2018-06-27 (last updated at June 28th, 2018) Michael BoelenKernel, Linux 14 comments

Livepatch: Linux kernel updates without rebooting

If you run a Linux server, software patching is a task that will have to be performed on a regular basis. Although most programs can be auto-restarted with a tool like needrestart, there is one exception: the kernel. Wouldn’t it be a nice if we could update the kernel without the mandatory reboot? Here is livepatch, the feature of the Linux kernel that makes it possible. Let’s discover how it works and if you can use it on your system. […]

2014-12-15 (last updated at January 4th, 2015) Michael BoelenLinux, Monitoring, System Administration 9 comments

How to check if your Arch Linux system needs a reboot

Arch Linux reboots How to check if a reboot is needed By default Arch will install the kernel in /boot with the name vmlinuz-linux. To determine if the system is running the latest kernel, we can compare the running kernel and the one on disk. Running kernel One way to determine the running kernel is with the uname command. By default installed and with the -r parameter it will provide the kernel release version. [root@archlinux ~]# uname -r 3.17.4-1-ARCH Kernel […]

2014-08-06 (last updated at March 6th, 2017) Michael BoelenLinux Leave a comment

Check for a required reboot on Debian and Ubuntu systems

Required restart required? Administrators of Debian-based systems know they have to reboot their systems, just like any other Linux distribution. However, why is the reboot needed? Could we monitor for which systems need an actual reboot? Required reboot Software can contain issues, which we call bugs. Most bugs are just annoying if you encounter them and can be fixed by upgrading to a newer version of the software. Other bugs are special in the way that they may leak sensitive […]