How to see if kernel, etc.. is the latest ?

[Duboux]

I bought my servers at a company that installed FC3 and DA on them.
I monthly pay a pretty high fee to keep those servers updated.
When they sold me this service they said updates can happen from once a month to even multiple times a week.

But I'm doubting that they get updated more and more...



Which system software is eligible for regular updates, and how can I check the version-differences ?


(on one box, I just did # yum update and it has been updating 292 things o_0;
Completing update for libgnomeui - 292/292)

 

[smtalk]

Haha I update software for my clients ~3-4 times a week after a new release of software, "one a month" isn't a good solution at all. You can take a look at:

php -v
mysql -V
proftpd --version
dovecot --version
httpd -v
/usr/local/directadmin/directadmin v

You can update PHP, MySQL, Apache, ProFTPD and Dovecot with custombuild, if you want, you can also use customapache for it.

Also, you can run "yum update" and see how many packages you need to update.

 

[Duboux]

Thanx

Those programs, I've updated myself over the years..
They didn't do those, so I figured it was just OS or system patches.

Last night I did one of those servers with yum update, and it updated 292 things.. Which sounded alot, lol..
I made a cronjob to nightly run that command, as I saw Jeff saying somewhere on this forum

Another server, I haven't updated on purpose (exept for the programs you listed), that currently has:

# php -v
PHP 4.4.7 (cli) (built: Aug 9 2007 21:50:07)
Copyright (c) 1997-2007 The PHP Group
Zend Engine v1.3.0, Copyright (c) 1998-2004 Zend Technologies
# mysql -V
mysql Ver 14.7 Distrib 4.1.7, for pc-linux (i686)
# proftpd --version
- ProFTPD Version 1.3.0a
# dovecot --version
-bash: dovecot: command not found
# httpd -v
Server version: Apache/1.3.37 (Unix)
Server built: Aug 9 2007 21:59:30
# /usr/local/directadmin/directadmin v
Version: DirectAdmin v.1.30.1

I will update those with custombuild later on, after I find it is safe for all the users' scripts to run in php and MySql 5.

But I'm wondering about the other server software...
How can I check that ?

 

[tanfwc]

More than 292 package updated?

When I was updating my box from CentOS 4.4 to CentOS 4.5, it updated close to that much.

To check your kernel, type this

uname -r

Maybe show us the distro you are having

cat /etc/redhat-release

 

[tarquel]

I have 167 packages to be updated and 9 to be installed myself... so yum tells me.

What I'm wondering is, whether its safe to do it or will it kill my server and the services on it?

Am so tempted to tell yum "Y" but I fear at this time of night, its not wise [bein that i need to sleep shortly lol]

Any thoughts?

Nath

 

[nobaloney]

If your yum excludes are set properly, generally you're safe; search these forums for what should be set in the excludes line in yum.conf.

Even if you have yum update your kernel, it won't actually run it until the next time you reboot.

And if you didn't have to make changes to the default kernel when you installed your server you shouldn't have problems with a kernel update.

That said, running yum can destroy an improperly configured system.

That said, we run yum automaticallly every night, with the following exclude line in /etc/yum.conf:

exclude=bind-chroot httpd* mysql* php* perl* apache* mod_* MySQL* *ftp* exim* sendmail* php* da_*

Much of the above is probably unnecessary, but safe .
We're running CentOS4.x on the server I just quoted. If you're not, then your mileage may vary.

Jeff

 

[tarquel]

Thanks Jeff

I'll check the excludes config now... and as my sig will tell you, its CentOS 4.3

Never had any problems with the kernel when i setup the server, and i updated the kernel then too - tho that was about Feb so I've kind of forgotten how to do all that - think i'll exclude the kernel for ths weekend hehe

 

[tarquel]

noticed that named* isn't in your list... is this safe to update then?

Used your list and added *kernel* and named* to it.

I now have 166 to b updated and 7 to be installed.

I would list them but thats possibly not a good idea lol

Nath.

 

[tanfwc]

Why did you exclude kernel? You should be updating your kernel reguarly.

 

[nobaloney]

We don't exclude named because we believe it's safe to update named as long as bind_chroot isn't updated. Though we remove bind_chroot from the original RH/CentOS installation and we therefore don't need to list bind_chroot, if we didn't list it others, who do have it installed, might end up updating it after they've already used instructions published by DirectAdmin to disable it... and so re-enable it.

We don't list named* because I don't know of any services that begin with named*. Certainly we have none installed, so none will be updated.

We don't list caching-nameserver because whether or not you need that depends on your own installation. We don't need it and don't have it installed.

We used to exclude kernel, and some of my early posts show it as excluded. We don't exclude it because we didn't have to build a special kernel for any of our servers, and we make a rather safe (but not foolproof) presumption that automatic updates to the default kernel installed in the original OS install won't break on our systems.

In any event, updating the kernel through yum doesn't run it. To run it you must restart your server; we only do that on our schedule.

Jeff