Oracle Buys Ksplice

#1

Post by Erwin » Thu, Jul 21, 2011, 8:18 PM UTC

Re: Oracle Buys Ksplice

#2

Post by Erwin » Thu, Jul 21, 2011, 8:24 PM UTC

Due to some strange kernel driver for an attached storage device requiring multiple reboots and whatnot, kernel updates have always been a pain for me requiring an hour of downtime -- until I found Ksplice.

From the text of the email I got however, it seems like they do not intend to make the service available outside of Oracle's own Linux variant:

    > The Ksplice Uptrack service is planned to be included 
    > as a standard part of Oracle Linux Premier Support, 
    > and we will no longer be selling the service 
    > separately to new customers moving forward. 
    > As an existing Ksplice customer,  
    > you may continue to renew your subscriptions 
    > and add additional systems to your account as before

Same can be implied from http://www.oracle.com/us/corporate/Acquisitions/ksplice/gene... which says:

    >  Oracle is expected to be the only enterprise
    > Linux vendor that can offer zero downtime update

Re: Oracle Buys Ksplice

#3

Post by rwmj » Thu, Jul 21, 2011, 10:16 PM UTC

If your servers can't ever be rebooted, I think you have problems.

Re: Oracle Buys Ksplice

#4

Post by cpeterso » Thu, Jul 21, 2011, 10:44 PM UTC

Ksplice Inc. must have some unique patents. I wonder if Oracle will merge this technology into Solaris.

Re: Oracle Buys Ksplice

#5

Post by soult » Thu, Jul 21, 2011, 10:50 PM UTC

rwmj wrote: post #3

If your servers can't ever be rebooted, I think you have problems.

From what I have heard, ksplice is pretty popular with VPS (virtual private server) providers. When there is an exploitable bug, they have to announce the planned upgrade to their customers and wait for a few days until they can run the upgrade. Even worse, they basically announce that there is a hole in their system to the very people that already have elevated access to that system. (Even non-remotly-exploitable bugs are a problem here.) Ksplice allows for an upgrade as soon as the bug is found/fixed in source code without tipping off potential attackers that could exploit the bug.

Re: Oracle Buys Ksplice

#6

Post by mother » Thu, Jul 21, 2011, 10:52 PM UTC

I love this service.

And now, Oracle has immediately dropped support for RHEL. For shame, Oracle.

Re: Oracle Buys Ksplice

#7

Post by koenigdavidmj » Thu, Jul 21, 2011, 10:52 PM UTC

cpeterso wrote: post #4

Ksplice Inc. must have some unique patents. I wonder if Oracle will merge this technology into Solaris.

I wonder whether Microsoft thinks it falls under http://www.google.com/patents?id=cVyWAAAAEBAJ&dq=hotpatc... .

Re: Oracle Buys Ksplice

#8

Post by KonradKlause » Thu, Jul 21, 2011, 10:52 PM UTC

Time to fork it!

http://knoppix.mirrors.tds.net/pub/linux/frugalware/frugalwa...

Re: Oracle Buys Ksplice

#9

Post by Erwin » Thu, Jul 21, 2011, 11:07 PM UTC

KonradKlause wrote: post #8

Time to fork it! http://knoppix.mirrors.tds.net/pub/linux/frugalware/frugalwa...

The big value of Ksplice for me is that I'm paying a few $/server/month for a service that writes, tests and distributes those live binary kernel patches when the exploits come out. So it can't be just some volunteer OS work, there also needs to be a support organization.

Re: Oracle Buys Ksplice

#10

Post by tzs » Thu, Jul 21, 2011, 11:08 PM UTC

The old Unix hacker in me likes Ksplice, from a hacker point of view.

However, I wouldn't use it, except in exceptional circumstances (e.g., there is a patch we have to apply now but we can't do scheduled down time). I want to reboot after an update--even an update that does not technically require it--because I want to know my system is in a state that can boot.

It is very annoying to do some update, not reboot, and then a couple of months later a power failure takes down your systems and when power is restored you get some kind of boot error and you are wondering what in the last several months you did that broke it.

A few minutes planned downtime now in much better than hours of unplanned downtime at some indeterminate future time.