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Oracle Brings Real-Time Kernel Patching To Oracle Enterprise Linux

Posted by timothy on from the any-old-time-you-want dept.

prisoninmate writes: Oracle's Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel (UEK) Release 4 is an important engineering effort and introduces performance improvements and enhancements for some of the most essential components, including CPU schedulers and Automatic NUMA Balancing, along with powerful new features, such as real-time kernel patching, which is possible thanks to the Ksplice open-source extension of the Linux kernel 4 branch, which lets users to apply patches to the running kernel without the need to reboot the system, thus improving security and simplify the management of cloud infrastructures.

27 of 52 comments (clear)

  1. Welcome to 2008? by stoborrobots · · Score: 2

    Welcome to 2008?

    --
    "Go to CNN [for a] spell-checked, fact-checked summary" -- CmdrTaco
    1. Re:Welcome to 2008? by nawcom · · Score: 1

      The submitter was a prisoninmate, so give the guy a break.

  2. Returning the favour by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    So Oracle takes linux tech and uses it for their own purposes. Okay fine. How about donating some source code to the ZFSonLinux project? What's that you say? Patents, you say?

    1. Re:Returning the favour by F.Ultra · · Score: 3, Informative

      Hardly the GPL that causes issues when the license for ZFS was deliberately created to be non GPL compatible. If Linux had been licensed with any other license then Oracle would have written a license to avoid that one too. ZFS was meant to be a differentiator to make Solaris a better choice for the Enterprise than Linux.

    2. Re:Returning the favour by armanox · · Score: 1

      They could, but why bother? The CDDL is an OSI Approved license, just like GPL and BSD licenses are. It's already open source, just not GNU's open source.

      --
      I'm starting to think GNU is the problem with "GNU/Linux" these days.
    3. Re:Returning the favour by F.Ultra · · Score: 1

      I think that you missed my point. Oracle does not want ZFS in Linux and thus created the license to be non GPL compatible. That ZFS cannot be implemented by Linux was not a "mistake" by Oracle/SUN, it was by design. Oracle/SUN do not see FreeBSD or OpenIndiana as potential competitors in the enterprise arena and thus they have no problem that they could implement ZFS.

  3. Ksplice really is not new by SuilAmhain · · Score: 5, Informative

    I would probably be an Oracle "fan boy". Ksplice is not new. They "bought" it a few years ago, one of the main reasons it took so long forTorvald's kernel to get hot kernel patching.

    Ksplice will only update the OS, it cannot update drivers or firmware of any kind (Storage arrays, NICs, etc...) you still need to bounce for that. Learned the unfortunate way when we needed to update drivers for a buggy as be damned big blue flash array. (Very recent history...)

    Also as I RTFA, SELinux does not yet work with an Oracle DB. When it does it will be amazing, but it has not happened yet...

    1. Re:Ksplice really is not new by MTEK · · Score: 2

      Also as I RTFA, SELinux does not yet work with an Oracle DB.

      Are you sure about that?

    2. Re:Ksplice really is not new by Lunix+Nutcase · · Score: 3, Informative

      Also as I RTFA, SELinux does not yet work with an Oracle DB. When it does it will be amazing, but it has not happened yet...

      Wrong.

    3. Re:Ksplice really is not new by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      Also as I RTFA, SELinux does not yet work with an Oracle DB. When it does it will be amazing, but it has not happened yet...

      Wrong.

      And this is what is wrong with redhate. They paywall their knowledge base. Their whole business is based on open information, but they hide theirs. They can really fuck off sideways.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    4. Re:Ksplice really is not new by argumentsockpuppet · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Or, as usual, do the same thing with CentOS for free.

      https://wiki.centos.org/HowTos...

      I don't get the animosity towards RH. I haven't paid for their support in years and years, but when I did, it was so I could call somebody when something went wrong and get reliable help quickly.

      I only ever had to call a couple times, but the support I got was better than I ever received from most companies.

      Oracle? Oracle is on the opposite end of that list. I won't touch Oracle ever again if I can help it. I am aware of the things Oracle brings to the table but it's not worth the pain.

    5. Re:Ksplice really is not new by lucm · · Score: 1

      I haven't paid for their support in years and years, but when I did, it was so I could call somebody when something went wrong and get reliable help quickly.

      I agree. RH support is amazing. They follow-up on tickets almost instantly and they know their product well. Even on weird or very specialized questions they usually come back with the solution quickly.

      --
      lucm, indeed.
    6. Re:Ksplice really is not new by lucm · · Score: 1

      RH Satellite is a duct-taped pile of half-baked modifications vomited on top of old branches of abandoned forks of semi-structured open-source projects. I see no reason why supporting this "product" would prove difficult for RH.

      --
      lucm, indeed.
  4. Re:You mispelt Sun Microsystems by Lunix+Nutcase · · Score: 1

    Sun brought k-splice to all of Linux

    No, they didn't. Sun had nothing to do with ksplice. Oracle acquired Ksplice, Inc. 18 months after their acquisition of Sun was completes.

  5. real-time ad time by turkeydance · · Score: 2

    y'all know how this works.

  6. are you kidding me by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    read a joke about Slashdot shilling oracle Linux for the next slashvertisement. At least I thought it was a joke.

    1. Re:are you kidding me by unixisc · · Score: 1

      Couldn't DICE/slashdot just get an Oracle server running "ORACLE UNBREAKABLE REAL-TIME LINUX" and use it for their daily operations? So that they'll know how good it is, particularly on their bottom line?

  7. Wait by JustAnotherOldGuy · · Score: 2

    If it's unbreakable why do they have to patch it?

    "Yeah, this thing will never break! Hang on a sec while I fix it..."

    --
    Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
    1. Re:Wait by Jeremi · · Score: 1

      I does seem a bit ballsy for Oracle to name their product 'unbreakable', considering the fact that they broke Java so badly that it was pretty much banned from all web browsers...

      --


      I don't care if it's 90,000 hectares. That lake was not my doing.
    2. Re:Wait by JustAnotherOldGuy · · Score: 2

      I does seem a bit ballsy for Oracle to name their product 'unbreakable',

      That was a triumph of marketing over common sense. It's like naming the local slut, "Lil' Miss Faithful".

      --
      Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
    3. Re:Wait by Lunix+Nutcase · · Score: 1

      The Java web plugin was insecure shit long before Oracle owned it.

  8. k-splice? by fahrbot-bot · · Score: 1

    Isn't that a Korean boy band?

    --
    It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
  9. Live patching cloud? by Znork · · Score: 2

    If you need to live patch your kernel you've got a misdesigned application. Failures happen and if you can't design your application for redundancy, don't expect uninterrupted service.

    If you need to live-patch kernels in your cloud infrastructure, you need to go back to the drawing board because you don't have a cloud, you have a SPOF.

  10. Real time by enriquevagu · · Score: 2

    "Real time" like with bounded deadlines, right? Or maybe you mean "live", "online" or "nonstop"?

  11. Kernel 4 is supposed to support hot plug? by Parker+Lewis · · Score: 1

    KSplice is not news, and it works for other distros too, including Ubuntu (while it takes a while to add support for new hardware enablements). It was cool before kernel 4.

    But kernel 4 series is not supposed to support hot plug out of the box?

  12. KSplice have been available, but only for $$$ by nsushkin · · Score: 1

    KSplice is only available to Oracle Linux customers with Oracle Linux Premier Support, which is $1.3k/year+ http://www.ksplice.com/

  13. Funny by ebvwfbw · · Score: 1

    I have admins that keep telling me they can't keep the OEL machines up to date more than 3 months because Oracle releases patches on a 3 month schedule. Even then, we have to have a patch set made just for us.

    I'll believe it when I see it.