CentOS - Oct 2012 - Completely automatic yum updating on Centos 6

I am about to set up a computer with Centos 6 that I'll probably never see
again.  I don't want to give out the root password, but I would like to have
it
automatically and transparently update itself.

What is the best way to do this?  I have been looking at webpages about yum-cron
and yum-updatesd but nothing directly addresses Centos 6 and it appears that at
least one of those two methods is now obsolete.

-- 
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> I am about to set up a computer with Centos 6 that I'll probably never
see
> again.  I don't want to give out the root password, but I would like to
> have it
> automatically and transparently update itself.
>
> What is the best way to do this?  I have been looking at webpages about
> yum-cron
> and yum-updatesd but nothing directly addresses Centos 6 and it appears
> that at
> least one of those two methods is now obsolete.
While you could certainly set a regular cron job I wouldn't recommend
doing this. While a great many updates are non-intrusive, some could cause
applications to stop working properly until restarted.

Then there's kernel updates, which require reboots, but which do not
happen automatically upon installation...and if the system does not
reboot, properly after that update, someone is going to have to lay hands
on the keyboard.

Point being that it's probably better if someone plans on running an
attended, periodic update.
-- 
Mike Burger
http://www.bubbanfriends.org

"It's always suicide-mission this, save-the-planet that. No one ever
just
stops by to say 'hi' anymore." --Colonel Jack O'Neill, SG1

On Thu, 25 Oct 2012, Frank Cox wrote:
> To: centos at centos.org
> From: Frank Cox <theatre at melvilletheatre.com>
> Subject: [CentOS] Completely automatic yum updating on Centos 6
> 
> I am about to set up a computer with Centos 6 that I'll probably never
see
> again.  I don't want to give out the root password, but I would like to
have it
> automatically and transparently update itself.
>
> What is the best way to do this?  I have been looking at webpages about
yum-cron
> and yum-updatesd but nothing directly addresses Centos 6 and it appears
that at
> least one of those two methods is now obsolete.
Hello Frank.

What about doing a ssh root login to the box from far away, 
and then running yum check-update, to see what the 
consequences of updating the box could do before 
commiting to the update first?

HTH

Keith

From: Frank Cox <theatre at melvilletheatre.com>
> I am about to set up a computer with Centos 6 that I'll probably never
see
> again.? I don't want to give out the root password, but I would like to
have
> it automatically and transparently update itself.
What about .rpmsave and .rpmnew files...?
How long does the apps support the old configurations files formats...?

JD

On Thursday, October 25, 2012 03:05:56 PM Frank Cox
wrote:
> I am about to set up a computer with Centos 6 that I'll probably never
see
> again.  I don't want to give out the root password, but I would like to
> have it automatically and transparently update itself.
Now, what I'm about to say may sound a little strange; I am a CentOS user,
and
have pretty much standardized on it for my applications.

But, having said that, this is more suited to the Scientific Linux model, where 
you can choose to stay at a particular point release and only take security 
updates.  There are extra packages for SL that make it easy to implement what 
you are wanting to do.

If I were needing to do what you're wanting to do, that's what I'd
do, as it's
close enough to CentOS to where everything will work the same way. 

But, having said all of that, it must be said that the SL update 
'nondisruptive index' is not 100%; it is really close to 100%, but there
have
been a few niggles over the years.

On 10/26/12, Sorin Srbu <sorin.srbu at orgfarm.uu.se>
wrote:
> -----Original Message-----
> From: centos-bounces at centos.org [mailto:centos-bounces at centos.org] On
Behalf
>
> Of Frank Cox
> Sent: den 26 oktober 2012 00:19
> To: centos at centos.org
> Subject: Re: [CentOS] Completely automatic yum updating on Centos 6
>>
>>So if I plan to log into it remotely, I'll have to have it report
its
>> current
>>address to me on occasion.
>>
>>Which probably wouldn't be a bad thing, anyway.
>
> How would one do that?
>
> Using an applet from eg Noip.com or something bashish that mails you the
> info?
Personally, for systems on dynamic IPs that I need to be able to log
into, I have cronjobs that just hit a specific web page on one of my
domains and a simple script records the IP.

On Friday, October 26, 2012 10:41:19 AM Les Mikesell
wrote:
> On Fri, Oct 26, 2012 at 8:23 AM, Lamar Owen <lowen at pari.edu>
wrote:
> > But, having said all of that, it must be said that the SL update
> > 'nondisruptive index' is not 100%; it is really close to 100%,
but there
> > have been a few niggles over the years.
> 
> How many things have you had break from a Centos update?
While there haven't been many, I haven't counted, and those things would
have
broken with upstream EL as well.  The worst one was back in EL4 days when a 
kernel update in the PCI enumeration order caused eth0 and eth1 to swap ports 
on some Dell servers I had.