Oracle Linux 5.6 and 6.0 kernel packages supported by ESX/ESXi 4.x and ESXi 5.x

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

This article provides information on the Oracle Linux 5.6 and 6.0 kernel packages supported by ESX/ESXi 4.x and ESXi 5.x

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi 5.0
VMware ESXi 4.1.x Embedded
VMware ESXi 4.1.x Installable
VMware ESX 4.1.x
VMware vSphere ESXi 5.1
VMware ESXi 4.0.x Embedded
VMware ESXi 4.0.x Installable
VMware ESX 4.0.x

Resolution

Oracle Linux 5.6 and 6.0 ships with the following three sets of kernel packages:

• Available only on x86_64 (64bit) platform and is installed and booted by default - Unbreakable Enterprise kernel [kernel-uek-2.6.32-100.26.2.el5]
  
• Installed by default - Red Hat compatible Kernel [kernel-2.6.18-238.el5]
  
• This kernel is available on x86 and x86-64 and can only be installed manually - Red Hat compatible Kernel with bug fixes added by Oracle [kernel-2.6.18-238.0.0.0.1.el5]

Both Unbreakable Enterprise kernel and Red Hat compatible kernel are installed on 64 bit (x86_64) platform and the system, by default, boots with the Unbreakable Enterprise kernel. Currently, VMware supports the Red Hat compatible kernel. The Unbreakable Enterprise kernel is not supported on any version of ESX/ESXi host prior to ESXi 5.0 Update 1. For more information, see the VMware Compatibility Guide.

Note: Hot-add Memory is supported on Red Hat compatible Kernel [kernel-2.6.18-238.el5].

Oracle Linux have two versions of UEK kernel, R1 and R2. Oracle Linux begins to support UEK from 5.6 and 6.0, but UEK kernel is only available on the Oracle Linux 5.6 and 6.0 64 bits distribution.

Detailed Hot-add support for Oracle Linux

	32 bit UEK available	64 bit UEK available	HotAdd Memory(32 bit)	HotAdd Memory(64 bit)	HotAdd CPU(32 bit)	HotAdd CPU(64 bit)
Oracle Linux 5.6(R1)	No	Yes	N/A	Yes	NA	Yes
Oracle Linux 5.7(R1)	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes
Oracle Linux 5.8(R1)	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes
Oracle Linux 6.0(R1)	No	Yes	N/A	Yes	N/A	Yes
Oracle Linux 6.1(R1)	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Oracle Linux 6.2(R1)	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Oracle Linux 6.3(R2)	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Oracle Linux 6.4	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

Additional Information

Xen Linux kernels are unsupported