1.2.2. Linux Requirements¶
The initial Linux requirements to use Virtual Accelerator is to have TC + EBPF support, a feature introduced in Linux 4.9. Depending on the function in use, additional bug fixes and improvements may be required. They are listed in the tables below.
Features¶
Function |
Description |
Linux |
Ubuntu HWE |
Red Hat 8 CentOS 8 |
Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Core |
Flag reflects NIC carrier |
5.0 |
5.0.0-23 |
4.18.0-80.18.el8 |
https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/?id=26d31925cd5e |
IPsec |
IPsec output delegation using netfilter |
4.20 |
Ubuntu 5.0 |
4.18.0-152.el8 |
https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/?id=02b408fae3d5 https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/?id=6c47260250fc |
QoS |
Mark transfer from kernel to fp |
5.2 |
Ubuntu 5.3 |
4.18.0-193.el8 |
https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/?id=58dfc900faff |
Container |
New capability CAP_BPF |
5.8 |
https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/?id=a17b53c4a4b5 |
||
Container |
Netns: option to inherit sysctl from current netns |
5.8 |
https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/?id=9efd6a3cecdd |
Known bug fixes¶
The following patches have been identified to be required.
About CentOS 8¶
While CentOS-8 follows closely Red Hat 8 releases, e.g 8.1 end of 2019, CentOS 8-stream is a preview of next Red Hat 8. CentOS 8-stream is interesting for having the latest packages, in particular the latest kernel.
For example, you can verify the bump of kernel version after switching to 8-stream (version number will change overtime):
dnf list available|grep kernel.x86_64
kernel.x86_64 4.18.0-147.3.1.el8_1
dnf install -y centos-release-stream
dnf list available|grep kernel.x86_64
kernel.x86_64 4.18.0-168.el8 Stream-BaseOS
When a newer kernel is still required, then CentOS Elrepo can be used to install a mainline kernel. For example (version number will change overtime):
dnf list available|grep kernel.x86_64
kernel.x86_64 4.18.0-147.3.1.el8_1
rpm --import https://www.elrepo.org/RPM-GPG-KEY-elrepo.org
dnf install -y https://www.elrepo.org/elrepo-release-8.0-2.el8.elrepo.noarch.rpm Complete!
dnf --enablerepo=elrepo-kernel --enablerepo=elrepo-extras list available | grep kernel-ml.x86_64
kernel-ml.x86_64 5.5.1-1.el8.elrepo
dnf install --enablerepo=elrepo-kernel --enablerepo=elrepo-extras kernel-ml
iptables legacy¶
iptables legacy is required to benefit from Fast Path Filtering module. It is not delivered under Red Hat 8 / CentOS 8. It can be installed with the following procedure:
wget https://netfilter.org/projects/iptables/files/iptables-1.8.4.tar.bz2
echo "SHA256 (iptables-1.8.4.tar.bz2) = 993a3a5490a544c2cbf2ef15cf7e7ed21af1845baf228318d5c36ef8827e157c" > iptables-1.8.4.tar.bz2.txt
sha256sum -c iptables-1.8.4.tar.bz2.txt
tar xf iptables-1.8.4.tar.bz2
cd iptables-1.8.4/
./configure --disable-nftables
make
make install
reboot
iptables --version
iptables v1.8.4 (legacy)