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Feb. 12, 2010

Red Hat says it has released its first beta of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) version 5.5, providing memory allocation enhancements to the KVM (Kernel-based Virtual Machine) hypervisor.

Red Hat's new ver. 5.5 kernel also introduces new storage and Wi-Fi drivers, and supports new AMD, IBM and Intel processors, says the Linux vendor.

With the new 5.5, Kernel-based Virtual Machines can now flexibly allocate more memory to guest systems with a new run-time memory allocation feature, says Red Hat.

Using a "balloon driver," part of a guest's allocation can be reclaimed by the host and allocated to other guests as well. Additionally, guests can also request additional RAM from the host, re-allocating memory assigned to other guests at run-time.

Red Hat's new 5.5 KVM has also been enhanced with PCI passthrough improvements on Intel and AMD systems as well, enabling visualization and access to a computer or server's PCI devices as if they were physically attached to the guest operating system.

The RHEL release 5.5 beta moves up to the 2.6.18-186.el5 Linux kernel, and adds kernel support for Intel's upcoming processor platforms, code-named Boxboro-EX and Boxboro-MC, as well as AMD's upcoming "Magny-Cours" CPU family.

RHEL 5.5 also supports IBM's Power7 processor, which was announced Feb. 9.

RHEL 5.4 was released in final form in August 2009, offering full support for the KVM hypervisor as the preferred virtualization solution.

Other RHEL 5.4 features that will be 'ported' to RHEL 5.5 include cluster improvements, new graphics drivers, laptop docking support, extended WiFi drivers and ALSA audio infrastructure.

RHEL 5.4 also added Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) enablement, security and tools enhancements, and a host of other Linux kernel improvements.

Red Hat has finally introduced a host of new drivers for storage devices, network devices, and Fibre-Channel adapters. This was long overdue. There has also been a particular focus on WiFi drivers, with updates to the Ralink rt2x00 drivers, as well as the iwlwifi drivers for Intel wireless network adapters, says Red Hat.

The 5.5 release also adds some support for the Atheros ath9k driver for its newer WiFi chips.

Other Linux kernel improvements include a capability that detects kernel tasks stuck in the uninterruptible sleep state. Meanwhile, in filesystem and storage management, RHEL 5.5 improves CFQ I/O scheduler performance, and adds a new GFS2 mount option, says the Linux vendor.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.5 is available now under the beta version, with testing scheduled to last until at least March 16, and general availability expected near April 5, Red Hat says.

Tools updates include the GNU Project debugger version 7 and an updated version of the "System Tap" tracking and probing unit, said the Linux vendor.

Meanwhile, the Valgrind memory monitor has been improved to version 3.5 from the previous 3.4 version. Updated applications include new versions of Open Office.org and MetaCity, and the release advances of the Remote Authentication Dial In User Service (RADIUS) server to version 2.0, says Red Hat.

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Source: Red Hat.

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