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AndyM
Asked: 2012-03-29 10:58:49 +0800 CST

Redhat Kernel patching advice

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An audit has pointed out that a RHEL server I manage has not had the latest kernel patches applied. I'm confused about kernel patching and within RHEL in relation to RHEL dot releases i.e 5.2 , 5.3 ,5.4 ..... Can someone answer these questions ?

  1. If I want to stay at a dot release of RHEL, say 5.4, can apply just updates to the 5.4 kernel or will applying kernel updates bring the server to a later dot release by default? The reason for this question is that I have applications that are only supported on say RHEL5.4 and going to a more recent dot release of RHEL 5 would break the support.

  2. I have some HP psp hba drivers compiled against the currently installed kernel, will applying a kernel update break these drivers as they were complied against the orginal kernel ?

  3. Anything else I need to look out for with regards to kernel patching ?

linux redhat hp hp-proliant kernel

1 Answers

  1. Best Answer
    1. even within the same minor version, there are different kernel updates so definitely you can stay 5.4 and update your kernel.
    2. how did you compile the drivers? unless you have used dkms (search for that), you will have to recompile if you upgrade the kernel.
    3. there is something called ksplice which may do what you want. search for that again for details. it dynamically patches a running kernel to block vulnerabilities.
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