[users] yum-updatesd for CentOS 6

[Gerd v. Egidy]

Hi,

after upgrading from CentOS 5 I found out that CentOS 6 does not include
yum-updatesd anymore. Seems like upstream dropped it.

I downloaded and compiled the last version from Fedora which is not converted
to systemd:
http://kojipkgs.fedoraproject.org/packages/yum-updatesd/0.9/4.fc15/src/yum-
updatesd-0.9-4.fc15.src.rpm

I tested it and it works for me. Would be nice if you could include it in rf
to make it more easily available to others.

Kind regards,

Gerd

[Nico Kadel-Garcia]

Post by Gerd v. Egidy
Hi,
after upgrading from CentOS 5 I found out that CentOS 6 does not include
yum-updatesd anymore. Seems like upstream dropped it.
I downloaded and compiled the last version from Fedora which is not converted
http://kojipkgs.fedoraproject.org/packages/yum-updatesd/0.9/4.fc15/src/yum-
updatesd-0.9-4.fc15.src.rpm
I tested it and it works for me. Would be nice if you could include it in rf
to make it more easily available to others.
Kind regards,
Gerd

That's really odd, because I see it in the CentOS mirror sites. How
did you try to install it?

[C.M. Connelly]

"GVE" == Gerd v. Egidy <lists at egidy.de>
"NK" == Nico Kadel-Garcia <nkadel at gmail.com>

GVE> after upgrading from CentOS 5 I found out that CentOS 6
GVE> does not include yum-updatesd anymore. Seems like
GVE> upstream dropped it.

NK> That's really odd, because I see it in the CentOS mirror
NK> sites. How did you try to install it?
Enhancements:

BZ#602149
This update extends yum functionality by adding yum-cron
package. It provides automatic background system updates with no
user intervention and replaces the outdated yum-updatesd package.

There is no yum-updatesd package in CentOS 6, following upstream.

Claire

[0] http://docs.redhat.com/docs/en-US/Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux/6/html-single/6.1_Technical_Notes/

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
Claire M. Connelly cmc at math.hmc.edu
System Administrator, Dept. of Mathematics, Harvey Mudd College
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

[Nico Kadel-Garcia]

Post by C.M. Connelly
"GVE" == Gerd v. Egidy <lists at egidy.de>
"NK" == Nico Kadel-Garcia <nkadel at gmail.com>
? ?GVE> after upgrading from CentOS 5 I found out that CentOS 6
? ?GVE> does not include yum-updatesd anymore. Seems like
? ?GVE> upstream dropped it.
? ?NK> That's really odd, because I see it in the CentOS mirror
? ?NK> sites. How did you try to install it?

Interesting: I think I was accidentally seeing the "yum-updateonboot"
package, which is Yet Another Auto-Updater Tool(tm).

Note that CentOS has only released CentOS 6.0, and still has not
released 6.1. If you want 6.1, I'm afraid you need to switch to
Scientific Linux or buy RHEL licenses.

Post by C.M. Connelly
? BZ#602149
? This update extends yum functionality by adding yum-cron
? package. It provides automatic background system updates with no
? user intervention and replaces the outdated yum-updatesd package.
There is no yum-updatesd package in CentOS 6, following upstream.

[C.M. Connelly]

"NK" == Nico Kadel-Garcia <nkadel at gmail.com>

NK> Interesting: I think I was accidentally seeing the
NK> "yum-updateonboot" package, which is Yet Another
NK> Auto-Updater Tool(tm).

Yeah. I noticed the lack of yum-updatesd and spent a bunch of
time trying to figure out what had happened to it a couple of
weeks ago, which is why I knew about it not being there. (I was
kind of hoping that I'd just missed it when you said you thought
it was there, though!)

It doesn't look like yum-cron is a real replacement for
yum-updatesd, as it won't actually install the updates for you.


NK> Note that CentOS has only released CentOS 6.0, and still
NK> has not released 6.1. If you want 6.1, I'm afraid you need
NK> to switch to Scientific Linux or buy RHEL licenses.

Sort of. In fact, they're doing this continuous release thing
[0], so while you can't get a 6.1 install per se, you can get the
newer packages as they're built, so you end up with something
that's pretty close. So if you're using it to test things you're
going to deploy on RHEL and need that binary compatibility with a
particular set of packages, you might have issues, but if you
don't care whether you're exactly up to date with RHEL, it
probably doesn't matter that much.

Claire

[0] http://wiki.centos.org/AdditionalResources/Repositories/CR

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
Claire M. Connelly cmc at math.hmc.edu
System Administrator, Dept. of Mathematics, Harvey Mudd College
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

[Ljubomir Ljubojevic]

"NK" == Nico Kadel-Garcia<nkadel at gmail.com>
NK> Interesting: I think I was accidentally seeing the
NK> "yum-updateonboot" package, which is Yet Another
NK> Auto-Updater Tool(tm).
Yeah. I noticed the lack of yum-updatesd and spent a bunch of
time trying to figure out what had happened to it a couple of
weeks ago, which is why I knew about it not being there. (I was
kind of hoping that I'd just missed it when you said you thought
it was there, though!)
It doesn't look like yum-cron is a real replacement for
yum-updatesd, as it won't actually install the updates for you.

CentOS 6.x has PackageKit that does yum updates.

Usage: http://www.packagekit.org/pk-using.html

[C.M. Connelly]

"LL" == Ljubomir Ljubojevic <office at plnet.rs>

LL> CentOS 6.x has PackageKit that does yum updates.

Which would be great if we were talking about user workstations
(where the users had root or sudo permissions), but it's not a
reasonable solution for servers or labs of managed machines.

Claire

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
Claire M. Connelly cmc at math.hmc.edu
System Administrator, Dept. of Mathematics, Harvey Mudd College
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

[John Beranek]

Post by C.M. Connelly
"LL" == Ljubomir Ljubojevic <office at plnet.rs>
LL> CentOS 6.x has PackageKit that does yum updates.
Which would be great if we were talking about user workstations
(where the users had root or sudo permissions), but it's not a
reasonable solution for servers or labs of managed machines.

If you're talking about that sort of environment, I'd suggest you take a
look at Spacewalk:

http://spacewalk.redhat.com/

John.

[John Beranek]

Post by C.M. Connelly
"LL" == Ljubomir Ljubojevic <office at plnet.rs>
LL> CentOS 6.x has PackageKit that does yum updates.
Which would be great if we were talking about user workstations
(where the users had root or sudo permissions), but it's not a
reasonable solution for servers or labs of managed machines.

If you're talking about that sort of environment, I'd suggest you take a
look at Spacewalk:

http://spacewalk.redhat.com/

John.

[C.M. Connelly]

"LL" == Ljubomir Ljubojevic <office at plnet.rs>

LL> CentOS 6.x has PackageKit that does yum updates.

Which would be great if we were talking about user workstations
(where the users had root or sudo permissions), but it's not a
reasonable solution for servers or labs of managed machines.

Claire

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
Claire M. Connelly cmc at math.hmc.edu
System Administrator, Dept. of Mathematics, Harvey Mudd College
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

[Ljubomir Ljubojevic]

"NK" == Nico Kadel-Garcia<nkadel at gmail.com>
NK> Interesting: I think I was accidentally seeing the
NK> "yum-updateonboot" package, which is Yet Another
NK> Auto-Updater Tool(tm).
Yeah. I noticed the lack of yum-updatesd and spent a bunch of
time trying to figure out what had happened to it a couple of
weeks ago, which is why I knew about it not being there. (I was
kind of hoping that I'd just missed it when you said you thought
it was there, though!)
It doesn't look like yum-cron is a real replacement for
yum-updatesd, as it won't actually install the updates for you.

CentOS 6.x has PackageKit that does yum updates.

Usage: http://www.packagekit.org/pk-using.html

[Yury V. Zaytsev]

Hi Claire,

Long time no see...

Post by C.M. Connelly
It doesn't look like yum-cron is a real replacement for
yum-updatesd, as it won't actually install the updates for you.

I've also realized that upstream dropped yum-updatesd in 6.1 this fall,
but on the other hand it didn't disappoint me all that much, since I'm
using RHN for the RHEL6 hosts and SL6 for the rest.

Apparently Troy or Conny noticed this problem during the beta and added
a package called 'yum-autoupdate' which contains a set of scripts that
can periodically check for updates and install them with temporal spread
also supported.

I highly recommend you to have a look... obviously, now it's also gonna
work for CentOS.

[Yury V. Zaytsev]

Hi Claire,

Long time no see...

Post by C.M. Connelly
It doesn't look like yum-cron is a real replacement for
yum-updatesd, as it won't actually install the updates for you.

I've also realized that upstream dropped yum-updatesd in 6.1 this fall,
but on the other hand it didn't disappoint me all that much, since I'm
using RHN for the RHEL6 hosts and SL6 for the rest.

Apparently Troy or Conny noticed this problem during the beta and added
a package called 'yum-autoupdate' which contains a set of scripts that
can periodically check for updates and install them with temporal spread
also supported.

I highly recommend you to have a look... obviously, now it's also gonna
work for CentOS.

[Ljubomir Ljubojevic]

Post by Nico Kadel-Garcia
Note that CentOS has only released CentOS 6.0, and still has not
released 6.1. If you want 6.1, I'm afraid you need to switch to
Scientific Linux or buy RHEL licenses.

I forgot to comment on this. For those not in the loop, CentOS 6.1 is
close to completion, down to few problems. Devs reported that there were
massive problems with Anaconda and ISO creation process since upstream
seams to be using something else to create ISO's.

[C.M. Connelly]

"NK" == Nico Kadel-Garcia <nkadel at gmail.com>

NK> Interesting: I think I was accidentally seeing the
NK> "yum-updateonboot" package, which is Yet Another
NK> Auto-Updater Tool(tm).

Yeah. I noticed the lack of yum-updatesd and spent a bunch of
time trying to figure out what had happened to it a couple of
weeks ago, which is why I knew about it not being there. (I was
kind of hoping that I'd just missed it when you said you thought
it was there, though!)

It doesn't look like yum-cron is a real replacement for
yum-updatesd, as it won't actually install the updates for you.


NK> Note that CentOS has only released CentOS 6.0, and still
NK> has not released 6.1. If you want 6.1, I'm afraid you need
NK> to switch to Scientific Linux or buy RHEL licenses.

Sort of. In fact, they're doing this continuous release thing
[0], so while you can't get a 6.1 install per se, you can get the
newer packages as they're built, so you end up with something
that's pretty close. So if you're using it to test things you're
going to deploy on RHEL and need that binary compatibility with a
particular set of packages, you might have issues, but if you
don't care whether you're exactly up to date with RHEL, it
probably doesn't matter that much.

Claire

[0] http://wiki.centos.org/AdditionalResources/Repositories/CR

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
Claire M. Connelly cmc at math.hmc.edu
System Administrator, Dept. of Mathematics, Harvey Mudd College
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

[Ljubomir Ljubojevic]

Post by Nico Kadel-Garcia
Note that CentOS has only released CentOS 6.0, and still has not
released 6.1. If you want 6.1, I'm afraid you need to switch to
Scientific Linux or buy RHEL licenses.

I forgot to comment on this. For those not in the loop, CentOS 6.1 is
close to completion, down to few problems. Devs reported that there were
massive problems with Anaconda and ISO creation process since upstream
seams to be using something else to create ISO's.

[Gerd v. Egidy]

Hi,

Post by C.M. Connelly
BZ#602149
This update extends yum functionality by adding yum-cron
package. It provides automatic background system updates with no
user intervention and replaces the outdated yum-updatesd package.
There is no yum-updatesd package in CentOS 6, following upstream.

"upstream" means RHEL in this case, not Fedora. They dropped yum-updatesd and
replaced it with with the inferior yum-cron.

In case of RHEL all this yum stuff doesn't really matter because you'll use
the RHEL update tools like satellite.

But for CentOS this matters. PackageKit isn't really an option for a managed
server setup and not everyone needs spacewalk when yum-updatesd does the job.

So I propose to include it in rf that all users who like to use yum-updatesd
have an easy way to install it.

Kind regards,

Gerd

[C.M. Connelly]

"GvE" == Gerd v Egidy <lists at egidy.de>

GvE> But for CentOS this matters. PackageKit isn't really an
GvE> option for a managed server setup and not everyone needs
GvE> spacewalk when yum-updatesd does the job.

GvE> So I propose to include it in rf that all users who like
GvE> to use yum-updatesd have an easy way to install it.

Exactly. Yes, please.

Claire

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
Claire M. Connelly cmc at math.hmc.edu
System Administrator, Dept. of Mathematics, Harvey Mudd College
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

[Nico Kadel-Garcia]

Post by Gerd v. Egidy
Hi,

? ?BZ#602149
? ?This update extends yum functionality by adding yum-cron
? ?package. It provides automatic background system updates with no
? ?user intervention and replaces the outdated yum-updatesd package.
There is no yum-updatesd package in CentOS 6, following upstream.

"upstream" means RHEL in this case, not Fedora. They dropped yum-updatesd and
replaced it with with the inferior yum-cron.
In case of RHEL all this yum stuff doesn't really matter because you'll use
the RHEL update tools like satellite.

I found satellite to be unusable for modest environments. The
interface was very slow and unscriptable for our favorite upstream
vendor's GUI, and investing in the Oracle database to run spacewalk
locally was unconscionably expensive for even midsize environments.
Coupled with the slow installation process and update downloading over
thin network pipes for small clusters, it was unusable.

The key elements of spacewalk like tools for me were package
management. That's what the various other monitoring tools are for.

Post by Gerd v. Egidy
But for CentOS this matters. PackageKit isn't really an option for a managed
server setup and not everyone needs spacewalk when yum-updatesd does the job.
So I propose to include it in rf that all users who like to use yum-updatesd
have an easy way to install it.
Kind regards,

Why? yum-cron, on a *nightly* basis, can do very similar work and not
interfere in the middle of the day with other 'yum" based operations.

[Gerd v. Egidy]

Post by Nico Kadel-Garcia

Post by Gerd v. Egidy
In case of RHEL all this yum stuff doesn't really matter because you'll
use the RHEL update tools like satellite.

I found satellite to be unusable for modest environments. The
interface was very slow and unscriptable for our favorite upstream
vendor's GUI, and investing in the Oracle database to run spacewalk
locally was unconscionably expensive for even midsize environments.
Coupled with the slow installation process and update downloading over
thin network pipes for small clusters, it was unusable.

Thanks for sharing your experience. I've tried it just once with a RHEL demo
and haven't checked all the features.

Post by Nico Kadel-Garcia

Post by Gerd v. Egidy
So I propose to include it in rf that all users who like to use
yum-updatesd have an easy way to install it.

Why? yum-cron, on a *nightly* basis, can do very similar work and not
interfere in the middle of the day with other 'yum" based operations.

That depends on the usecase.

I want to have all updates installed within 1 hour after publishing them on my
local yum repo. But not all servers should install their update at the same
time and I want to keep their configuration as identical as possible. So no
crontabs with different yum-crons, the update time is just spread by different
boot times.

This is a setup which works for me for years. And as long as development of
yum-updatesd is not abandoned or a much better tool is available, I don't see
a reason to change anything.

Kind regards,

Gerd

[Nicolas Thierry-Mieg]

Post by Gerd v. Egidy

Post by Nico Kadel-Garcia

Post by Gerd v. Egidy
In case of RHEL all this yum stuff doesn't really matter because you'll
use the RHEL update tools like satellite.

I found satellite to be unusable for modest environments. The
interface was very slow and unscriptable for our favorite upstream
vendor's GUI, and investing in the Oracle database to run spacewalk
locally was unconscionably expensive for even midsize environments.
Coupled with the slow installation process and update downloading over
thin network pipes for small clusters, it was unusable.

Thanks for sharing your experience. I've tried it just once with a RHEL demo
and haven't checked all the features.

Post by Nico Kadel-Garcia

Post by Gerd v. Egidy
So I propose to include it in rf that all users who like to use
yum-updatesd have an easy way to install it.

Why? yum-cron, on a *nightly* basis, can do very similar work and not
interfere in the middle of the day with other 'yum" based operations.

That depends on the usecase.
I want to have all updates installed within 1 hour after publishing them on my
local yum repo. But not all servers should install their update at the same
time and I want to keep their configuration as identical as possible. So no
crontabs with different yum-crons, the update time is just spread by different
boot times.

in centos 6 anacron is used for regular jobs. In fact cron.daily, weekly
and monthly are run through anacrontab by default now.

It allows you to add a random delay before starting jobs. You specify
the max delay.

Maybe check it out, seems like it could solve your problem.

[Gerd v. Egidy]

Post by Nicolas Thierry-Mieg

Post by Gerd v. Egidy
I want to have all updates installed within 1 hour after publishing them
on my local yum repo. But not all servers should install their update at
the same time and I want to keep their configuration as identical as
possible. So no crontabs with different yum-crons, the update time is
just spread by different boot times.

in centos 6 anacron is used for regular jobs. In fact cron.daily, weekly
and monthly are run through anacrontab by default now.
It allows you to add a random delay before starting jobs. You specify
the max delay.

Thanks for the tip.

Post by Nicolas Thierry-Mieg
Maybe check it out, seems like it could solve your problem.

just read the manpage of anacron: "...with a frequency specified in days".

So that doesn't help me with my maximum update response time of one hour. Of
course I want to be able to have multiple updates per day (for my locally
created packages).

I still think that yum-updatesd is the best tool for the job.

Kind regards,

Gerd

[Nicolas Thierry-Mieg]

Post by Gerd v. Egidy

Post by Nicolas Thierry-Mieg

Post by Gerd v. Egidy
I want to have all updates installed within 1 hour after publishing them
on my local yum repo. But not all servers should install their update at
the same time and I want to keep their configuration as identical as
possible. So no crontabs with different yum-crons, the update time is
just spread by different boot times.

in centos 6 anacron is used for regular jobs. In fact cron.daily, weekly
and monthly are run through anacrontab by default now.
It allows you to add a random delay before starting jobs. You specify
the max delay.

Thanks for the tip.

Post by Nicolas Thierry-Mieg
Maybe check it out, seems like it could solve your problem.

just read the manpage of anacron: "...with a frequency specified in days".
So that doesn't help me with my maximum update response time of one hour.

oh yeah, sorry. I hadn't seen that it doesn't work for hourly jobs.

[Leon Fauster]

Post by Gerd v. Egidy

Post by Nicolas Thierry-Mieg

Post by Gerd v. Egidy
I want to have all updates installed within 1 hour after publishing them
on my local yum repo. But not all servers should install their update at
the same time and I want to keep their configuration as identical as
possible. So no crontabs with different yum-crons, the update time is
just spread by different boot times.

in centos 6 anacron is used for regular jobs. In fact cron.daily, weekly
and monthly are run through anacrontab by default now.
It allows you to add a random delay before starting jobs. You specify
the max delay.

Thanks for the tip.

Post by Nicolas Thierry-Mieg
Maybe check it out, seems like it could solve your problem.

just read the manpage of anacron: "...with a frequency specified in days".
So that doesn't help me with my maximum update response time of one hour. Of
course I want to be able to have multiple updates per day (for my locally
created packages).
I still think that yum-updatesd is the best tool for the job.

what about:

ln -s /etc/cron.daily/yum.cron /etc/cron.hourly/yum.cron

and configuration in /etc/sysconfig/yum-cron

does this address your needs?

LF

[Nicolas Thierry-Mieg]

Post by Gerd v. Egidy

Post by Nicolas Thierry-Mieg

Post by Gerd v. Egidy
I want to have all updates installed within 1 hour after publishing them
on my local yum repo. But not all servers should install their update at
the same time and I want to keep their configuration as identical as
possible. So no crontabs with different yum-crons, the update time is
just spread by different boot times.

in centos 6 anacron is used for regular jobs. In fact cron.daily, weekly
and monthly are run through anacrontab by default now.
It allows you to add a random delay before starting jobs. You specify
the max delay.

Thanks for the tip.

Post by Nicolas Thierry-Mieg
Maybe check it out, seems like it could solve your problem.

just read the manpage of anacron: "...with a frequency specified in days".
So that doesn't help me with my maximum update response time of one hour.

oh yeah, sorry. I hadn't seen that it doesn't work for hourly jobs.

[Leon Fauster]

Post by Gerd v. Egidy

Post by Nicolas Thierry-Mieg

Post by Gerd v. Egidy
I want to have all updates installed within 1 hour after publishing them
on my local yum repo. But not all servers should install their update at
the same time and I want to keep their configuration as identical as
possible. So no crontabs with different yum-crons, the update time is
just spread by different boot times.

in centos 6 anacron is used for regular jobs. In fact cron.daily, weekly
and monthly are run through anacrontab by default now.
It allows you to add a random delay before starting jobs. You specify
the max delay.

Thanks for the tip.

Post by Nicolas Thierry-Mieg
Maybe check it out, seems like it could solve your problem.

just read the manpage of anacron: "...with a frequency specified in days".
So that doesn't help me with my maximum update response time of one hour. Of
course I want to be able to have multiple updates per day (for my locally
created packages).
I still think that yum-updatesd is the best tool for the job.

what about:

ln -s /etc/cron.daily/yum.cron /etc/cron.hourly/yum.cron

and configuration in /etc/sysconfig/yum-cron

does this address your needs?

LF

[Gerd v. Egidy]

Post by Nicolas Thierry-Mieg

Post by Gerd v. Egidy
I want to have all updates installed within 1 hour after publishing them
on my local yum repo. But not all servers should install their update at
the same time and I want to keep their configuration as identical as
possible. So no crontabs with different yum-crons, the update time is
just spread by different boot times.

in centos 6 anacron is used for regular jobs. In fact cron.daily, weekly
and monthly are run through anacrontab by default now.
It allows you to add a random delay before starting jobs. You specify
the max delay.

Thanks for the tip.

Post by Nicolas Thierry-Mieg
Maybe check it out, seems like it could solve your problem.

just read the manpage of anacron: "...with a frequency specified in days".

So that doesn't help me with my maximum update response time of one hour. Of
course I want to be able to have multiple updates per day (for my locally
created packages).

I still think that yum-updatesd is the best tool for the job.

Kind regards,

Gerd

[Nicolas Thierry-Mieg]

Post by Gerd v. Egidy

Post by Nico Kadel-Garcia

Post by Gerd v. Egidy
In case of RHEL all this yum stuff doesn't really matter because you'll
use the RHEL update tools like satellite.

I found satellite to be unusable for modest environments. The
interface was very slow and unscriptable for our favorite upstream
vendor's GUI, and investing in the Oracle database to run spacewalk
locally was unconscionably expensive for even midsize environments.
Coupled with the slow installation process and update downloading over
thin network pipes for small clusters, it was unusable.

Thanks for sharing your experience. I've tried it just once with a RHEL demo
and haven't checked all the features.

Post by Nico Kadel-Garcia

Post by Gerd v. Egidy
So I propose to include it in rf that all users who like to use
yum-updatesd have an easy way to install it.

Why? yum-cron, on a *nightly* basis, can do very similar work and not
interfere in the middle of the day with other 'yum" based operations.

That depends on the usecase.
I want to have all updates installed within 1 hour after publishing them on my
local yum repo. But not all servers should install their update at the same
time and I want to keep their configuration as identical as possible. So no
crontabs with different yum-crons, the update time is just spread by different
boot times.

in centos 6 anacron is used for regular jobs. In fact cron.daily, weekly
and monthly are run through anacrontab by default now.

It allows you to add a random delay before starting jobs. You specify
the max delay.

Maybe check it out, seems like it could solve your problem.

[Gerd v. Egidy]

Post by Nico Kadel-Garcia

Post by Gerd v. Egidy
In case of RHEL all this yum stuff doesn't really matter because you'll
use the RHEL update tools like satellite.

I found satellite to be unusable for modest environments. The
interface was very slow and unscriptable for our favorite upstream
vendor's GUI, and investing in the Oracle database to run spacewalk
locally was unconscionably expensive for even midsize environments.
Coupled with the slow installation process and update downloading over
thin network pipes for small clusters, it was unusable.

Thanks for sharing your experience. I've tried it just once with a RHEL demo
and haven't checked all the features.

Post by Nico Kadel-Garcia

Post by Gerd v. Egidy
So I propose to include it in rf that all users who like to use
yum-updatesd have an easy way to install it.

Why? yum-cron, on a *nightly* basis, can do very similar work and not
interfere in the middle of the day with other 'yum" based operations.

That depends on the usecase.

I want to have all updates installed within 1 hour after publishing them on my
local yum repo. But not all servers should install their update at the same
time and I want to keep their configuration as identical as possible. So no
crontabs with different yum-crons, the update time is just spread by different
boot times.

This is a setup which works for me for years. And as long as development of
yum-updatesd is not abandoned or a much better tool is available, I don't see
a reason to change anything.

Kind regards,

Gerd

[C.M. Connelly]

"GvE" == Gerd v Egidy <lists at egidy.de>

GvE> But for CentOS this matters. PackageKit isn't really an
GvE> option for a managed server setup and not everyone needs
GvE> spacewalk when yum-updatesd does the job.

GvE> So I propose to include it in rf that all users who like
GvE> to use yum-updatesd have an easy way to install it.

Exactly. Yes, please.

Claire

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
Claire M. Connelly cmc at math.hmc.edu
System Administrator, Dept. of Mathematics, Harvey Mudd College
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

[Nico Kadel-Garcia]

Post by Gerd v. Egidy
Hi,

? ?BZ#602149
? ?This update extends yum functionality by adding yum-cron
? ?package. It provides automatic background system updates with no
? ?user intervention and replaces the outdated yum-updatesd package.
There is no yum-updatesd package in CentOS 6, following upstream.

"upstream" means RHEL in this case, not Fedora. They dropped yum-updatesd and
replaced it with with the inferior yum-cron.
In case of RHEL all this yum stuff doesn't really matter because you'll use
the RHEL update tools like satellite.

I found satellite to be unusable for modest environments. The
interface was very slow and unscriptable for our favorite upstream
vendor's GUI, and investing in the Oracle database to run spacewalk
locally was unconscionably expensive for even midsize environments.
Coupled with the slow installation process and update downloading over
thin network pipes for small clusters, it was unusable.

The key elements of spacewalk like tools for me were package
management. That's what the various other monitoring tools are for.

Post by Gerd v. Egidy
But for CentOS this matters. PackageKit isn't really an option for a managed
server setup and not everyone needs spacewalk when yum-updatesd does the job.
So I propose to include it in rf that all users who like to use yum-updatesd
have an easy way to install it.
Kind regards,

Why? yum-cron, on a *nightly* basis, can do very similar work and not
interfere in the middle of the day with other 'yum" based operations.

[Nico Kadel-Garcia]

Post by C.M. Connelly
"GVE" == Gerd v. Egidy <lists at egidy.de>
"NK" == Nico Kadel-Garcia <nkadel at gmail.com>
? ?GVE> after upgrading from CentOS 5 I found out that CentOS 6
? ?GVE> does not include yum-updatesd anymore. Seems like
? ?GVE> upstream dropped it.
? ?NK> That's really odd, because I see it in the CentOS mirror
? ?NK> sites. How did you try to install it?

Interesting: I think I was accidentally seeing the "yum-updateonboot"
package, which is Yet Another Auto-Updater Tool(tm).

Note that CentOS has only released CentOS 6.0, and still has not
released 6.1. If you want 6.1, I'm afraid you need to switch to
Scientific Linux or buy RHEL licenses.

Post by C.M. Connelly
? BZ#602149
? This update extends yum functionality by adding yum-cron
? package. It provides automatic background system updates with no
? user intervention and replaces the outdated yum-updatesd package.
There is no yum-updatesd package in CentOS 6, following upstream.

[Gerd v. Egidy]

Hi,

Post by C.M. Connelly
BZ#602149
This update extends yum functionality by adding yum-cron
package. It provides automatic background system updates with no
user intervention and replaces the outdated yum-updatesd package.
There is no yum-updatesd package in CentOS 6, following upstream.

"upstream" means RHEL in this case, not Fedora. They dropped yum-updatesd and
replaced it with with the inferior yum-cron.

In case of RHEL all this yum stuff doesn't really matter because you'll use
the RHEL update tools like satellite.

But for CentOS this matters. PackageKit isn't really an option for a managed
server setup and not everyone needs spacewalk when yum-updatesd does the job.

So I propose to include it in rf that all users who like to use yum-updatesd
have an easy way to install it.

Kind regards,

Gerd

[C.M. Connelly]

"GVE" == Gerd v. Egidy <lists at egidy.de>
"NK" == Nico Kadel-Garcia <nkadel at gmail.com>

GVE> after upgrading from CentOS 5 I found out that CentOS 6
GVE> does not include yum-updatesd anymore. Seems like
GVE> upstream dropped it.

NK> That's really odd, because I see it in the CentOS mirror
NK> sites. How did you try to install it?
Enhancements:

BZ#602149
This update extends yum functionality by adding yum-cron
package. It provides automatic background system updates with no
user intervention and replaces the outdated yum-updatesd package.

There is no yum-updatesd package in CentOS 6, following upstream.

Claire

[0] http://docs.redhat.com/docs/en-US/Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux/6/html-single/6.1_Technical_Notes/

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
Claire M. Connelly cmc at math.hmc.edu
System Administrator, Dept. of Mathematics, Harvey Mudd College
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

[Gerd v. Egidy]

Hi,

after upgrading from CentOS 5 I found out that CentOS 6 does not include
yum-updatesd anymore. Seems like upstream dropped it.

I downloaded and compiled the last version from Fedora which is not converted
to systemd:
http://kojipkgs.fedoraproject.org/packages/yum-updatesd/0.9/4.fc15/src/yum-
updatesd-0.9-4.fc15.src.rpm

I tested it and it works for me. Would be nice if you could include it in rf
to make it more easily available to others.

Kind regards,

Gerd

[Nico Kadel-Garcia]

Post by Gerd v. Egidy
Hi,
after upgrading from CentOS 5 I found out that CentOS 6 does not include
yum-updatesd anymore. Seems like upstream dropped it.
I downloaded and compiled the last version from Fedora which is not converted
http://kojipkgs.fedoraproject.org/packages/yum-updatesd/0.9/4.fc15/src/yum-
updatesd-0.9-4.fc15.src.rpm
I tested it and it works for me. Would be nice if you could include it in rf
to make it more easily available to others.
Kind regards,
Gerd

That's really odd, because I see it in the CentOS mirror sites. How
did you try to install it?