[CentOS] running yum update on remote servers

[Robert Moskowitz]

On 02/25/2013 12:50 PM, Les Mikesell wrote:
> On Mon, Feb 25, 2013 at 11:41 AM, James A. Peltier <jpeltier at sfu.ca> wrote:
>> This is where you need something like Katello or Spacewalk.  These are management systems which look after managing your infrastructure in such a way that you can view what servers are out of compliance and what patches are waiting to be applied.
>>
>> I'm currently evaluating Katello as a long term solution to our Red Hat GNU/Linux management.  I'd hazard to guess that you'll probably want to do the same too.
> These seem like serious overkill for a small number of servers,
> especially ones where you don't run a lot of local or 3rd party apps
> and thus should never have a reason to need anything but moderately
> frequent 'yum -y update' runs.   What kind of time and resources does
> it take to understand, set up, and manage one of these beasts?

Let's see. I have 4 productions servers:  DNS, web, mail, and samba; 
with samba locked up on a private net.  Only DNS is current, the rest 
are work in progress.  I just built my test DNS, which will make the 
rest easier.  So MAYBE 8 boxes, with only 4 up 24/7.  Not something to 
throw a server management system at.  I do have a real job which I have 
to work on this afternoon and tonight.