OT: RE: Looking for some upgrade advice

[John Esak]

>
> I suspect the only reason I haven't seen comparable uptimes on my linux
> systems is because the kernel updates require a reboot.  I talked directly
> to the 2nd in charge of the kernel, as well as some of the other kernel
> devs, and the consensus was that if I wanted a hot-swappable kernel, I
> could go and write the hot-swap code myself.  They didn't consider it a
> priority, or even desirable.

As you know, the *last* thing in the world I want to do is start a Linux
thread here. :-)

BUT... this is something I hadn't considered in our upcoming major move to
SuSe Linux. We have a situation where the main *nix server (currently SCO
OpenServer 5.6) can NOT go down at all. Literally, it is used to produce
various things, mostly bar code lables 365/24/7... with absolutely NO down
time at all except for two week long vacations during the year and some
other extremely special circumstances... hardly would I called these
"planned maintenance"... mor like get in whatever we can because the system
went down for some unforeseen reason! :-)  Very occasionally, and I mean
very occasionally, we can stop the constant transactional postings (and
label printing) for a few minutes... rally, just a few. Otherwise, it
becomes much like the "I Love Lucy" chocolate factory conveyor belt scene.

What, seriously, are we going to do in this situation. I was kin of hoping
we could find a *stable* Linux... meaning a kernel that does not need that
much or *any* patching. Are you talking about real security problems, or
feature upgrades? We simply can not bring the mahcine down for either
reason... at least not on *any* kind of ongoing basis.... how in the world
does *anyone* cope with such a situation.

Yes, yes, I'm constantly considering and devising possible methods to
de-reference our main databases and CPU's from this immediate hardware
interface... but to date, I have not come up with anything that would work
well enough to meet the need. Our systems are currently up-to-the-minute and
pretty much *have* to stay that way.

Suggestions?

John Esak