Move RHCOS content to 8.3.z stream for OpenShift 4.7.
Goals and Background
Non-EUS RHCOS releases are intended to keep up with the latest RHEL kernel and user space.
Updating to the RHEL 8.3 kernel provides hardware enablement that will have been paused with EUS locking to RHEL 8.2.z content.
RHCOS is not able to take advantage of the RHEL Driver Update Program which provides RH supported driver backports for RHEL, so timely updates to the RHCOS kernel are important.
Use Cases
As an RHCOS user I want to use the latest RHEL content to get all the latest fixes, features, and performance enhancements that have landed in RHEL.
As an RHCOS user I want to have the latest RHEL kernel so I can use the latest RHEL hardware support (SmartNICs, FPGA cards, other driver updates et al.).
Assumptions
The current gap between the expected GA of RHEL 8.3 and OpenShift 4.7 is three months. This should be more than enough time to move RHCOS to the 8.3.z stream.
Customer and Internal Considerations
Multiple FSI customers are expecting to deploy OpenShift with Pensando SmartNICs. In box driver support for these cards is coming in 8.3. There is a driver update disk that enables them on RHEL 8.2 but there is no mechanism to use this supported driver with RHCOS at deployment.
Conntrack offloading lands in RHEL 8.3 kernel which is required for OvS offload.
Feature
Critical