Ksplice and CA PAM SC

Products

• CA Privileged Access Manager - Server Control (PAMSC)

Issue/Introduction

Oracle provides uptrack kplice technology in Oracle Linux which allows for hot patching without requiring server reboots.

The question is what must be done to have PAM SC run in those machines where Ksplice will be used so that there is no adverse interaction

Resolution

The safest way to have PAM SC coexist with ksplice kernel upgrades is follow this procedure while updating drivers:

1. Stop PAMSC services
2. update drivers using KSPlice
3. Start PAMSC services

This procedure will ensure that even if the KSplice alters the memory referenced by PAMSC drivers, and PAMSC drivers will always refer to updated kernel addresseses.

There is no need to unload the kernel extensions while doing this: just stop PAM SC services.