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Chapter 29. Deprecated Functionality

This chapter provides an overview of functionality that has been deprecated, or in some cases removed, in all minor releases up to Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.8.
Deprecated functionality continues to be supported until the end of life of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6. Deprecated functionality will likely not be supported in future major releases of this product and is not recommended for new deployments. For the most recent list of deprecated functionality within a particular major release, refer to the latest version of release documentation.
Deprecated hardware components are not recommended for new deployments on the current or future major releases. Hardware driver updates are limited to security and critical fixes only. Red Hat recommends replacing this hardware as soon as reasonably feasible.
A package can be deprecated and not recommended for further use. Under certain circumstances, a package can be removed from a product.Product documentation then identifies more recent packages that offer functionality similar, identical, or more advanced to the one deprecated, and provides further recommendations.
Deprecated device drivers
  • 3w-9xxx
  • 3w-sas
  • 3w-xxxx
  • aic7xxx
  • i2o
  • ips
  • megaraid_mbox
  • mptbase
  • mptctl
  • mptfc
  • mptlan
  • mptsas
  • mptscsih
  • mptspi
  • sym53c8xx
  • qla3xxx
The following controllers from the megaraid_sas driver have been deprecated:
  • Dell PERC5, PCI ID 0x15
  • SAS1078R, PCI ID 0x60
  • SAS1078DE, PCI ID 0x7C
  • SAS1064R, PCI ID 0x411
  • VERDE_ZCR, PCI ID 0x413
  • SAS1078GEN2, PCI ID 0x78
The following controllers from the be2iscsi driver have been deprecated:
  • BE_DEVICE_ID1, PCI ID 0x212
  • OC_DEVICE_ID1, PCI ID 0x702
  • OC_DEVICE_ID2, PCI ID 0x703
Note that other controllers from the mentioned drivers that are not listed here remain unchanged.
openswan component
The openswan packages have been deprecated, and libreswan packages have been introduced as a direct replacement for openswan to provide the VPN endpoint solution. openswan is replaced by libreswan during the system upgrade.
seabios component
Native KVM support for the S3 (suspend to RAM) and S4 (suspend to disk) power management states has been discontinued. This feature was previously available as a Technology Preview.
The zerombr yes Kickstart command is deprecated
In some earlier versions of Red Hat Enterprise Linux, the zerombr yes command was used to initialize any invalid partition tables during a Kickstart installation. This was inconsistent with the rest of the Kickstart commands due to requiring two words while all other commands require one. Starting with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.7, specifying only zerombr in your Kickstart file is sufficient, and the old two-word form is deprecated.
Btrfs file system
B-tree file system (Btrfs) is considered deprecated for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6. Btrfs was previously provided as a Technology Preview, available on AMD64 and Intel 64 architectures.
eCryptfs file system
eCryptfs file system, which was previously available as a Technology Preview, is considered deprecated for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.
mingw component
Following the deprecation of Matahari packages in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.3, at which time the mingw packages were noted as deprecated, and the subsequent removal of Matahari packages from Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.4, the mingw packages were removed from Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.6 and later.
The mingw packages are no longer shipped in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 minor releases, nor will they receive security-related updates. Consequently, users are advised to uninstall any earlier releases of the mingw packages from their Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 systems.
virtio-win component, BZ#1001981
The VirtIO SCSI driver is no longer supported on Microsoft Windows Server 2003 platform.
fence-agents component
Prior to Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.5 release, the Red Hat Enterprise Linux High Availability Add-On was considered fully supported on certain VMware ESXi/vCenter versions in combination with the fence_scsi fence agent. Due to limitations in these VMware platforms in the area of SCSI-3 persistent reservations, the fence_scsi fencing agent is no longer supported on any version of the Red Hat Enterprise Linux High Availability Add-On in VMware virtual machines, except when using iSCSI-based storage. See the Virtualization Support Matrix for High Availability for full details on supported combinations:
https://access.redhat.com/site/articles/29440
Users using fence_scsi on an affected combination can contact Red Hat Global Support Services for assistance in evaluating alternative configurations or for additional information.
systemtap component
The systemtap-grapher package has been removed from Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6. For more information, see https://access.redhat.com/solutions/757983.
matahari component
The Matahari agent framework (matahari-*) packages have been removed from Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6. Focus for remote systems management has shifted towards the use of the CIM infrastructure. This infrastructure relies on an already existing standard which provides a greater degree of interoperability for all users.
distribution component
The following packages have been deprecated and are subjected to removal in a future release of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6. These packages will not be updated in the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 repositories and customers who do not use the MRG-Messaging product are advised to uninstall them from their system.
  • python-qmf
  • python-qpid
  • qpid-cpp
  • qpid-qmf
  • qpid-tests
  • qpid-tools
  • ruby-qpid
  • saslwrapper
Red Hat MRG-Messaging customers will continue to receive updated functionality as part of their regular updates to the product.
fence-virt component
The libvirt-qpid is no longer part of the fence-virt package.
openscap component
The openscap-perl subpackage has been removed from openscap.