Late last month SUSE announced it’s been working on an open source research project that allows live, runtime patching of the Linux kernel. Currently in the prototype stage, kGraft promises to cut system downtime – a direct benefit to mission-critical computing and scientific research.
“It is longed for by scientists who really do not want to stop a simulation that has been running for the past few months – just because of a needed kernel stability fix,” wrote SUSE Labs Director Vojtech Pavlik in a blog announcing kGraft. “IT staff who run their machines without critical security patches, because the departments they serve cannot agree on a good time for scheduled downtime, dream about it in their sleepless nights.”
In advance of the first code release due in March, SUSE kernel developer Jiri Slaby gives a sneak peek at this new technology in the demonstration video, below. SUSE plans to submit the code to the upstream kernel and will discuss the project in more detail at the Linux Foundation Collaboration Summit, March 26-28 in Napa (by invitation only.)
Watch for an upcoming Q&A with SUSE on the kGraft project here on Linux.com!