RedHat Linux Automatic Updates

Linux and Unix-Like Red Hat
1

Hi All,

we have about 50 RedHat Linux servers (v4.x, 5.x), now we planing to configure those servers to get updates(service packs, security patches...etc) automatically. whats is the best practises to do this.

we also have SLES servers and we use Novell's SMT tool to get updates, we configured one server as central repositary to connect to novell site to get updates. then client servers connet to central repositary to get updates. That way all servers get updated.

we are looking that kind of method to update redhat servers. Any one please advice. Thanks.

2

The way to do this is through RHN, using either a RHN satellite or RHN proxy server.

redhat.com |

3

I would say, it's not a good way to update you Linux servers automatically !!!
The best approach is to plan it based on required updates and fixes.
otherwise there are hundreds of ways to schedule such update...

Regards,

4

what about YUM, Up2date. Any pros and cons with these. Thanks

5

Have you considered, as you have SLES, using Novell's update system, Zenworks Linux Management? It is cheaper than RHN Satellite and works for both

6

since we already use Novell's SMT tool for updating SLES servers and we dont have expanded support to use SMT for updating RHEL, we have to go with RHN or up2date. As per my intial understanding from docs, RHN is for V5.x and YUM or up2date is for 1.x,2.x,3.x adn 4.x. is right. if so we have mixed of 4.x and 5.x RHEL servers. since I'm much experienced with RHEL, I'm kinda confusing. any help would be appriciated.

what are the steps we need to take if we want to go with RHN or Up2date or YUM. Thanks

7

RHN uses up2date for 4.x and lower. It uses yum for 5.x and higher. It is not an "easy" tool to use, and I wonder why you would not want to consider ZLM as an option, as RHN will cost you significantly more money. RHN Satellite is NOT free.

Also, SMT is not an update tool. It is a portal. The issue is that Novell Zenworks Linux Management is a true tool to manage your updates. If you just want a portal to go to and do it relatively manually, then SMT or RHN would work.

If you want to go to a central place and manage the updates for all your machines, ZLM or RHN SATELLITE would be the option, however ZLM will work for both, at a nominal cost, and RHN Satellite is expensive.

8

As we already have SMT for updating Novell servers and also we have subscription to use RHN, we may want to go for it. But dessiion still need to be taken.

9

You are unfortunately missing one point. The subscription to RHN is not what I was discussing.

If you want to open all your machines to RHN and grab the updates that way, it can be messy. If you wanted to get a SANE solution, then RHN Satellite server (A SEPARATE PRODUCT) is the one that was being discussed.

You create your own RHN catalog locally and can do more to manage your machines. However, that is EXPENSIVE.

10

First thing, we dont want to connect all my RHEl servers to the internet (RHN). Second thing we dont have RHN satilite server (do we need to buy seperate license?). so other option you are saying is create your own RHN catalog locally and can do more to manage your machines. what we need to for this? do we need to buy any license for it?

Since all these options seems to be messy and expensive, what other options we have to update RHEL servers except ZLM.

Thanks for info.

11

Yes, that was the point was that the RHN Satellite server is another license for the host and PER CLIENT, so each machine you manage with RHN Sat is an additional fee. This is expensive

ZLM, however can be run on any SLES or even RHEL box with a minimal charge, say about $600 for the host and $40 or so per client.

The last time I looked at RHN Satellite it was in the over $10K per host range.

There are other options for managing the updates, however both RHN Satellite and ZLM will work with your current subscriptions. You have what used to be opsware (costs are high too but has a lot of great features) and some other products like it.

12

Thanks for your help Mark.

Since our company dont want spend any money in this bad ecaonamy, we are trying to find out for free options.

I found out YUM from other linux forums...
For RHEL/CentOS5, as root:

Code:
vi /etc/yum/yum-updatesd.confLook for:

Code:
do_update=yes
do_download=yes
do_download=yes

make sure that the yum-updatesd service is running.

Code:
chkconfig yum-updatesd on
service yum-updatesd start

so updated on YUM conf file on one server, But I'm not quite sure how that work. I'm trying test it some how. Hope this will work for me. Thanks

13

sometimes, free costs money in accountability, downtime, etc. If you don't have the experience to do this, and are not using something like Fedora or CentOS, then you have no option to use things like spacewalk, which is RHN satellite for free (but not able to be used, out of the box on RHEL).

14

Thanks for your reply.

we are now in discussion with Novell to get ZLM for updating RHEL servers, any idea on how ZLM works or there is any how to docs except traditional novell zlm docs. Thanks

15

Novell usually has great docs. Basically, my understanding of ZLM has been that the ZLM server will detect what your RHEL servers have based on agents and contact the RHN network and download the updates you need, then be able to push them to your clients

http://www.novell.com/documentation/zlm72/lm7install/?page=/documentation/zlm72/lm7install/data/b7fi9fh.html

16

first of all, you should not give internet access to each of your server, bad idea, unless it's a requirement with the applications...

linux can be hack too, if u don't know how to secure it.