SUSE Linux Enterprise Live Patching Is kGraft-Based

Live kernel patching is now officially available on SUSE Linux Enterprise. SUSE announced the availability today of SUSE Linux Enterprise Live Patching, a means of performing kernel patching without the need for reboots. The SUSE Linux Enterprise Live Patching is based on their kGraft technology.

SUSE announced kGraft back in February as an alternative to Ksplice and the announcement was followed a few weeks later by Red Hat introducing Kpatch as their live patching mechanism. kGraft has been open-source since March and they've tried mainlining kGraft but it hasn't yet made it upstream.

Given Red Hat's Kpatch, there's been mixed views on what kernel live patching method is superior. Earlier this month were new Linux live kernel patching patches that take a mixed approach between kGraft and Kpatch. Anyhow, for those wanting to perform system patches against SUSE Linux Enterprise, it's supported today using kGraft.

SUSE Linux Enterprise Live Patching is supported for x86_64 SLES 12 servers with a priorty support subscription and primary/designated support engineer service support from SUSE. More details in the press release.