Problem Statement
Describe how an operating system would handle a kernel panic or fatal error in production, including the steps it might take to recover or minimise service impact.
Explanation
When an OS encounters a kernel panic or fatal error the typical steps are: 1) Immediately halt or freeze further non-critical activities to prevent corruption. 2) Log diagnostic information (stack trace, register state, memory dump) so engineers can analyse root cause. 3) Attempt automatic recovery if supported (e.g., reboot to safe mode or use a redundant node in high availability systems). 4) For critical services the OS or platform might trigger fail-over to a standby system, preserve user sessions or state if possible, and restore service quickly. 5) On restart perform integrity checks (file system check, memory diagnostic) before resuming full operations. Mentioning high-availability OS patterns (redundant kernel, live patching) adds depth.
