Linux reliability to six nines

[gui.fortaine@xxxxxxxxx (Guillaume FORTAINE)]

Misters,

FYI :

http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/linux/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=207100950

Part of the purpose of the summit, now in its second year, is to let 
business users interact with Linux kernel developers. One IT pro glad to 
have the opportunity was Ed Reaves, a Nortel technology platform manager 
from Research Triangle Park, N.C.

End users and server admins are happy with Linux's current five-nines 
uptime, Reaves said, but Nortel and other telecom companies would like 
to move Linux reliability to six nines, or one outage of about 30 
seconds a year. In response, Nortel's Linux developers produced a block 
of code that restarts Linux in 20 seconds in the event of a glitch; 
however, that patch doesn't appear to be moving into the kernel, to the 
dismay of Nortel executives.

"How do you get a kernel patch released into the mainline?" Reaves 
asked, referring to the development process that steers additions to the 
kernel past reviewers and into a hierarchical code tree maintained by 
Linus Torvalds. That led to a discussion of the difficulties inherent in 
the code review process that must happen before a proposed patch makes 
its way into the kernel.

"The limiting resource is not development of code but review of code," 
said Jonathan Corbet, a kernel developer. The Nortel patch, it turns 
out, is a sizable block of code requiring reviewers with knowledge of a 
particular part of the kernel.




I look forward to Your Answer,

Best Regards,

Guillaume FORTAINE
"I have root @ Google"