(WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — Dedicated and complex hosting provider SingleHop (www.singlehop.com) today announced a partnership with enterprise security software developer Ksplice (www.ksplice.com), which produces the powerful Uptrack software, which allows for the installation of critical security patches without having to restart, letting SingleHop quickly protect clients against security breaches.
Ksplice’s rebootless kernel update technology is like being able to replace engine components on a car — without having to pull over. SingleHop is the first web host to provide Ksplice’s rebootless kernel updates and is offering the service for free to all customers running Linux who currently subscribe to the “Kernel & OS Shield” update service and $25.00 per month for all other customers.
“Uptrack allows for a hot-bootable kernel update by using what the software developer refers to as pre-post differencing,” SingleHop lead security engineer Andrew Brooks said in a statement. “Pre-post differencing is used to generate the object code that is used for the hot update and serves as the replacement code.”
The software safely stops the CPU for a millisecond for the update procedure, according to Brooks. “The halting procedure operates on the principle that any threads currently existing on the kernel stack do not contain a return address that point back to that function’s text in memory. The safety condition is checked using the kernel’s stop_machine facility. If the safety check fails multiple times, the update is not applied and the failure is reported”.
Ksplice chief operating officer and co-founder Waseem Daher welcomed the partnership. “SingleHop’s customers have the distinct advantage that they’re with a company that clearly knows how to take advantage of new technologies to improve quality of service,” Daher said in a statement. “With most hosting companies, you need to choose between security and availability, and while everyone agrees that applying security updates is critical, most web hosts simply can’t keep your systems secure without frequently rebooting, disrupting all running applications and causing downtime. Now with Ksplice, SingleHop customers can get top security without the disruption and downtime of frequent reboots.”
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