Installing the Ksplice Enhanced Client From ULN

Note:

If using Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI), Ksplice is already installed by default (on all Oracle Linux instances created after August 25, 2017). For more information, see Oracle Ksplice on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure.

Before installing the Enhanced Client:

Verify that the system is running Oracle Linux 6, Oracle Linux 7, Oracle Linux 8, or Oracle Linux 9 with a supported version of either the Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel (UEK) or the Red Hat Compatible Kernel (RHCK) installed.
Use the uname -a command to verify the kernel version. See Maintained Kernels. Ksplice applies updates to the running kernel only, so ensure that the running kernel is the one you want to update.
For an online client, register the system with ULN and verify it has a connection to the Oracle Uptrack server.
For an offline client, configure a local ULN mirror.

The following procedure applies only to Oracle Linux releases. To use Ksplice to patch the Xen hypervisor on Oracle VM 3.4.5 and later releases, see the Oracle VM documentation that corresponds to the release that you're running. For example, if you're running Oracle VM 3.4.5, see Updating Oracle VM Server With Oracle Ksplice in the Oracle VM Administration Guide for Release 3.4.

Note:

This procedure uses the dnf command to describe many package management actions. On releases earlier than Oracle Linux 8, substitute the commands with the appropriate yum commands.

Subscribe to the necessary channels on ULN.
1. Sign in to ULN at https://linux.oracle.com. Provide the ULN username and password that you used to register the system.
2. On the Systems tab, click the link named for the system in the list of registered machines.
3. On the System Details page, click Manage Subscriptions.
  The Ksplice Enhanced client and Ksplice-aware user space packages are available in the following channels on ULN:
  - Ksplice for Oracle Linux 6 (x86_64) (ol6_x86_64_ksplice)
  - Ksplice for Oracle Linux 7 (x86_64) (ol7_x86_64_ksplice)
  - Ksplice for Oracle Linux 7 (aarch64) (ol7_aarch64_ksplice)
  - Ksplice for Oracle Linux 8 (x86_64) (ol8_x86_64_ksplice)
  - Ksplice for Oracle Linux 8 (aarch64) (ol8_aarch64_ksplice)
  - Ksplice for Oracle Linux 9 (x86_64) (ol9_x86_64_ksplice)
  - Ksplice for Oracle Linux 9 (aarch64) (ol9_aarch64_ksplice)
  - Ksplice-aware user space packages for Oracle Linux 6 (x86_64) (ol6_x86_64_userspace_ksplice)
  - Ksplice-aware user space packages for Oracle Linux 7 (x86_64) (ol7_x86_64_userspace_ksplice)
  - Ksplice-aware user space packages for Oracle Linux 7 (aarch64) (ol7_aarch64_userspace_ksplice)
  - Ksplice-aware user space packages for Oracle Linux 8 (x86_64) (ol8_x86_64_userspace_ksplice)
  - Ksplice-aware user space packages for Oracle Linux 8 (aarach64) (ol8_aarch64_userspace_ksplice)
  - Ksplice-aware user space packages for Oracle Linux 9 (x86_64) (ol9_x86_64_userspace_ksplice)
  - Ksplice-aware user space packages for Oracle Linux 9 (aarach64) (ol9_aarch64_userspace_ksplice)
4. On the System Summary page, select both the Ksplice user space and Ksplice channels from the list of available channels, then click the right arrow (>) to move them to the list of subscribed channels.
5. Accept the licensing terms for the Ksplice Enhanced client packages.
6. Save the subscription and log out of ULN.

(Optional) Configure proxy settings.

If you use an Internet proxy, you can configure the HTTP and HTTPS settings for the proxy in the shell as follows:

For the sh, ksh, or bash shells, use commands such as the following:

sudo http_proxy=http://proxy_URL:http_port
sudo https_proxy=http://proxy_URL:https_port
sudo export http_proxy https_proxy

For the csh shell, use commands such as the following:

sudo setenv http_proxy=http://proxy_URL:http_port
sudo setenv https_proxy=http://proxy_URL:https_port

Revert prelinked binaries and remove the prelink package.
If prelink is installed, revert all the prelinked binaries and any dependent libraries to their original state, then remove the prelink package:
```
sudo prelink -au
sudo dnf remove prelink
```
Note:

prelink is installed and enabled by default on Oracle Linux 6, but not Oracle Linux 7, Oracle Linux 8 or Oracle Linux 9.
Install the ksplice package.
- For the Ksplice online client, use the following command:
```
sudo dnf install -y ksplice uptrack
```
- For the Ksplice offline client, use the following command:
```
sudo dnf install -y ksplice ksplice-offline uptrack-offline
```
The access key for Ksplice Uptrack is retrieved from ULN and added to the /etc/uptrack/uptrack.conf file, as shown in the following example:
```
[Auth]
accesskey = 0e1859ad8aea14b0b4306349142ce9160353297daee30240dab4d61f4ea4e59b
```
The following packages are installed on the system:

ksplice-core

Contains the shared user space libraries, such as glibc and openssl, that support Ksplice patching.

ksplice-helper

Contains a helper library that enables user space executables to be patched by Ksplice.

ksplice-helper-devel

Contains the development environment for creating user space libraries that support Ksplice patching.

ksplice-tools

Contains the ksplice executable and ksplice(8) manual page.
Update the system.
Update the system to install the Ksplice-aware versions of the user space libraries:
```
sudo dnf update
```
To install only the libraries and not update any other packages, limit the update to the following channels, as appropriate:
- ol6_x86_64_userspace_ksplice
- ol7_x86_64_userspace_ksplice
- ol7_aarch64_userspace_ksplice
- ol8_x86_64_userspace_ksplice
- ol8_aarch64_userspace_ksplice
- ol9_x86_64_userspace_ksplice
- ol9_aarch64_userspace_ksplice
For example, you would update the packages for the Oracle Linux 9 Ksplice user-aware x86_64 channels as follows:
```
sudo dnf --disablerepo=* --enablerepo=ol9_x86_64_userspace_ksplice update
```
You can also use the glibc* and openssl* syntax with the install command for the package manager. To use this client to perform kernel updates, install it in the same way that you use the standard Uptrack client, for example:
```
sudo dnf install uptrack-updates-$(uname -r)
```
(Optional) Enable automatic installation of updates.
To enable the automatic installation of updates, change the entry in the /etc/uptrack/uptrack.conf file from no to yes:
```
autoinstall = yes
```
Reboot the system.
Reboot the system for the changes to take effect.
```
sudo systemctl reboot
```
For Oracle Linux 6, use the following command:
```
sudo reboot
```

The Ksplice Enhanced client uses the same configuration file (/etc/uptrack/uptrack.conf) as the Ksplice Uptrack client. See Configuring the Ksplice Uptrack Client.

To manage the Ksplice Enhanced client, use the ksplice command. See Using the ksplice Command For the Ksplice Enhanced Client.