David Kirk wrote: >> >> (btw, I once heard of some people trying to change the running kernel >> without >> rebooting... and I think there was some discussion on it on here a >> while ago? >> if anyone knows more I'd be interested :) > I recall a recent discussion were someone mentioned replacing a kernel without rebooting on an IBM Z-Series. Is that the one?
It's my understanding that on a Z-Series (or s390) you can run an instance of a Linux O/S in a native LPAR (logical partition) or multiple instances as VMs (Virtual Machines) in an LPAR. And you can partition a machine into multiple LPARS etc. and of course each O/S instance can be a different version (or even a different distro) . So sure you can replace and restart instances of linux without 'rebooting' the physical machine. If we are talking about dynamically replacing an instance of a running [linux] kernel while allowing services and applications it's hosting to continue running (slight pause allowed), then I suspect that will be a tricky one to pull off :-) I too would be interested in hearing more on this subject..
