Server Operating System (Kernel) Upgrades (We've gone rebootless)

[Michael D.]

All Linux servers need to have their core Operating System (Kernel) updated from time to time to patch against security holes and exploits. In the past this has always required a reboot of the server which results in at most 10 minutes of downtime as the hardware shuts down and restarts. New exploits are discovered almost daily which means that we had to balance security and uptime. With our new upgrade system we no longer have to perform this balancing act which results in maximum security for the server and maximum uptime for our clients.

 

We have recently moved to the KSplice rebootless kernel upgrade system which will allow us to patch the operating systems on all of our servers in real-time without having to reboot the server. This is a huge benefit for us and for our clients as it allows us to patch on-the-fly against security holes and exploits to keep our servers secure and it allows us to do so without incurring any downtime for our clients.

 

There are still occasions where we may have to reboot the server such as major Operating System revisions however with this new system we hope to only have to reboot each server once or twice per year.

 

If you have any questions or comments at all by all means please feel free to post them up!

 

Thank you,

[Bluesplayer]

Sounds good to me. The less downtime the better .

[Michael D.]

Sounds good to me. The less downtime the better .

As I said with security and uptime being a balance - we would be rebooting our servers almost daily if we stayed on top of the updates as we would like to but instead we try to do reboots monthly to keep things secure without pushing the envelope of maintenance windows.

 

With this new system we can update daily without reboots

[Robin]

Good initiative to make things smoother on the client's end. I would expect nothing less from MDD. Thanks Mike!