Live updating operating systems using virtualization

Many critical IT infrastructures require non-disruptive operations. However, the operating systems thereon are far from perfect that patches and upgrades are frequently applied, in order to close vulnerabilities, add new features and enhance performance. To mitigate the loss of availability, such operating systems need to provide features such as live update through which patches and upgrades can be applied without having to stop and reboot the operating system. Unfortunately, most current live updating approaches cannot be easily applied to existing operating systems: some are tightly bound to specific design approaches (e.g. object-oriented); others can only be used under particular circumstances (e.g. quiescence states). In this paper, we propose using virtualization to provide the live update capability. The proposed approach allows a broad range of patches and upgrades to be applied at any time without the requirement of a quiescence state. Moreover, such approach shares good po...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2006
• Where: VEE
• Authors: Haibo Chen, Rong Chen, Fengzhe Zhang, Binyu Zang, Pen-Chung Yew
• Keywords: Live Update, Live Update Capability, Operating Systems, VEE 2006, Virtualization