KernelCare Installation Guide

KernelCare is fabulous kernel update tool by CloudLinux. We started testing this kernel patch in a few servers and the result has been truly amazing, allowing us to avoid server downtime after kernel updates because of each server reboot we had to apply after the kernel was updated. Today we will show you how to run a KernelCare installation.

KC keeps your server online without reboots, and always patched against the latest kernel vulnerabilities, just take 1 minute to install and it will bring your server a new level of uptime. The best is that KC runs almost on any popular linux distros, like the following ones:

CentOS 5.x, CentOS 6.x, CentOS 7.x, RHEL 5.x, RHEL 6.x, RHEL 7.x, CloudLinux OS 5.x, CloudLinux OS 6.x, CloudLinux OS 7.x, Debian 6.x, Debian 7.x, Xen4CentOS 6, Xen4CentOS 7, Proxmox 3.x, Proxmox 4.x, Ubuntu 14.04 LTS, Ubuntu 16.04 LTS and Virtuozzo/OpenVZ 2.6.32. A full list of compatible kernels can be found here: http://patches.kernelcare.com/.

KernelCare Installation Steps

In order to install KernelCare on a RPM system like CentOS or RHEL, use the following commands:

rpm -i https://downloads.kernelcare.com/kernelcare-latest.x86_64.rpm

To install KernelCare on Debian based system like Debian or Ubuntu run:

wget https://downloads.kernelcare.com/kernelcare-latest.deb
dpkg -i kernelcare-latest.deb

How can I check if KernelCare installation is ready and working?

Simple, just run kcarectl with the ‘–info’ option:

/usr/bin/kcarectl --info

KernelCare checks automatically every 4 hours if there is a new kernel patch, but if you want to run the kernelcare update manually, issue this command:

/usr/bin/kcarectl --update

Output on a CentOS 6.x platform:

[[email protected]:~]rpm -i https://downloads.kernelcare.com/kernelcare-latest.x86_64.rpm
warning: /var/tmp/rpm-tmp.6GQ5pr: Header V4 DSA/SHA1 Signature, key ID cdef74bb: NOKEY
Requesting trial license for my.server.ip, please wait...
Requesting trial license for my.server.ip, please wait...
Requesting trial license for my.server.ip, please wait...
[[email protected]:~]/usr/bin/kcarectl --register XXXXXXXXXXX
Server Registered
[[email protected]:~]/usr/bin/kcarectl --info
kpatch-state: patch is applied
kpatch-for: Linux version 2.6.32-642.4.2.el6.x86_64 ([email protected]) (gcc version 4.4.7 20120313 (Red Hat 4.4.7-17) (GCC) ) #1 SMP Tue Aug 23 19:58:13 UTC 2016
kpatch-build-time: Fri Oct 21 10:03:12 2016
kpatch-description: 4;2.6.32-642.6.2.el6.x86_64
[[email protected]:~]/usr/bin/kcarectl --update
Kernel is safe
[[email protected]:~]

How can I uninstall KernelCare?

In order to uninstall KernelCare, you’ll need to run the following command:

yum remove kernelcare

About the Author: Martin Keler

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