QEMU, a popular open-source emulator, has launched its latest version, 9.1 with numerous improvements to enhance performance, security, and scalability. Known for its ability to run a wide range of operating systems and architectures on various platforms, QEMU continues to be a crucial tool in the virtualization ecosystem.

Key Highlights of QEMU 9.1

This release introduces numerous new features and enhancements that cater to users seeking improved performance and compatibility across different computing environments. Here’s a closer look at the key updates:

1. Enhanced Migration Features

One of the major highlights of QEMU 9.1 is the introduction of compression offload support via Intel In-Memory Analytics Accelerator (IAA) or User Space Accelerator Development Kit (UADK). Furthermore, this new update enhances its support for recovery from postcopy failures, ensuring smoother recovery and more reliable VM transfers.

2. Improved Virtio Support

Virtio, the widely used virtualization standard for device drivers, has also received substantial updates. The new VIRTIO_F_NOTIFICATION_DATA feature allows guest drivers to include additional data when sending device notifications. This can be helpful for debugging and performance optimization.

3. New Agent Guest Commands

QEMU 9.1 introduces the guest-network-get-route command on Linux, offering administrators more control over guest network routing configurations. For Windows, new guest-ssh-* commands have been added, enhancing guest system management capabilities.

It also includes improvements to command line support, allowing administrators to configure allowed or blocked commands.

4. ARM Architecture Improvement

For ARM architecture, this update introduces support for the following architecture features:

• FEAT_NMI, FEAT_CSV2_3, FEAT_ETS2, FEAT_Spec_FPACC, FEAT_WFxT, and FEAT_Debugv8p8.
• Nested page tables support for emulated SMMUv3
• xilinx_zynq board support for cache controller and multiple CPUs
• B-L475E-IOT01A board support for a DM163 display

5. Other Architecture Improvements

RISC-V

QEMU 9.1 significantly expands RISC-V support, introducing several new extensions and features:

• Zve32x, Zve64x, Zimop, Zcmop, Zama16b, Zabha, Zawrs, and Smcntrpmf extensions.
• Compatibility with the privileged architecture specification version 1.13.
• Improved debug and GDB support

LoongArch

It also adds support for booting an ELF kernel directly on LoongArch systems, along with the ability to run up to 256 vCPUs using the extioi virt extension.

SPARC

This release enhances SPARC emulation by introducing support for FMAF, IMA, VIS3, and VIS4 architecture features.

x86

On x86 platforms, it introduces emulation support for new processors, including Icelake-Server-v7, SapphireRapids-v3, and Sierra Forest. Additionally, KVM support for running AMD SEV-SNP guests has been added, enhancing security for virtualized environments.

6. Security Improvements

This release addresses multiple security issues, including vulnerabilities in the QEMU Network Block Device (NBD) server and NBD TLS encryption.

Also, it is important to note that QEMU 9.1 has deprecated the Nios II target and several older properties and options.

Getting QEMU 9.1

QEMU 9.1 is available for download from the official QEMU download page. Users can choose to compile it from source or install it directly from their distribution’s repositories. To explore the full list of changes and enhancements, you can explore the complete changelog.

Conclusion

QEMU 9.1 brings an array of improvements that enhance performance, expand hardware support, and strengthen security across multiple platforms. Whether you’re using ARM, RISC-V, LoongArch, SPARC, or x86, it provides new features and improved support that can help you optimize your virtualized environments.

For those looking to maintain a secure and up-to-date infrastructure, TuxCare’s QEMUCare offers an invaluable solution. QEMUCare enables automated vulnerability patching of your QEMU-based virtualization systems without interrupting operations.

You can apply updates to your virtualization layer while systems remain active, eliminating the need for shutdowns, migrations, or hypervisor reboots. This means you can keep your infrastructure patched with zero downtime and no disruptions to end users.

The sources for this article include a story from 9to5Linux.

The post QEMU 9.1 Released: New Features and Hardware Support appeared first on TuxCare.

*** This is a Security Bloggers Network syndicated blog from TuxCare authored by Rohan Timalsina. Read the original post at: https://tuxcare.com/blog/qemu-9-1-released-new-features-and-hardware-support/