output format for cgroups and irqs in Tuna is improved to provide better readability

With this enhancement, the tuna show_threads command output for the cgroup utility is now structured based on the terminal size. You can also configure additional spacing to the cgroups output by adding the new -z or --spaced option to the show_threads command.

A new command line interface has been added to the tuna tool in real-time

This enhancement adds a new command line interface to the tuna tool, which is based on the argparse parsing module. With this update, you can now perform the following tasks:

The rteval command output now includes the program loads and measurement threads information

The rteval command now displays a report summary with the number of program loads, measurement threads, and the corresponding CPU that ran these threads. This information helps to evaluate the performance of a real-time kernel under load on specific hardware platforms.

The -W and --bucket-width options has been added to the oslat program to measure latency

With this enhancement, you can specify a latency range for a single bucket at nanoseconds accuracy. Widths that are not multiples of 1000 nanoseconds indicate nanosecond precision. By using the new options, -W or --bucket-width, you can modify the latency interval between buckets to measure latency within sub-microseconds delay time.

The NVMe/FC transport protocol enabled as the kdump storage target

The kdump mechanism now provides the support for Nonvolatile Memory Express (NVMe) over Fibre Channel (NVMe/FC) protocol as the dump target. With this update, you can configure kdump to save kernel crash dump files on NVMe/FC storage targets.

The crash-utility tool has been rebased to version 8.0.2

The crash-utility, which analyzes an active system state or after a kernel crash, has been rebased to version 8.0.2. The notable change includes adding support for multiqueue(blk-mq) devices. By using the dev -d or dev -D command, you can display the disk I/O statistics for multiqueue(blk-mq) devices.

openssl-ibmca rebased to version 2.3.1

The dynamic OpenSSL engine and provider for IBMCA on 64-bit IBM Z architecture have been rebased to upstream version 2.3.1. Users of RHEL 9 are recommended to use the OpenSSL provider to ensure compatibility with future updates of OpenSSL. The engine functionality has been deprecated in OpenSSL version 3.

Secure Execution guest dump encryption with customer keys

This new feature allows hypervisor-initiated dumps for Secure Execution guests to collect kernel crash information from KVM in scenarios in which the kdump utility does not work. Note that hypervisor-initiated dumps for Secure Execution is designed for the IBM Z Series z16 and LinuxONE Emperor 4 hardware.

The TSN protocol for real-time has been enabled on the ADL-S platform

With this enhancement, the IEEE Time Sensitive Networking (TSN) specification enables time synchronization and deterministic processing of real-time workloads over the network on Intel Alder Lake S (ADL-S) platform. It supports the following network devices:

The Intel ice driver rebased to version 6.0.0

The Intel ice driver has been upgraded to upstream version 6.0.0, which provides a number of enhancements and bug fixes over previous versions. The notable enhancements include:

Option to write data for gnss module is now available

This update provides the option of writing data to the gnss receiver. Previously, gnss was not fully configurable. With this enhancement, all gnss functions are now available.

Hosting Secure Boot certificates for IBM zSystems

Starting with IBM z16 A02/AGZ and LinuxONE Rockhopper 4 LA2/AGL, you can manage certificates used to validate Linux kernels when starting the system with Secure Boot enabled on the Hardware Management Console (HMC). Notably:

zipl support for Secure Boot IPL and dump on 64-bit IBM Z

With this update, the zipl utility supports List-Directed IPL and List-Directed dump from Extended Count Key Data (ECKD) Direct Access Storage Devices (DASD) on the 64-bit IBM Z architecture. As a result, Secure Boot for RHEL on IBM Z also works with the ECKD type of DASDs.

rtla rebased to version 6.6 of the upstream kernel source code

The rtla utility has been upgraded to the latest upstream version, which provides multiple bug fixes and enhancements. Notable changes include:

nvme-cli rebased to version 2.2.1

The nvme-cli packages have been upgraded to version 2.2.1, which provide multiple bug fixes and enhancements. Notable changes include:

libnvme rebased to version 1.2

The libnvme packages have been upgraded to version 1.2, which provide multiple bug fixes and enhancements. The most notable change is a dropped dependency of the libuuid library.

Stratis enforces consistent block size in pools

Stratis now enforces a consistent block size in pools to address potential edge case problems that can occur when mixed block size devices exist within a pool. With this enhancement, users can no longer create a pool or add new devices that have a different block size from the existing devices in the pool. As a result, there is a reduced risk of pool failure.

Support for existing disk growth within the Stratis pool

Previously, when a user added new disks to the RAID array, the size of the RAID array would generally increase. However, in all cases, Stratis ignored the increase in size and continued to use only the space that was available on the RAID array when it was first added to the pool. As a result, Stratis was unable to identify the new device, and users could not increase the size of the pool.

Improved functionality of the lvreduce command

With this enhancement, when the logical volume (LV) is active, the lvreduce command checks if reducing the LV size would damage any file system present on it. If a file system on the LV requires reduction, and the lvreduce resizefs option has not been enabled, then the LV will not be reduced.

Direct I/O alignment information for statx was added

This update introduces a new mask value, "STATX_DIOALIGN", to the statx(2) call. When this value is set in the stx_mask field, it requests stx_dio_mem_align and stx_dio_offset_align values, which indicate the required alignment (in bytes) for user memory buffers and file offsets and I/O segment lengths for direct I/O (O_DIRECT) on this file, respectively. If direct I/O is not supported on the file, both values will be 0. This interface is now implemented for block devices as well as for files on the xfs and ext4 filesystems in RHEL9.

NFSv4.1 session trunking discovery

With this update, the client can use multiple connections to the same server and session, resulting in faster data transfer. When an NFS client mounts a multi-homed NFS server with different IP addresses, only one connection is used by default, ignoring the rest. To improve performance, this update adds support for the trunkdiscovery and max_connect mount options, which enable the client to test each connection and associate multiple connections with the same NFSv4.1+ server and session.

NFS IO sizes can now be set as a multiples of PAGE_SIZE for TCP and RDMA

This update allows users to set NFS IO sizes as a multiples of PAGE_SIZE for TCP and RDMA connections. This offers greater flexibility in optimizing NFS performance for some architectures.

nfsrahead has been added to RHEL 9

With the introduction of the nfsrahead tool, you can use it to modify the readahead value for NFS mounts, and thus affect the NFS read performance.

New enable-authfile Booth configuration option

When you create a Booth configuration to use the Booth ticket manager in a cluster configuration, the pcs booth setup command now enables the new enable-authfile Booth configuration option by default. You can enable this option on an existing cluster with the pcs booth enable-authfile command. Additionally, the pcs status and pcs booth status commands now display warnings when they detect a possible enable-authfile misconfiguration.

pcs can now run the validate-all action of resource and stonith agents

When creating or updating a resource or a STONITH device, you can now specify the --agent-validation option. With this option, pcs uses an agent’s validate-all action, when it is available, in addition to the validation done by pcs based on the agent’s metadata.

Python 3.11 available in RHEL 9

RHEL 9.2 introduces Python 3.11, provided by the new package python3.11 and a suite of packages built for it, as well as the ubi9/python-311 container image.

nodejs:18 rebased to version 18.14 with npm rebased to version 9

The updated Node.js 18.14 includes a SemVer major upgrade of npm from version 8 to version 9. This update was necessary due to maintenance reasons and may require you to adjust your npm configuration.

git rebased to version 2.39.1

The Git version control system has been updated to version 2.39.1, which provides bug fixes, enhancements, and performance improvements over the previously released version 2.31.

git-lfs rebased to version 3.2.0

The Git Large File Storage (LFS) extension has been updated to version 3.2.0, which provides bug fixes, enhancements, and performance improvements over the previously released version 2.13.

A new module stream: nginx:1.22

The nginx 1.22 web and proxy server is now available as the nginx:1.22 module stream. This update provides a number of bug fixes, security fixes, new features, and enhancements over the previously released version 1.20.

mod_security rebased to version 2.9.6

The mod_security module for the Apache HTTP Server has been updated to version 2.9.6, which provides new features, bug fixes, and security fixes over the previously available version 2.9.3.

New packages: tomcat

RHEL 9.2 introduces the Apache Tomcat server version 9. Tomcat is the servlet container that is used in the official Reference Implementation for the Java Servlet and JavaServer Pages technologies. The Java Servlet and JavaServer Pages specifications are developed by Sun under the Java Community Process. Tomcat is developed in an open and participatory environment and released under the Apache Software License version 2.0.

A new module stream: postgresql:15

RHEL 9.2 introduces PostgreSQL 15 as the postgresql:15 module stream. PostgreSQL 15 provides a number of new features and enhancements over version 13. Notable changes include:

openblas rebased to version 0.3.21

The OpenBLAS library has been updated to version 0.3.21. This update includes performance optimalization patches for the IBM POWER10 platform.

A new module stream: swig:4.1

RHEL 9.2 introduces the Simplified Wrapper and Interface Generator (SWIG) version 4.1 as the swig:4.1 module stream available in the CodeReady Linux Builder (CRB) repository. Note that packages included in the CodeReady Linux Builder repository are unsupported.

New package: jmc in the CRB repository

RHEL 9.2 introduces the JDK Mission Control (JMC) profiler for HotSpot JVMs version 8.2.0, available as the jmc package in the CodeReady Linux Builder (CRB) repository for the AMD and Intel 64-bit architectures.

OpenJDK service attributes now available in FIPS mode

Previously, cryptographic services and algorithms available for OpenJDK in FIPS mode were too strictly filtered and resulted in unavailable service attributes. With this enhancement, these service attributes are now available in FIPS mode.

Performance Co-Pilot rebased to version 6.0

Performance Co-Pilot (PCP) has been updated to version 6.0. Notable improvements include:

grafana rebased to version 9.0.9

The grafana package has been rebased to version 9.0.9. Notable changes include:

grafana-pcp rebased to version 5.1.1

The grafana-pcp package has been rebased to version 5.1.1. Notable changes include:

Updated GCC Toolset 12

GCC Toolset 12 is a compiler toolset that provides recent versions of development tools. It is available as an Application Stream in the form of a Software Collection in the AppStream repository.

The updated GCC compiler is now available for RHEL 9.2

The system GCC compiler, version 11.3.1, has been updated to include numerous bug fixes and enhancements available in the upstream GCC.

LLVM Toolset rebased to version 15.0.7

LLVM Toolset has been updated to version 15.0.7. Notable changes include:

Rust Toolset rebased to version 1.66.1

Rust Toolset has been updated to version 1.66.1. Notable changes include:

Go Toolset rebased to version 1.19.6

Go Toolset has been updated to version 1.19.6. Notable changes include:

The tzdata package now includes the /usr/share/zoneinfo/leap-seconds.list file

Previously, the tzdata package only shipped the /usr/share/zoneinfo/leapseconds file. Some applications rely on the alternate format provided by the /usr/share/zoneinfo/leap-seconds.list file and, as a consequence, would experience errors.

SSSD support for converting home directories to lowercase

With this enhancement, you can now configure SSSD to convert user home directories to lowercase. This helps to integrate better with the case-sensitive nature of the RHEL environment. The override_homedir option in the [nss] section of the /etc/sssd/sssd.conf file now recognizes the %h template value. If you use %h as part of the override_homedir definition, SSSD replaces %h with the user’s home directory in lowercase.

SSSD now supports changing LDAP user passwords with the shadow password policy

With this enhancement, if you set ldap_pwd_policy to shadow in the /etc/sssd/sssd.conf file, LDAP users can now change their password stored in LDAP. Previously, password changes were rejected if ldap_pwd_policy was set to shadow as it was not clear if the corresponding shadow LDAP attributes were being updated.

IdM now supports the min_lifetime parameter

With this enhancement, the min_lifetime parameter has been added to the /etc/gssproxy/*.conf file. The min_lifetime parameter triggers the renewal of a service ticket in case its remaining lifetime is lower than this value.

The ipapwpolicy ansible-freeipa module now supports new password policy options

With this update, the ipapwpolicy module included in the ansible-freeipa package supports additional libpwquality library options:

IdM now supports the ipanetgroup Ansible management module

As an Identity Management (IdM) system administrator, you can integrate IdM with NIS domains and netgroups. Using the ipanetgroup ansible-freeipa module, you can achieve the following:

New ipaclient_configure_dns_resolver and ipaclient_dns_servers Ansible ipaclient role variables specifying the client’s DNS resolver  

Previously, when using the ansible-freeipa ipaclient role to install an Identity Management (IdM) client, it was not possible to specify the DNS resolver during the installation process. You had to configure the DNS resolver before the installation.   

Using the ipaclient role to install an IdM client with an OTP requires no prior modification of the Ansible controller

Previously, the kinit command on the Ansible controller was a prerequisite for obtaining a one-time-password (OTP) for Identity Management (IdM) client deployment. The need to obtain the OTP on the controller was a problem for Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform (AAP), where the krb5-workstation package was not installed by default.

IdM now enforces the presence of the MS-PAC structure in Kerberos tickets

Starting with RHEL 9.2, to increase security, Identity Management (IdM) and MIT Kerberos now enforce the presence of the Privilege Attribute Certificate (MS-PAC) structure in the Kerberos tickets issued by the RHEL IdM Kerberos Distribution Center (KDC).

New realm configuration template for KDC enabling FIPS 140-3-compliant key encryption

This update provides a new, EXAMPLE.COM, example realm configuration in the /var/kerberos/krb5kdc/kdc.conf file. It brings two changes:

Configure pam_pwhistory using a configuration file

With this update, you can configure the pam_pwhistory module in the /etc/security/pwhistory.conf configuration file. The pam_pwhistory module saves the last password for each user in order to manage password change history. Support has also been added in authselect which allows you to add the pam_pwhistory module to the PAM stack.

IdM now supports new Active Directory certificate mapping templates

Active Directory (AD) domain administrators can manually map certificates to a user in AD using the altSecurityIdentities attribute. There are six supported values for this attribute, though three mappings are now considered insecure. As part of May 10,2022 security update, once this update is installed on a domain controller, all devices are in compatibility mode. If a certificate is weakly mapped to a user, authentication occurs as expected but a warning message is logged identifying the certificates that are not compatible with full enforcement mode. As of November 14, 2023 or later, all devices will be updated to full enforcement mode and if a certificate fails the strong mapping criteria, authentication will be denied.

samba rebased to version 4.17.5

The samba packages have been upgraded to upstream version 4.17.5, which provides bug fixes and enhancements over the previous version. The most notable changes:

ipa-client-install now supports authentication with PKINIT

Previously, the ipa-client-install supported only password based authentication. This update provides support to ipa-client-install for authentication with PKINIT.

Red Hat IdM and Certificate System now support the EST protocol

Enrollment over Secure Transport (EST) is a new Certificate System subsystem feature that is specified in RFC 7030 and it is used to provision certificates from a Certificate Authority (CA). EST implements the server side of the operation, such as /getcacerts, /simpleenroll, and /simplereenroll.

Enhance negative cache usage

This update improves the SSSD performance for lookups by Security Identifier (SID). It now stores non-existing SIDs in the negative cache for individual domains and requests the domain that the SID belongs to.

Directory server now supports ECDSA private keys for TLS

Previously, you could not use cryptographic algorithms that are stronger than RSA to secure Directory Server connections. With this enhancement, Directory Server now supports both ECDSA and RSA keys.

Directory Server now supports extended logging of search operations

Previously, records in the access log did not show why some search operations had a very big etime value. With this release, you can enable logging of statistics such as a number of index lookups (database read operations) and overall duration of index lookups per each search operation. These statistical records can help to analyze why the etime value can be so resource expensive.

The NUNC_STANS error logging level was replaced by the new 1048576 logging level

Previously, you could not easily debug password policy issues. With the new 1048576 logging level for the error log, you can now check the following password policy information:

Directory Server introduces the security log

To properly track issues over time, Directory Server now has a specialized log that maintains security data. The security log does not rotate quickly and consumes less disk resources in comparison to the access log that has all the information, but requires expensive parsing to get the security data.

Directory Server now can compress archived log files

Previously, archived log files were not compressed. With this release, you can enable access, error, audit, audit fail log, security log files compression to save disk space. Note that only security log file compression is enabled by default.

New pamModuleIsThreadSafe configuration option is now available

When a PAM module is thread-safe, you can improve the PAM authentication throughput and response time of that specific module, by setting the new pamModuleIsThreadSafe configuration option to yes:

Directory Server can now import a certificate bundle

Previously, when you tried to add a certificate bundle by using the dsconf or dsctl utility, the procedure failed with an error, and the certificate bundle was not imported. Such behavior was caused by the certutil utility that could import only one certificate at a time. With this update, Directory Server works around the issue with the certutil, and a certificate bundle is added successfully.

Default behavior change: Directory Server now returns a DN in exactly the same spelling as it was added to the database

With the new nsslapd-return-original-entrydn parameter under the cn=config entry, you can manage how Directory Server returns the distinguished name (DN) of entries during search operations.

MIT Kerberos supports the Ticket and Extended KDC MS-PAC signatures

With this update, MIT Kerberos, which is used by Red Hat, implements support for two types of the Privilege Attribute Certificate (PAC) signatures introduced by Microsoft in response to recent CVEs. Specifically, the following signatures are supported:

New nsslapd-auditlog-display-attrs configuration parameter for the Directory Server audit log

Previously, the distinguished name (DN) was the only way to identify the target entry in the audit log event. With the new nsslapd-auditlog-display-attrs parameter, you can configure Directory Server to display additional attributes in the audit log, providing more details about the modified entry..

Disable swipe to switch workspaces

Previously, swiping up or down with three fingers always switched the workspace on a touch screen. With this release, you can disable the workspace switching.

Wayland is now enabled on Aspeed GPUs

Previously, the Aspeed GPU driver did not perform well enough to run a Wayland session. To work around that problem, the Wayland session was disabled for Aspeed GPUs.

Custom right-click menu on the desktop

You can now customize the menu that opens when you right-click the desktop background. You can create custom entries in the menu that run arbitrary commands.

Certain cryptographic subpolicies are now available in the web console

This update of the RHEL web console extends the options in the Change crypto policy dialog. Besides the four system-wide cryptographic policies, you can also apply the following subpolicies through the graphical interface now:

The web console now performs additional steps for binding LUKS-encrypted root volumes to NBDE

With this update, the RHEL web console performs additional steps required for binding LUKS-encrypted root volumes to Network-Bound Disk Encryption (NBDE) deployments. After you select an encrypted root file system and a Tang server, you can skip adding the rd.neednet=1 parameter to the kernel command line, installing the clevis-dracut package, and regenerating an initial ramdisk (initrd). For non-root file systems, the web console now enables the remote-cryptsetup.target and clevis-luks-akspass.path systemd units, installs the clevis-systemd package, and adds the _netdev parameter to the fstab and crypttab configuration files. As a result, you can now use the graphical interface for all Clevis-client configuration steps when creating NBDE deployments for automated unlocking of LUKS-encrypted root volumes.

Routing rule is able to look up a route table by its name

With this update, the rhel-system-roles.network RHEL system role supports looking up a route table by its name when you define a routing rule. This feature provides quick navigation for complex network configurations where you need to have different routing rules for different network segments.

The network system role supports setting a DNS priority value

This enhancement adds the dns_priority parameter to the RHEL network system role. You can set this parameter to a value from -2147483648 to 2147483647. The default value is 0. Lower values have a higher priority. Note that negative values cause the system role to exclude other configurations with a greater numeric priority value. Consequently, in presence of at least one negative priority value, the system role uses only DNS servers from connection profiles with the lowest priority value.

New IPsec customization parameters for the vpn RHEL system role

Because certain network devices require IPsec customization to work correctly, the following parameters have been added to the vpn RHEL system role:

The selinux RHEL system role now supports the local parameter

This update of the selinux RHEL system role introduces support for the local parameter. By using this parameter, you can remove only your local policy modifications and preserve the built-in SELinux policy.

The ha_cluster system role now supports automated execution of the firewall, selinux, and certificate system roles

The ha_cluster RHEL system role now supports the following features:

The postfix RHEL system role can now use the firewall and selinux RHEL system roles to manage port access

With this enhancement, you can automate managing port access by using the new role variables postfix_manage_firewall and postfix_manage_selinux:

The vpn RHEL system role can now use the firewall and selinux roles to manage port access

With this enhancement, you can automate managing port access in the vpn RHEL system role through the firewall and selinux roles. If you set the new role variables vpn_manage_firewall and vpn_manage_selinux to true, the roles manage port access.

The logging RHEL system role now supports port access and generation of the certificates

With this enhancement, you can use the logging role to manage ports access and generate certificates with new role variables. If you set the new role variables logging_manage_firewall and logging_manage_selinux to true, the roles manage port access. The new role variable for generating certificates is logging_certificates. The type and usage are the same as the certificate role certificate_requests. You can now automate these operations directly by using the logging role.

The metrics RHEL system role now can use the firewall role and the selinux role to manage port access

With this enhancement, you can control access to ports. If you set the new role variables metrics_manage_firewall and metrics_manage_firewall to true, the roles manage port access. You can now automate and perform these operations directly by using the metrics role.

The nbde_server RHEL system role now can use the firewall and selinux roles to manage port access

With this enhancement, you can use the firewall and selinux roles to manage ports access. If you set the new role variables nbde_server_manage_firewall and nbde_server_manage_selinux to true, the roles manage port access. You can now automate these operations directly by using the nbde_server role.

The initscripts network provider supports route metric configuration of the default gateway

With this update, you can use the initscripts network provider in the rhel-system-roles.network RHEL system role to configure the route metric of the default gateway.

The cockpit RHEL system role integration with the firewall, selinux, and certificate roles

This enhancement enables you to integrate the cockpit role with the firewall role and the selinux role to manage port access and the certificate role to generate certificates.

New RHEL system role for direct integration with Active Directory

The new rhel-system-roles.ad_integration RHEL system role was added to the rhel-system-roles package. As a result, administrators can now automate direct integration of a RHEL system with an Active Directory domain.

New Ansible Role for Red Hat Insights and subscription management

The rhel-system-roles package now includes the remote host configuration (rhc) system role. This role enables administrators to easily register RHEL systems to Red Hat Subscription Management (RHSM) and Satellite servers. By default, when you register a system by using the rhc system role, the system connects to Red Hat Insights. With the new rhc system role, administrators can now automate the following tasks on the managed nodes:

Added support for the cloned MAC address

Cloned MAC address is the MAC address of the device WAN port which is the same as the MAC address of the machine. With this update, users can specify the bonding or bridge interface with the MAC address or the strategy such as random or preserve to get the default MAC address for the bonding or bridge interface.

Microsoft SQL Server Ansible role supports asynchronous high availability replicas

Previously, Microsoft SQL Server Ansible role supported only primary, synchronous, and witness high availability replicas. Now, you can set the mssql_ha_replica_type variable to asynchronous to configure it with asynchronous replica type for a new or existing replica.

Microsoft SQL Server Ansible role supports the read-scale cluster type

Previously, Microsoft SQL Ansible role supported only the external cluster type. Now, you can configure the role with a new variable mssql_ha_ag_cluster_type. The default value is external, use it to configure the cluster with Pacemaker. To configure the cluster without Pacemaker, use the value none for that variable.

Microsoft SQL Server Ansible role can generate TLS certificates

Previously, you needed to generate a TLS certificate and a private key on the nodes manually before configuring the Microsoft SQL Ansible role. With this update, the Microsoft SQL Server Ansible role can use the redhat.rhel_system_roles.certificate role for that purpose. Now, you can set the mssql_tls_certificates variable in the format of the certificate_requests variable of the certificate role to generate a TLS certificate and a private key on the node.

Microsoft SQL Server Ansible role supports configuring SQL Server version 2022

Previously, Microsoft SQL Ansible role supported only configuring SQL Server version 2017 and version 2019. This update provides you with the support for SQL Server version 2022 for Microsoft SQL Ansible role. Now, you can set mssql_version value to 2022 for configuring a new SQL Server 2022 or upgrading SQL Server from version 2019 to version 2022. Note that upgrade of an SQL Server from version 2017 to version 2022 is unavailable.

Microsoft SQL Server Ansible role supports configuration of the Active Directory authentication

With this update, the Microsoft SQL Ansible role supports configuration of the Active Directory authentication for an SQL Server. Now, you can configure the Active Directory authentication by setting variables with the mssql_ad_ prefix.

The journald RHEL system role is now available

The journald service collects and stores log data in a centralized database. With this enhancement, you can use the journald system role variables to automate the configuration of the systemd journal, and configure persistent logging by using the Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform.

The ha_cluster system role now supports quorum device configuration

A quorum device acts as a third-party arbitration device for a cluster. A quorum device is recommended for clusters with an even number of nodes. With two-node clusters, the use of a quorum device can better determine which node survives in a split-brain situation. You can now configure a quorum device with the ha_cluster system role, both qdevice for a cluster and qnetd for an arbitration node.

Hardware cryptographic devices can now be automatically hot-plugged

Previously, it was only possible to define cryptographic devices for passthrough if they were present on the host before the mediated device was started. Now, you can define a mediated device matrix that lists all the cryptographic devices that you want to pass through to your virtual machine (VM). As a result, the specified cryptographic devices are automatically passed through to the running VM if they become available later. Also, if the devices become unavailable, they are removed from the VM, but the guest operating system keeps running normally.

Improved performance for PCI passthrough devices on IBM Z

With this update, the PCI passthrough implementation on IBM Z hardware has been enhanced through multiple improvements to I/O handling. As a result, PCI devices passed through to KVM virtual machines (VMs) on IBM Z hosts now have significantly better performance.

New package: passt

This update adds the passt package, which makes it possible to use the passt user-mode networking back end for virtual machines.

zPCI device assignment

It is now possible to attach zPCI devices as pass-through devices to virtual machines (VMs) hosted on RHEL running on IBM Z hardware. For example, thís enables the use of NVMe flash drives in VMs.

New package: python-virt-firmware

This update adds the python-virt-firmware package, which contains tools for handling Open Virtual Machine Firmware (OVMF) firmware images. You can use these tools for example for the following:

The sos utility is moving to a 4-week update cadence

Instead of releasing sos updates with RHEL minor releases, the sos utility release cadence is changing from 6 months to 4 weeks. You can find details about the updates for the sos package in the RPM changelog every 4 weeks or you can read a summary of sos updates in the RHEL Release Notes every 6 months.

The sos clean command now obfuscates IPv6 addresses

Previously, the sos clean command did not obfuscate IPv6 addresses, leaving some customer-sensitive data in the collected sos report. With this update, sos clean detects and obfuscates IPv6 addresses as expected.

New podman RHEL System Role is now available

Beginning with Podman 4.2, you can use the podman System Role to manage Podman configuration, containers, and systemd services that run Podman containers.

Podman now supports events for auditing

Beginning with Podman v4.4, you can gather all relevant information about a container directly from a single event and journald entry. To enable Podman auditing, modify the container.conf configuration file and add the events_container_create_inspect_data=true option to the [engine] section. The data is in JSON format, the same as from the podman container inspect command. For more information, see How to use new container events and auditing features in Podman 4.4.

The container-tools meta-package has been updated

The container-tools RPM meta-package, which contains the Podman, Buildah, Skopeo, crun and runc tools are now available. This update applies a series of bug fixes and enhancements over the previous version.

Aardvark and Netavark now support custom DNS server selection

The Aardvark and Netavark network stack now support custom DNS server selection for containers instead of the default DNS servers on the host. You have two options for specifying the custom DNS server:

Skopeo now supports generating sigstore key pairs

You can use the skopeo generate-sigstore-key command to generate a sigstore public/private key pair. For more information, see skopeo-generate-sigstore-key man page.

Toolbox is now available

With the toolbox utility, you can use the containerized command-line environment without installing troubleshooting tools directly on your system. Toolbox is built on top of Podman and other standard container technologies from OCI. For more information, see toolbx.

Container images now have a two-digit tag

In RHEL 9.0 and RHEL 9.1, container images had a three-digit tag. Starting from RHEL 9.2, container images now have a two-digit tag.

The capability for multiple trusted GPG keys for signing images is available

The /etc/containers/policy.json file supports a new keyPaths field which accepts a list of files containing the trusted keys. Because of this, the container images signed with Red Hat’s General Availability and Beta GPG keys are now accepted in the default configuration.

Podman now supports the pre-execution hooks

The root-owned plugin scripts located in the /usr/libexec/podman/pre-exec-hooks and /etc/containers/pre-exec-hooks directories define a fine-control over container operations, especially blocking unauthorized actions.

The sigstore signatures are now available

Beginning with Podman 4.2, you can use the sigstore format of container image signatures. The sigstore signatures are stored in the container registry together with the container image without the need to have a separate signature server to store image signatures.

Toolbox can create RHEL 9 containers

Previously, the Toolbox utility only supported RHEL UBI 8 images. With this release, Toolbox now also supports RHEL UBI 9. As a result, you can create a Toolbox container based on RHEL 8 or 9.

New package: passt

This update adds the passt package, which makes it possible to use the pasta rootless networking back end for containers.