Ubuntu Server Edition 11.10 (a.k.a. Oneiric Ocelot) was released from Canonical on October 13, 2011. Some of the new features include Juju and Orchestra, which is a collection of software for rapidly deploying and managing datacenter services. In addition, Ubuntu Server Edition 11.10 is based on the Linux 3.0 kernel, which adds a number of performance improvements and expanded hardware support. For details on these and other features, refer to the Release Notes from Canonical.

For the official announcement from Canonical, go here.

Biosdevname Support

Biosdevname is now supported in Ubuntu Server Edition 11.10. Biosdevname is a udev helper utility developed by Dell and released under the GNU General Public License (GPL). It provides a consistent naming mechanism for network devices based on their physical location as suggested by the system BIOS. To enable biosdevname, you must pass the kernel parameter “biosdevname=1” at install time. Biosdevname will be enabled by default in all Dell PowerEdge servers in a future Ubuntu Server Edition release.

Hardware Certification

The Dell Linux engineering team is working with Canonical to re-certify most all Dell PowerEdge and PowerEdge-C servers that have been certified with older releases of Ubuntu Server Edition. Re-certification efforts are ongoing, so please be sure to visit the Canonical hardware certification site for latest updates.

OS Support

Ubuntu Server Edition is not officially supported by Dell. However, OS support contracts are available from Canonical through the Ubuntu Advantage program. Certified Dell hardware is preferred in order to provide best support, but it is not required.

OpenManage Support

The Linux Engineering team released a build of OpenManage 6.5 for Ubuntu Server Edition. Please note that this build is also not officially supported by Dell, but we tested most features thoroughly in 11.10 without issues. For more details, refer to the Dell OpenManage 6.5 Ubuntu Repository.