Unattended linux updates

[mick at pauldotcom.com (Michael Douglas)]

Let me second puppet.  That tool is fan-freaking-tastic.  Now for 20
systems, it is just hitting the point at which it's worth it... but if
you're a LISA (large installation sys admin) you will find it to be
worth its weight in gold  (OK so maybe a software package doesn't have
a weight per se, but you know what I'm saying)

IMO, it's one of those underused apps, which is a shame since it's such a peach.


- Mick


On Mon, Jul 20, 2009 at 9:42 PM, Matt Lye<lyematt at gmail.com> wrote:
> I have done a similar thing under Ubuntu with no problems.
>
> Under Linux its better not to use cron itself, but to use cron.daily,
> cron.weekly, or cron.monthly as found in /etc.
>
> If a machine is off when a cron is ment to run, it will not run, if its
> added to one of the later crons it will run the next time its started.
>
> For Ubuntu just add apt-get update && upgrade to one of the cron.<something>
>
> -Matthew Lye
>
> You can do anything you set your mind to when you have vision,
> determination, and and endless supply of expendable labor.
> <No tree's were harmed during this transmission. However, a great number of
> electrons were terribly inconvenienced>
>
>
> On Tue, Jul 21, 2009 at 10:56 AM, Nathan Sweaney <NSweaney at tulsacash.com>
> wrote:
> > Dan McGinn-Combs said ?I used to have a Gentoo server auto-update itself.
> > What a pain in the pah-tooey. I recently tried it with an ARCH linux box. No
> > go. For some reason the PERL update wouldn't download and it kept bombing
> > out.?
> >
> > I?ve had similar experiences in the past as well.? That?s why I was
> > wondering if anyone had actual experience with it working successfully in
> > any particular distro.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > d4ncingd4n at gmail.com said ?Not to be a stick in the mud but, you shouldn't
> > allow any mission-critical servers to auto-update. Updates should be tested
> > prior to deployment. Otherwise all hell breaks loose the instant you patch
> > the last box. It's a cruel law of nature.?
> >
> > Agreed, but these aren?t mission-critical, just a pain when they go down.
> > And when I made your point to the customer, they asked why a box that
> > ?might? go down would be worse than boxes that ?do? go down.
> >
> >
> >
> > Several people mentioned that croning the updates should work, and I?m
> > working on a few testbeds, but I?ve still yet to find anyone that actually
> > does it (and is happy) with distro X.
> >
> >
> >
> > - Nathan
> >
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