Linux Reliability & Lifecycle: Time Sync, Logging, Shutdown, and Patching
Executive Summary Reliability means predictable, auditable behavior. This guide covers:
Time sync: Chrony for clock accuracy (critical for logging, security) Networking: Stable interface names & hostnames (infrastructure consistency) Logging: Persistent journald + logrotate (audit trail + disk management) Shutdown: Clean hooks to prevent data loss Patching: Kernel updates with livepatch (zero-downtime), tested rollback 1. Time Synchronization (chrony) Why Time Matters Critical for:
Logging: Accurate timestamps for debugging, compliance audits Security: TLS cert validation, Kerberos, API token expiry Distributed systems: Causality ordering (happens-before relationships) Monitoring: Alert timing, metric correlation Cost of poor time sync:
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