suse: alien life forms
TRANSCRIPT
Alien Life FormsCommunities, Enterprises and All the Rest
Olaf KirchDirector SUSE Linux Enterprise, SUSE R&D
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Today, Linux is in many placesthat we weren't dreaming of
20 years ago
Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech
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Data Centers==
Enterprise Computing
Ready for a few Clichés?
9 © Neil Carey
Enterprise IT
Open Source Communities
Somewhat More Seriously
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Open Source Communities
• Show me the Code!‒ The only way to influence the outcome is by contributing
• Freedom!‒ Trying to push anyone is guaranteed to backfire
• Do the Right Thing, and Do it Well!‒ Why should your business problem matter to me?
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Enterprise IT
• Between a Rock and a Hard Place‒ Most of the time, Enterprise IT is just an internal supplier with
contracts, SLAs etc
• Change is Cost‒ Porting applications, testing, deployment, certifications,
training, support, ...
• Downtime is Expensive‒ In terms of money... (Manufacturing, Finance)
‒ ... or even Human lives (e.g. Air Traffic Control)
Some Real Life Challenges
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Maintenance Window
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Perfect. Now hold it right there.
Nifty Bike! Can I have one, too?
Compliance
It's About Adaptation and Innovation
Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech
Interstellar Travel, Anyone?
Interstellar Travel, Anyone?
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Dealing with Change: Backporting
• This used to be a one-off exercise‒ Especially when you maintain your own fork
• Many projects are very helpful!‒ Today, an increasing number of projects maintain stable
branches, or provide “stable” releases with longer term maintenance
• There are very few really difficult ones out there
• Moving from one-off to shared effort
Interstellar Travel, Anyone?
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Dealing with Change: Up-revving
• This is something we only do as part of a service pack‒ Obviously, new versions bring change
‒ And change inevitable brings regressions
‒ Functionality, ABI, config file format, ...
‒ Finding and fixing those requires significant QA
• But even in service packs, up-revving is risky
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What about the Kernel?
Traditional method: Back-porting upstream patches‒ It works, it's great
‒ But as time goes by, you end up with Frankenstein Kernels
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Up-revving the Kernel!
Alternative method: Rebase with legacy support‒ We did it in several Service Packs of SUSE Linux Enterprise
‒ It works, it's great
‒ Three cheers to the 2.6 kernel development model!
‒ Spend less time on backporting, more on hardening
‒ Only possible with sophisticated test automation
‒ Very positive experience, a new option going forward
Interstellar Travel, Anyone?
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Dealing with Change: Replacing
• You only ever do this in a major release‒ Because really good change is often painful
• Can you make Enterprise customers embrace radical change?‒ Yes, if you provide backward compatibility
‒ And yes, if you help them with the transition
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init rides the rocket: systemd is here
• Introducing systemd in SUSE Linux Enterprise 12‒ You can call this disruptive if you want :-)
• Our beta testers were fairly happy with the change‒ After they got over the initial shock, that is
‒ Providing backward compatibility (as far as possible) is key
But it's also about Innovative Solutions
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Maintenance Window
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How do you help them?
• In a running system, you can update almost everything without interrupting user processes
• Except for the kernel
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Kernel Live Patching
• Modify kernel code on a running machine‒ Without reboot
‒ Like juggling chainsaws
• Several alternative approaches exist
• kGraft, developed by SUSE Labs developers
• Launched as new offering of SUSE Linux Enterprise 12
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kGraft Technology in 60 seconds
• Replaces entire kernel functions
• Code is loaded into kernel space as a loadable module
• Kernel compiled with cc -pg‒ places a few instructions into the preamble of every function
‒ same approach as ftrace
• Activating new code by modifying that preamble‒ No need to stop the kernel
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Kernel Live Patching
• The technology all by itself is not so useful‒ Unless you also provide customers with a stream of patches
• Launches as new service on top ofSUSE Linux Enterprise 12
And about Innovative Offerings
38 © Neil Carey
They're more agilethan they look
It's about Dealing with Innovation...
Core Operating System
It's about Dealing with Innovation...
Core Operating System
• Supported for 10+3 years
• Great for your Mission Critical workloads
It's about Dealing with Innovation...
Core Operating System
• Supported for 10+3 years
• Great for your Mission Critical workloads
• But what about Ruby, PHP, ...?
Innovation at Different Speeds
Core Operating System Add-Ons and Modules
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Innovation at Different Speeds
• SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12‒ Supported for 10+3 years
• Plus Add-Ons
• Plus Modules with a shorter life cycle‒ e.g. for Web and Scripting
• Plus alternative modes of deployment‒ Appliances, docker, and all that
And it's about encouraging participation
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It's not a One-Way Street
• Enterprises are contributing to Linux already today‒ Indirectly, through Linux vendors
‒ But also directly
• Encourage Enterprises to engage more‒ The only way to influence is by contributing
• Foster understanding of Enterprise environments
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