Chapter 2. Release notes

Installing OpenShift Virtualization on IBM Cloud® bare-metal nodes is now generally available. This update provides the ability to install OpenShift Virtualization on IBM Cloud provisioned bare-metal nodes by using Assisted Installer.

CNV-27898

With this update, cluster administrators can specify a custom MAC pool range for a OpenShift Virtualization environment, preventing potential MAC address conflicts with other virtualization solutions on the same network. This gives cluster administrators more control over network resources, ensuring greater network stability and resource management efficiency.

CNV-63212

With this update, you can import VMs into OpenShift Virtualization, preserving their original IP and MAC addresses when connected to custom, primary layer 2 networks. This enhancement streamlines the import process, ensuring network consistency and a seamless transition of VMs, resulting in minimal disruption.

CNV-61227

Previously, installation of Migration Toolkit for Containers (MTC) was required before migrating VM disks to different storage classes. This requirement no longer exists, as VM disk storage class migration is now native to OpenShift Virtualization.

In addition, it is no longer a requirement that the VMs you select for each bulk migration be in the same namespace.

CNV-61829

With this update, you can create and manage ClusterUserDefinedNetwork resources within the localnet topology, using the OpenShift Container Platform web console.

CNV-52160

With this update, the search interface is enhanced, making it more noticeable and user-friendly. A prominent Search button and an advanced search option are introduced, allowing users to initiate a search with either the primary button or the Enter key. This streamlines the user experience and improves overall search functionality.

CNV-70130

With this update, a search bar is added to the Virtualization Settings page of the OpenShift Container Platform web console. This allows users to easily search for different settings contained within the Cluster, User, or Preview features tabs.

CNV-69189

An optional --preserve-session flag has been introduced for VMs. This flag prevents an existing VNC console connection from being disconnected if you attempt to start a new session.

If you attempt to create a second connection to the VNC console by using the virtctl CLI when this flag is set, an error is displayed and the connection fails.

If you attempt to create a second connection to the VNC console by using the web console, a warning is displayed, and you are prompted to disconnect the existing session before you create the new session.

CNV-66115

You can now start a virtual machine (VM) console session by clicking on the name of the running VM in the navigation panel, and then selecting Open Console.

CNV-70942

You can now define an Open vSwitch (OVS) Source Load Balancing (SLB) bonding interface when creating a node network configuration policy in the OpenShift Container Platform web console. Use the Uplink connection tab in the Node network configuration wizard to configure bond network interfaces that provide access to the external physical network to multiple VMs across shared bonded links.

For more information, see Managing policy from the web console.

CNV-70202

You can view and change the memory overcommitment of the cluster from the Virtualization page of the web console.

CNV-69276

With this update, cluster administrators can run a self-validation checkup on an OpenShift Container Platform cluster from the Self validation tab in the Virtualization Checkups page of the web console. Users can download detailed results from the checkup as a ZIP file. This feature enables cluster administrators to execute extensive test suites on their clusters, helping to identify and address potential issues in advanced features and configurations.

CNV-59284

With this update, cluster administrators can perform the following additional bulk actions:

With this update, VM owners can force reboot their VMs by clicking Reset in the web console. This reboot process preserves user-customized data, such as hot plugged storage, by preserving the pod that contains the VM. This enhancement provides a more efficient and user-friendly experience, as users no longer need to manually manage the reboot process or risk losing their customized data.

CNV-51003

The following alerts for the OpenShift Virtualization Operator are now included in the OpenShift Virtualization runbooks:

CNV-69069

The HotplugVolume feature gate, which allows you to add storage without restarting your VM, is deprecated and will be removed in a future release. This feature gate will be replaced by DeclarativeHotplugVolumes.

Golden image support is available for heterogeneous clusters, which enables you to create and use golden images for virtual machines in environments with differing node configurations. This capability is a Technology Preview feature.

CNV-62357

You can now configure a custom video device type when creating a virtual machine. Configuring a custom device type overrides the default video configuration, and allows you to specify different video devices, based on your guest operating system requirements and performance needs. This capability is a Technology Preview feature.

CNV-71192

When you update from OpenShift Container Platform 4.12 to a newer minor version, virtual machines that use the cnv-bridge Container Network Interface (CNI) fail to live migrate. As a consequence, live migration fails for affected VMs.

To work around this problem, change the spec.config.type field in your NetworkAttachmentDefinition manifest from cnv-bridge to bridge before you perform the update. As a result, live migration succeeds for VMs that use the updated network attachment definitions.

Known issue when migrating VMs that use the cnv-bridge CNI

Red Hat OpenShift Service Mesh 3.1.1 and Istio versions 1.25 and later are incompatible with OpenShift Virtualization 4.21 because the traffic.sidecar.istio.io/kubevirtInterfaces annotation is deprecated. As a consequence, service mesh integration with OpenShift Virtualization can fail when you use these versions.

To work around this problem, when you install Service Mesh for integration with OpenShift Virtualization, select Red Hat OpenShift Service Mesh version 3.0.4 and Istio 1.24.4 instead of the default versions that are displayed in the web console.

OSSM-10883

Uninstalling OpenShift Virtualization does not remove the feature.node.kubevirt.io node labels that OpenShift Virtualization creates. As a consequence, nodes can still appear as if they are configured for virtualization workloads.

To work around this problem, manually remove the feature.node.kubevirt.io labels from affected nodes after you uninstall OpenShift Virtualization.

CNV-38543

Live migration fails if a virtual machine name exceeds 47 characters. As a consequence, you cannot live migrate VMs with longer names.

To work around this problem, use VM names that are 47 characters or fewer when you create VMs that you plan to live migrate.

CNV-61066

OpenShift Virtualization links a service account token in use by a pod to that specific pod by creating a disk image that contains the token. If you migrate a VM, the service account volume becomes invalid for the migrated VM. As a consequence, workloads that rely on that service account token can fail after migration.

To work around this problem, use user accounts instead of service accounts, because user account tokens are not bound to a specific pod.

CNV-33835

If you are upgrading OpenShift Virtualization from version 4.20 to 4.21 and using wasp-agent to increase VM workload density, you must perform the following steps after you begin the upgrade:

CNV-75837

When you enable the spec.featureGates.enableMultiArchBootImageImport feature gate after boot sources have already been imported, OpenShift Virtualization recreates the boot source import resources using architecture-suffixed names, such as fedora-amd64 or fedora-arm64.

The original, non-suffixed boot source resources are not automatically removed and remain in the openshift-virtualization-os-images namespace. This results in duplicate boot sources appearing in the web console and CLI. These stale resources continue to consume storage space because the associated PVCs or VolumeSnapshots are retained.

To work around this problem, manually delete the stale boot source resources: