The latest interim version of Ubuntu Cloud Server (21.04 Hirsute Hippo) brings a wide range of improvements over the last LTS release
What’s new in Ubuntu Cloud Server 21.04 (Hirsute Hippo):
- Cloud Images:
- The AWS SSM Parameter Store 7 now provides a way for users to find the latest AMI for Ubuntu releases. See this discourse post 13 for more details.
- Google Cloud Platform images now include the Google OS Config Agent 13.
- Azure images will use /dev/ptp_hyperv as the main PTP refclock, to avoid conflicts with other PTP devices. (LP: #1913763 3)
Ubuntu Cloud Server 21.04 is an interim release and it brings a plethora of new changes over the 20.04 LTS release.
The biggest changes
The 21.04 release sees various improvements for Google Cloud Platform, Microsoft Azure, and AWS. The AWS SSM Parameter Store now allows users to search for the latest AMIs for Ubuntu releases. Additionally, now the Google Cloud Platform images include the new Google OS Config Agent.
Azure images also benefit from a change. Now they will use the /dev/ptp_hyperv as the main PTP refclock, to avoid conflicts with other PTP devices.
Other changes
21.04 also brings various changes to other platforms such as Raspberry Pi, RISC-V, and s390x.
Raspberry Pi platforms now benefit from support for accelerated Wayland-based desktop, for GPIO via libgpiod and the new liblgpio as well as an updated gpiozero library with liblgpio support. Lastly, Raspberry Pi now benefits from support for WiFi and Bluetooth on Compute Module 4.
In the RISC-V department, HiFive SiFive Unleashed and Unmatched images are now available. Images for both are usable in QEMU, but they do require u-boot-qemu.
The changes done to s390x are many. SMC-D v2 support was added to the kernel, the smc-tools were upgraded to 1.5.0, it now benefits from support for HiperSocket/Ethernet Converged Interfaces, several virtualization stack improvements, expanded NVMe support, and DASD EDIF log capability added to the kernel.
In addition, Vagrant was updated to 3.16.1, the Server Time Protocol leap second handling was adjusted, the zcrypt device driver was improved, qclib was upgraded to the latest version 2.2.1, and various other little improvements.
Conclusion
Ubuntu Cloud Server 21.04 paves the way for future releases. It only benefits from support until January 2022, but the changes may prove significant for users who want to benefit from all the latest improvements.
