[CentOS] Auto-updates -- Bad Idea?

Wed Apr 6 18:52:11 UTC 2011
Baird, Josh <jbaird at follett.com>

If you don't want your system to break unexpectedly, do not enable
automatic updates; especially if you are running any packages with
non-standard configurations.  In some cases, with bare packages and
stock configurations, automatic updates may prove to be a viable and
SEMI-safe solution.  But, if you wish to maintain the integrity of a
production system, I would suggest that you do not use them.

Josh

-----Original Message-----
From: centos-bounces at centos.org [mailto:centos-bounces at centos.org] On
Behalf Of email builder
Sent: Wednesday, April 06, 2011 2:36 PM
To: centos at centos.org
Subject: [CentOS] Auto-updates -- Bad Idea?

Hello,

  As I've learned recently, I do not have any auto updates configured on
my 
system.  I see some posts on the web encouraging the use of "yum-cron",
but I'd 
like to know what people feel about the use of automatic updates.

  That is, for a server (non-desktop) system, automatic updates could
break 
things or have other unforeseen consequences, and that could happen at
the worst 
of times, since the process runs regularly.

  On the other hand, for small businesses without highly trained
sysadmins or 
ones with enough time to baby their servers, missing critical updates
to, say 
openssl or some other mission-critical package could spell disaster.

  Is the only reasonable solution to schedule a "human cron" once a week
to look 
at needed updates?  Ouch.

Thanks in advance for your considered opinions.
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