Oracle Ksplice Zero-Downtime Patching for Ubuntu Instances

August 1, 2019 | 2 minute read
Julie Wong
Product Management Director, Oracle Linux and Virtualization
Text Size 100%:

We recently announced Oracle Ksplice patching support for Red Hat Enterprise Linux and CentOS instances deployed on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure. We have now extended Oracle Ksplice support to Ubuntu instances on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure at no additional cost. With Oracle Ksplice support, you can keep your Ubuntu systems secure and highly available, and update your cloud instances with the latest kernel, security, and bug fix updates without requiring a reboot and costly downtime. Oracle Cloud Infrastructure is the only cloud provider to offer zero-downtime patching for Linux systems, including Oracle Linux, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, CentOS, and Ubuntu.

Ubuntu instances receive regular, critical security updates to core OS components that require patching and rebooting. Traditionally, applying such updates has required you to obtain and install the updated Ubuntu packages, schedule and coordinate downtime, and reboot your instances. When you use Oracle Ksplice in Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, Ubuntu updates can be applied automatically or manually with zero downtime. Access to your services and applications remains undisrupted, and your Ubuntu instances in the cloud stay up-to-date with the latest critical OS vulnerability patches.

It’s easy to get started. 

First, install Oracle Ksplice on your Ubuntu instance on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure:

# wget -N https://ksplice.oracle.com/uptrack/install-uptrack-oc

# sh install-uptrack-oc

Then, install the latest available updates by running the following command:

# uptrack-upgrade -y

Note that the minimum Ubuntu kernel version supported with Oracle Ksplice on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure is 4.15.0-1017.19. 

If you prefer to set up automatic updates, set autoinstall = yes in the /etc/uptrack/uptrack.conf file after installation.

To stay informed about the Oracle Ksplice updates for Ubuntu, see the release notifications.

For more information about installing and using Oracle Ksplice in Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, see the installation instructions and the Ksplice User's Guide. A short video is also available that shows how easy it is to use Oracle Ksplice in Oracle Cloud Infrastructure.

Patch your Ubuntu instances on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure today with Oracle Ksplice, and see for yourself how you can save time and money, and prevent disastrous security incidents by keeping your systems up-to-date at all times. To get started, create an Oracle Cloud Infrastructure account and claim your free cloud credits.

More Information

Julie Wong

Product Management Director, Oracle Linux and Virtualization

Oracle Chatbot
Disconnected