# KernelCare - Rebootless Kernel Updates



## AMDbuilder (May 15, 2014)

It looks like the folks over at CloudLinux are looking to shake up the rebootless kernel update market with their introduction of KernelCare (http://kernelcare.com/).  They announced pricing on March 30th, with retail sales starting on the 1st, so it's a newer solution, but looks promising.

They support CentOS6, RHEL6, CloudLinux 6, OpenVZ for x86_64 unmodified kernels currently, with more coming down the road.

Anyone give this a shot yet, and if so how has it been working for you?


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## MannDude (May 15, 2014)

Nice. Curious how it compares to KSplice.


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## WebSearchingPro (May 15, 2014)

KGraft is an open source and *free* alternative to KSplice and KernelCare, it was released to the public about 3 weeks ago.

https://www.suse.com/communities/conversations/kgraft-live-kernel-patching-now-available-download/

Edit: There is also one called KPatch, these tools are less automated than KernelCare, but in that you will have more control over the patching process. 

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One thing to note about procedurally updating the kernel this way is the kernel may not have issues while your server is running, but if the server gets rebooted a patch may cause some unforeseen issue and the server may not boot properly. I've seen mentions of this as a potential pitfall for tools such as this.


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## jenok (May 16, 2014)

Too bad, no xen


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## blergh (May 16, 2014)

I've been a ksplice customer since 2010 or so, sticking with that as it's cheap & proven to work.


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## LusoVPS (May 17, 2014)

Well, redhat does support this for I don't know how long (at least 3 years?). But it's quite nice that they're applying it to other distros.


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## HostSailor (May 27, 2014)

AMDbuilder said:


> It looks like the folks over at CloudLinux are looking to shake up the rebootless kernel update market with their introduction of KernelCare (http://kernelcare.com/).  They announced pricing on March 30th, with retail sales starting on the 1st, so it's a newer solution, but looks promising.
> 
> They support CentOS6, RHEL6, CloudLinux 6, OpenVZ for x86_64 unmodified kernels currently, with more coming down the road.
> 
> Anyone give this a shot yet, and if so how has it been working for you?


Ksplice offers only services to oracle linux I think now, so thank you for the share, will give kernelcare a try.


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## BlackoutIsHere (May 27, 2014)

Wow this looks really interesting. Will definitely keep up with this and see how it works for people.


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