[CentOS] Reboots

[Shawn M. Jones]

Prasad Pillarisetti wrote:

>***Do you perform downtimes just for the purpose of rebooting the systems?
>***Is there a recommended interval Linux system should be rebooted?
>  
>
In my experience, a Linux system must be rebooted in the following 
circumstances:
1. The kernel (especially one with a security patch) is upgraded
2. glibc is upgraded and the individual instances of old versions in RAM 
are impacting performance (mostly from kernel processes that cannot be 
restarted unless one does a reboot)
3. Non-hot swappable hardware failure
4. A kernel module (usually a proprietary hardware driver) is 
malfunctioning in some way

I'm sure I can come up with more circumstances, but the jist is:
1.  If the hardware is fine, you will not *need* to reboot.
2.  If the kernel is updated, you must reboot to use the new kernel.
3.  If glibc is updated, you must reboot to have many processes use the 
new glibc.

Hope this helps,

--Shawn