[CentOS] is centos update safe

[Phil Schaffner]

On Thu, 2008-06-26 at 21:46 +0300, fabian dacunha wrote:
> Dear All,
> 
> I am curently running a CENTOS server with the following setup
> 
> CentOS release 5 (Final)
> Kernel 2.6.18-8.1.8.el5xen on an i686

Stating the obvious, you are WAY behind on updates, including many
security patches.

> bind-9.3.3-10.el5
> sendmail-8.13.8-2.el5
> apache httpd-2.2.3-11.el5_1.centos.3
> MailScanner ver 4.66.5
> ClamAV 0.92
> SpamAssassin version 3.2.4
> SquirrelMail ver 1.4.13
> 
> Now all this have been workin perfectly fine for a long time.
> 
> now if i do a yum upgrade i see the following
> 
> Install     29 Package(s)
> Update     415 Package(s)
> Remove       0 Package(s)
> 
> and the total download size is abt 579 M
> 
> i jus wanted to know if i could SAFELY apply the updates since its a live
> server running our companys primary DNS and mail server

I'd have a bootable backup ready before trying this.  See the section on
"cloning" in http://wiki.centos.org/HowTos/MigrationGuide.

> has any body done this b4

Lots of people have updated by now.

> i know the Centos will be upgraded to 5.2
> 
> but has anybody applied these updates and its been workin fine after reboot
> and also about the various software currently running on the server
> apprecite your help and asvise

Have had two mysterious crashes of my main server since upgrading
yesterday, one on kernel-2.6.18-92.1.1.el5.x86_64 and the second on
kernel-2.6.18-92.1.6.el5.x86_64.  Just quietly dies with nothing in the
logs.  Several other upgraded systems (all i386) seem to be fine.  Still
searching for any other reports of problems.

Phil