Ksplice
Developer(s) | Ksplice, Inc. |
---|---|
Initial release | 23 April 2008[1] |
Stable release | 1.0.35
|
Website | www |
Ksplice is an open-source[2][3] extension of the Linux kernel that allows security patches to be applied to a running kernel without the need for reboots, avoiding downtimes and improving availability (a technique broadly referred to as dynamic software updating). Ksplice supports only the patches that do not make significant semantic changes to kernel's data structures.[4]
Ksplice has been implemented for Linux on the x86-64 and AArch64 architectures.[5] It was developed by Ksplice, Inc. until 21 July 2011, when Oracle acquired Ksplice and then offered support for Oracle Linux. Support for Red Hat Enterprise Linux was dropped and turned into a free 30-day trial for RHEL customers as an incentive to migrate to Oracle Linux Premier Support.[6][7]
Ksplice is today offered on the two kernel flavors distributed with Oracle Linux:
As of July 2015[update], Ksplice is available for free on desktop Linux installations, with official support available for Ubuntu Linux distribution.[8]
Design
Ksplice takes as input a
To apply a patch, Ksplice first freezes execution of a computer so it is the only program running. The system verifies that no
To be fully automatic, Ksplice's design was originally limited to patches that did not introduce
History
The Ksplice software was created by four MIT students based on Jeff Arnold's master's thesis,[12] and they later created Ksplice, Inc. Around May 2009, the company won the MIT $100K Entrepreneurship Competition and the Cyber Security Challenge of Global Security Challenge.
Whereas the Ksplice software was provided under an open source license, Ksplice, Inc. provided a service to make it easier to use the software. Ksplice, Inc. provided prebuilt and tested updates for the
On 21 July 2011, Oracle Corporation announced that they acquired Ksplice, Inc. At the time the company was acquired, Ksplice, Inc. claimed to have over 700 companies using the service to protect over 100,000 servers. While the service had been available for multiple Linux distributions, it was stated at the time of acquisition that "Oracle believes it will be the only enterprise Linux provider that can offer zero downtime updates." More explicitly, "Oracle does not plan to support the use of Ksplice technology with Red Hat Enterprise Linux."[7] Existing legacy customers continue to be supported by Ksplice, but no new customers are being accepted for other platforms.[15]
As of July 2015[update], Ksplice is available for free on Ubuntu Desktop.[8] In January 2016, Ksplice was integrated into Oracle's Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel Release 4 for Oracle Linux 6 and 7, which is Oracle's redistribution of Red Hat Enterprise Linux.[16]
As of March 2023, Ksplice is integrated into:
- Oracle's Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel Releases 5, 6 and 7, distributed with Oracle Linux 7, Oracle Linux 8 and Oracle Linux 9
- Red Hat Compatible Kernel releases distributed with Oracle Linux 7, Oracle Linux 8 and Oracle Linux 9
See also
- kexec, a method for loading a whole new kernel from a running system
- kGraft, kpatch and KernelCare, other Linux kernel live patching technologies developed by SUSE, Red Hat and CloudLinux, respectively
- Loadable kernel module
References
- LKML (Mailing list). Archived from the originalon 11 May 2012. Retrieved 27 July 2013.
- ^ a b "Ksplice Uptrack Subscription Agreement". ksplice.com. 28 September 2011. Retrieved 18 November 2014.
- ^ a b "ksplice 0.9.9.1 source code, README file". oss.oracle.com. 28 July 2011. Retrieved 31 December 2014.
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License, version 2.
- ^ "Ubuntu Manpage: ksplice-create – Create a set of kernel modules for a rebootless kernel". manpages.ubuntu.com. 2009. Retrieved 23 November 2014.
- ^ "Ksplice Users Guide: Available Architectures" (PDF). docs.oracle.com. 2023. Retrieved 22 March 2023.
- ^ "Free 30-day trial of Ksplice Zero-Downtime Updates for Red Hat Enterprise Linux Customers". Ksplice.
- ^ a b "Customer Letter Oracle and Ksplice". Oracle. 7 September 2010. Retrieved 22 July 2011.
- ^ a b "Oracle Ksplice Free Desktop Edition". Oracle Ksplice. Oracle. 16 July 2015. Retrieved 16 July 2015.
Oracle Ksplice is offered for free on Fedora and Ubuntu Desktop Editions.
- ^ a b c Jeff Arnold; M. Frans Kaashoek. "Ksplice: Automatic Rebootless Kernel Updates" (PDF). mit.edu. Retrieved 18 November 2014.
- ^ "Nexcess Adopts Ksplice Uptrack "Rebootless" Technology". Nexcess. 30 November 2010. Retrieved 18 February 2011.
- ^ "Performance record". Ksplice. Archived from the original on 16 April 2009. Retrieved 4 June 2009.
- LWN. Retrieved 21 July 2011.
- ^ "Ksplice Uptrack". Ksplice. Retrieved 19 July 2009.
- ^ "Pricing". Ksplice, Inc. Retrieved 13 March 2011.
- ^ "Supported Kernels". Ksplice website. Oracle America. Retrieved 13 February 2012.
- ^ Marius Nestor (9 January 2016). "Oracle Brings Real-Time Kernel Patching to Its Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel Release 4". softpedia.com. Retrieved 9 January 2016.