KVM Upstream Roundup 2022

The KVM on Z community has been quite busy in 2022, delivering a number of features. Here is a look back at a selection of significant new features in recent months:

• Support for IBM z16 and LinuxONE Emperor 4
• Allows guest exploitation of new hardware features and live migration for the latest machine generation.
• Requires QEMU 6.1 and Linux kernel 5.14 or later.
  
• Support of long kernel command lines
• Kernel command lines up to 64 KB length, e.g. allows to specify plenty of I/O devices.
  
• Requires QEMU 7.0, s390-tools 2.20 or later.
• Remote attestation for Secure Execution
• Cryptographic evidence of workload authenticity and integrity facilitates integration into common Confidential Computing frameworks.
• Requires QEMU 7.1 and Linux kernel 5.19 or later.
• Encrypted dump for Secure Execution
• Enhances problem determination capabilities while not compromising the security of secure KVM guests.
• Requires QEMU 7.1, Linux 5.19, and s390-tools 2.22 or later.
• Persistent configuration for vfio-ap 
• The s390-tools command zdev can now be used to persist Crypto passthrough configurations.
• Requires s390-tools 2.22 or later.
• Interpretive vfio-pci support for ISM
• Allows pass-through of ISM devices to KVM guests, enabling high-bandwith and low-latency network communication using SMC-D.
• Requires QEMU 7.2 and Linux kernel 6.2 or later.

Client Webcast: Why virtualization is still highly used in the era of Containers and Cloud

 Wednesday, February 1^st, 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM ET
"Open to Clients, Business Partners, IBMers, IT Architects, Systems Admins, etc."

• Register here: https://ibm.webex.com/ibm/onstage/g.php?MTID=e6e21968a924c2f1ed2689f345676caf3
  After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.
• With the new workloads running in containers and running in clouds, the question is if virtualization is still important and how it relates with these workloads. The session will illustrate where and why virtualization is still important in the different deployment models.
• Presented by Wilhelm Mild, IBM Executive IT Architect - Integration Architectures for Containers, Mobile, IBM Z and Linux

• This presentation is part of the regular technical Linux on IBM zSystems and LinuxONE webinar session series from the IBM Labs. Find all past sessions here: https://ibm.biz/Linux-on-IBMzSystems-LinuxONE-Webcasts
  
  
• If you have any questions, please contact Stephanie Monisteri at gherghe@de.ibm.com.

New Release: RHEL 9.1 on IBM zSystems

After releasing RHEL 8.7 a week before, Red Hat now published RHEL 9.1, see the press release here! It ships, among others:

• QEMU v7.0
  
• libvirt v8.5

Note that RHEL9.1 is NOT an EUS (Extended Update Support) release, so it will go out of support with the GA of RHEL 9.2. For details, please see the "Red Hat Enterprise Linux Life Cycle" here.

IBM Cloud Infrastructure Center 1.1.6 with several KVM on IBM zSystems enhancements

The new version if IBM Cloud Infrastructure Center is available and has several improvements for KVM on IBM zSystems:

• Consistency group and group snapshots
• Security group on Red Hat KVM
• Hybrid hypervisor support
• Virtual machine backup and restore on KVM
• Performance enhancement in Day2 operations
• Visualization of network related components

Documentation: Red Hat High Availability

Our solution assurance team published a new paper, providing guidance together with hints and tricks and practical examples to help you configure and use the Red Hat Enterprise Linux High Availability Add-on (Red Hat HA).

You can access the paper here.

New Release: RHEL 8.7 on IBM zSystems

RHEL 8.7 is out, see the blog entry here! It ships, among others:

• QEMU v6.2, supporting virtio-fs on IBM Z
  
• libvirt v8.0

For a detailed list of Linux on Z-specific changes, see the release notes.

New Release: Ubuntu 22.10

Canonical released a new version of their Ubuntu server offering Ubuntu Server 22.10!

One of the highlights is the addition of a new feature providing Secure Execution attestation.

See the announcement on the mailing list here, and the blog entry at Canonical with Z-specific highlights here.