Then there is the actual update. I learned long ago NOT to run yum over an SSH connection, as WHEN that connection breaks in the middle of an update, you can have quite a problem to clean up. All I have done todate is to start vncserver and connect via vnc to then run yum. I can even drop the vnc connection and come back later to check results. I have considered running yum disconnected (? when you end a command with &) and log the results to a file that you check later. What are practical approaches to this? I only have a few servers here to manage.
This is where "screen" would come in very handy...eliminates the need to start up vncserver, you can still drop the connection and then come back and reattach to the screen session and get the results.