[TriLUG] large-scale patch rollouts?

[Greg Brown]

I'll throw another shout out for yum.  I haven't been using for years 
but wish I had.  It's simple and effective.

Greg

On Tuesday, Sep 16, 2003, at 14:02 US/Eastern, Joseph Tate wrote:

> David R.Matusiak wrote:
>
>> hello Linux enthusiasts --
>>
>> please don't flame my foolish question, but it is possible to roll 
>> out linux security patches to a network of machines at the same time? 
>>  also, are there any known security vulnerabilities presented by 
>> doing such a thing?
>>
>> i know up2date is the tool to apply patches to a single (Red Hat) 
>> machine, but can this functionality be extended to tens or hundreds 
>> of machines?
>>
>> i'm looking for more ammunition for my "switch campaign."  can't 
>> really tell people "Linux is better" if they have to waste massive 
>> amounts of time applying patches across a large network of systems, 
>> ya know.
>>
>> i know you can use Kickstart/Jumpstart to automate multiple system 
>> builds, now i'm wondering about ways to speed up/automate on-going 
>> administration.  the ideas would be primarily aimed at Windows 
>> admins, so they can see an advantage in Open Source.
>>
>> muchas gracias!
>> dave m.
>>
> You really should take a look at Yum: http://linux.duke.edu/yum/.
> As a cron job run every night, it queries new packages from a 
> repository you specify.  You push patches when you've tested them.  
> I've been using it for years.  The other alternative is Current, which 
> is a locally run up2date server, of course then all dependency 
> calculations are done on the server, and it requires some muscle.  All 
> Yum requires is an FTP or HTTP server.  Others will tout apt or urpmi, 
> but I've not found them to be easier to use or more feature complete, 
> contrarily, with yum it's easy to script individual package listings 
> to give to hosts based on IP or some other criteria.  That's not the 
> case with apt.
>
> Joseph
>
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