The Ubuntu Server 21.04 brings multiple improvements and new features, and features support for security and maintenance updates until January 2022
What’s new in Ubuntu Server 21.04:
- Ubuntu Server 21.04 brings significant improvements to the networking, automation and stability fronts with a new Hardware Enablement (HWE) advanced networking stack, extensions to the Ubuntu Server Live Installer and APT phased updates. In addition, the latest development cycle includes improved enterprise applications availability with native support for Microsoft SQL Server on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS. All this makes Ubuntu Server a reasonable alternative for CentOS users, both in terms of infrastructure and application support.
Ubuntu 21.04 (Hirsute Hippo) is the eighth Ubuntu version since the move to the Gnome 3 desktop and will receive continuous support only until January 2022, and paves the way for the upcoming Ubuntu 22.04 LTS.
This latest Server version features various improvements both on the stability and automation fronts, as well as other important changes. Some of the most important changes include new extensions for the Unbutu Server Live Installer, phased updates for the Advanced Package Tool, improved enterprise app availability with native support for Microsoft SQL, and a new Hardware Enablement (HWE) advanced network stacking.
Microsoft SQL Server and continued support for Debian Installer scripts
Ubuntu Server 21.04 brings support for Microsoft SQL Server. This is a massive change since it allows system administrators to set up database management systems and command-line interfaces using popular packing tools, meaning that on-premise deployment jobs will be greatly accelerated.
Users of Ubuntu Server 20.04 LTS know that this version was the first to replace the legacy Debian Installer with Ubuntu Server Live Installer. 21.04 benefits from all the additional changes and improvements as well. These include the ability to auto-update the OS, support for SSH sessions, and installation save and restore options.
However, 21.04 provides a lot more flexibility since it now supports DI preseed scripts. This allows developers and users to convert DI preseed scripts into the Ubuntu Server Live Installer through a feature called autoinstall-generator snap.
HWE advanced networking stack and APT phased updates
The latest version of Ubuntu Server also brings Hardware Enabled (HWE) advanced networking stack. This technology will also be available on Ubuntu Server 20.04 LTS and Ubuntu Server 18.04 LTS. If you’re familiar with the Ubuntu HWE kernel stack, you’ll find the new HWE feature very similar.
It provides support for all the latest network interface cards (NICs), and all their adjacent features and various components for the advanced network stack.
Ubuntu Server 21.04 is also the first Server version to benefit from the phased updates that have been available for the desktop version since 13.04. This ensures that 21.04 will eliminate packages that are no longer relevant for the OS when performing updates, and its main goal is to make UbuntuServer even more stable.
Other changes
As with all new versions of Ubuntu Server, the native apps also received various updates. These include QEMU (5.2), libvirt (7.0), PHP (7.4.9), Apache2 (2.4.46), nginx (1.18), GCC (1.189), Python (3.9.2), Bind9 (9.16.8).
21.04 comes with support for a wide range of architectures such as x64-64, ARM v7, ARM64, Power 8, Power 9, IBM s390x and RISC-V. Furthermore, the latest iteration of the Ubuntu server includes the latest stable Linux kernel (5.11) and various stability updates to the high availability (HA) stack (including pacemaker and corosync).
Conclusion
The spec sheet for Ubuntu Server 21.04 brings forth a few refinements over the 20.04 LTS release. While most enterprises will probably not make the upgrade, the most important thing is most of these changes and improvements will eventually “trickle-down” to the LTS version as well.
