How often do you update software on your servers?
from PlanterTree@discuss.tchncs.de to selfhosted@lemmy.world on 29 Oct 11:04
https://discuss.tchncs.de/post/47841853

Or asked the other way around: How long do you keep your servers running without installing any software updates?

update means something like

sudo dnf update

or something …

apt-get upgrade
apt-get update

#selfhosted

threaded - newest

sneezycat@sopuli.xyz on 29 Oct 11:12 next collapse

Well, one of the reasons I’m using debian on my server is so I can kinda forget about it…

I’ll update maybe once a month, or every couple months. I don’t always restart though, so my kernel is probably a bit behind :'D

PlanterTree@discuss.tchncs.de on 29 Oct 11:14 next collapse

lol. Same issue for me. I run it for months, and surprisingly (for me) nothing breaks at all.

But fucking ssh shows warnings regarding some “post quantum crypto” stuff; recommending software update, that was not there before lol.

eksb@programming.dev on 29 Oct 12:16 next collapse

I use Debian stable and subscribe to the debian-security-announce mailing list, so I update each time I get an email from it.

amju_wolf@pawb.social on 29 Oct 16:34 collapse

This is the way. (At least for a server)

atzanteol@sh.itjust.works on 29 Oct 12:08 collapse

That’s… Not how it works… Debian is “stable” not “secure”. You use Debian so that is easier to run updates frequently since they’ll be unlikely to break things.

sneezycat@sopuli.xyz on 29 Oct 12:57 collapse

If I wanted to run updates frequently I would run arch lmao. Even if I did apt update every day, debian stable doesn’t get that many updates.

I could just run auto-update but meh.

lastweakness@lemmy.world on 29 Oct 13:12 next collapse

Are you talking about desktop use?

sneezycat@sopuli.xyz on 29 Oct 15:54 collapse

No, my home server. My desktop and laptop both have arch, because I do interact with them more often.

atzanteol@sh.itjust.works on 29 Oct 16:01 collapse

If I wanted to run updates frequently I would run arch lmao. Even if I did apt update every day, debian stable doesn’t get that many updates.

You’re not updating for features you’re updating for bug and security fixes. That’s why Debian stable doesn’t have many updates. But the ones they do are typically important.

sneezycat@sopuli.xyz on 29 Oct 16:11 collapse

Yeah, I know. Until I get ransomware’d and my nudes leaked, I won’t care 💅🏻✨

atzanteol@sh.itjust.works on 29 Oct 17:05 collapse

Clearly you don’t know.

sneezycat@sopuli.xyz on 29 Oct 17:34 collapse

I guess people smoke because they don’t know smoking causes cancer ;3

mjr@infosec.pub on 29 Oct 11:20 next collapse

Those apt commands are in a less-good order. It’s usually better to update apt, then upgrade the system.

I upgrade as soon as reasonably possible after the notification appears, if the system isn’t on auto-upgrade.

slazer2au@lemmy.world on 29 Oct 11:21 next collapse

Once a week. I have a bash script that does an apt update upgrade and pulls new docker images.

hydrian@twit.social on 29 Oct 11:26 next collapse

@PlanterTree Systems facing public internet, security updates are applied daily automatically.

PlanterTree@discuss.tchncs.de on 29 Oct 11:28 next collapse

up to now I install all my updates manually, maybe I should look into this: how to auto-update.

Passerby6497@lemmy.world on 29 Oct 11:56 collapse

Can I ask how you do that? I have some debian and fedora boxes I should configure for that

dust_accelerator@discuss.tchncs.de on 29 Oct 11:30 next collapse

Every night at ~ 12-1am

unattended updates / transactional-update are awesome.

Stuff has been running for years, and it’s still up to date.

southernbeaver@lemmy.world on 29 Oct 11:43 next collapse

This guy scares me

gopher@programming.dev on 29 Oct 15:46 next collapse

Once per week for me. Works really great on openSUSE MicroOS. Had to roll back maybe a couple of times the last few years.

That said, I run basically everything in containers so the OS installed things are lean.

DasFaultier@sh.itjust.works on 29 Oct 16:13 collapse

This is the way! At least install security upgrades nightly using unattended-upgrades and reboot from time to time to get the latest Kernel version.

Dran_Arcana@lemmy.world on 29 Oct 11:31 next collapse

Unattended-upgrade does security-only patching once every 4 hours (in rough sync with my local mirror)

Full upgrades are done weekly, accompanied by a reboot

I find that the split between security patching and feature/bug patching maintains a healthy balance knowing when something is likely to break but never being behind on the latest cve.

cenzorrll@piefed.ca on 29 Oct 16:45 collapse

For me, unattended-upgrade does it’s thing. Updating other packages happens whenever I think about it. Very few things are not containerized and there’s very little added beyond the base Debian install, so when I do update its maybe a dozen packages.

I would previously reboot during thunderstorms if we lost power, but now that I’ve got a UPS I probably ought to come up with a different plan.

Kolanaki@pawb.social on 29 Oct 11:33 next collapse

Mine is set to update all the stuff I use, and the OS, automatically whenever an update is available. 🤷‍♂️

Shimitar@downonthestreet.eu on 29 Oct 11:42 next collapse

Gentooer here. Emerge sync &; world daily at night.

Weekly a manual check for stuff that doesn’t autoupdate for reasons.

Monthly / biweekly podman compose pull for containers. Manual, because i don’t trust that kind of autoupdate.

Edit: opnSense updates are manual only when I remember because if it breaks, I must be at home to fix it or i lose remote access and that’s bad.

First_Thunder@lemmy.zip on 29 Oct 11:43 next collapse

Using nix :P

I update the flake every now and then via nix flake updated and then do a rebuild

30p87@feddit.org on 29 Oct 11:47 next collapse

Every day to once a week, depending on free time

reseller_pledge609@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 29 Oct 11:47 next collapse

I SSH in and run an update manually, once a week.

I’m not knowledgable and comfortable enough to let updates happen automatically and feel like I could trust it to keep running. Not yet, anyway.

Edit: But at some point I might do what another commenter said and make sure security updates run automatically and check other updates weekly.

lemming741@lemmy.world on 29 Oct 12:07 next collapse

Probably every 2 months. When I have a day off work with nothing to do. I have a few VMs that are more fragile than I want to admit and if something breaks I want to have time to tinker instead of just restoring a backup.

deleted@lemmy.world on 29 Oct 12:10 next collapse

I do it every 3 to 5 days. I usually do it when I have time to fix things if it goes south.

illusionist@lemmy.zip on 29 Oct 12:17 next collapse

On my ubuntu I use unattended updates but that doesn’t work reliably. I have to update it manually most of the time. Once every other month.

On my fedora server it auto updates every day at 4 reliably.

The next server is going to be atomic such that the server restart is even shorter (not that I would care about it at 4).

bjoern_tantau@swg-empire.de on 29 Oct 12:17 next collapse

Automatic upgrades handle the security patches. Everything else maybe once a month. My big services like Nextcloud auto update as well.

troed@fedia.io on 29 Oct 12:24 next collapse

All services are dockerized, updated nightly.

Server OS runs a kernel-patch service for real time exploit patching.

All other updates as soon as they appear.

Yeah, sometimes I'll need to go in a repair - but that's way better than having to clean up after having been exploited due to not keeping up on security patches.

atzanteol@sh.itjust.works on 29 Oct 12:04 next collapse

All systems, daily via a single ansible script. That’s apt update, upgrade and reboot if needed (some systems set to only reboot with a separate script so I can handle them separately).

Rarely have any sort of problems.

snekerpimp@lemmy.world on 29 Oct 12:31 next collapse

Almost everything I have runs Debian or NixOS, so……… once a month? Except for VMs I’m playing around with, which usually get updated every time I log into them, or instal stuff.

CompactFlax@discuss.tchncs.de on 29 Oct 12:33 next collapse

When I remember. About once a month.

spacelord@sh.itjust.works on 29 Oct 13:35 collapse

Same here. No auto updates, no touching of a stable system without my manual intervention. 😅

CompactFlax@discuss.tchncs.de on 29 Oct 14:48 collapse

Last thing I need in my life is a broken system at home when I don’t have time for it!

confusedpuppy@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 29 Oct 12:41 next collapse

On Alpine Linux I update my two Pi servers at 2 in the morning daily. It’s simpler compared to Debian which needs unattended-updates. Just add apk update && apk upgrade to a cron job and you’re good to go.

I only have three docker services which is simple enough to update manually.

I like to keep things as simple as possible for my already chaotic brain.

non_burglar@lemmy.world on 29 Oct 13:32 collapse

Be careful with unattended upgrades, even on alpine. A recent breaking change in python3 broke my alpine 23 ansible instance. Thankfully I have backups, but if you’re going to automate the upgrade, you should automate tests as well.

confusedpuppy@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 29 Oct 14:46 collapse

My web facing server has just enough packages installed to (kinda securely) host a Caddy and Kiwix docker container to work with my domain name and make a comfortable work environment through SSH. My Pi for my HomeAssistant docker container has less because it’s locked down to just my local network.

I also wrote my own install scripts so reinstalling everything and getting it back to a running state would take about 15 minutes for each device.

And I also wrote my own backup/restore scripts that evolved over 3/4 of a year. I use them often so I have confidence in those scripts.

I personally don’t really care too much. I have multiple ways of dealing with issues for something that’s a hobby to me. Which is why I stick to simplicity.

I’m sure this is a thing for people to worry about when dealing with more complex setups. I just wanna vibe out in my tiny corner of the internet.

ShortN0te@lemmy.ml on 29 Oct 13:26 next collapse

Got apticron set up on my servers or similar solutions to get notified when updates are available. Then usually, from time of notification +1 or 2 days.

ShortN0te@lemmy.ml on 29 Oct 13:27 collapse

And for containers auto updates once every day.

BCsven@lemmy.ca on 29 Oct 13:44 next collapse

Depends, on how critical something is…since we deal with servers / customers at work that often are purposely not adjusted for years…because introducing a different behaviour (even if better) would grind production to a halt, I take a not careful approach.

I was using OpenSUSE Leap, and with zypper you can review which patches are available, whether they are critical or run recommended or not needed. You can then apply which specific patch you want be CVE if necessary.

But with Leap’s path seaming messy at the moment, I moved to Tumbleweed, since you have snapshotying built in. If an update did mess something up you just rollback to the previous snapshot and in less than a minute it is fixed

eager_eagle@lemmy.world on 29 Oct 13:46 next collapse

everyday to once a month, depending how often I use the server

IME usually waiting longer to apply larger updates causes more issues than smaller and more frequent ones

suicidaleggroll@lemmy.world on 29 Oct 14:37 next collapse

Every couple of days. I don’t auto-update, but I’ve streamlined the process to the point that I can just open a single web page and see the number of pending updates for every system on my network, docker containers included, each one with a button. Clicking the button applies the update and reboots if necessary. So it takes about 15 seconds of effort to update everything, which is why I don’t mind doing it so often.

Sir_Kevin@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 29 Oct 15:00 next collapse

On Windows, almost never since it was a disruptive shitshow. Now that I’ve got everything running Linux it’s weekly. Often sooner if I happen to be remoting in and manually update.

Luckyfriend222@lemmy.world on 29 Oct 15:55 next collapse

First Friday of the month. Easy to remember.

hexagonwin@lemmy.sdf.org on 29 Oct 16:01 next collapse

maybe like once in 3 months. i usually update when i need to setup something new on the server that needs to install new packages.

ilco@feddit.nl on 29 Oct 16:35 next collapse

Usely every 3/4 months roughly. I try to remeber to update. The base. Server. And docker based things! /webserices. I update. Sparingly. Every few new versions. As I am the only user of my server. I don’t have a high need to update. So I update only if a new future. Is added or a mayor bug /security patch.

Evotech@lemmy.world on 29 Oct 16:44 next collapse

Weekly. Cronjob.

melfie@lemy.lol on 29 Oct 16:49 next collapse

I run Ubuntu Server 24.04 LTS with k3s. I update my container versions every few months, though not everything I’m running all at once. I update the actual system packages via apt maybe once a year and end up nuking and re-installing everything every couple years on average. I deliberately block all inbound WAN traffic in my firewall and use k8s network policies to aggressively limit egress WAN connections because I’m aware that I’m bad about keeping things up to date.

MTK@lemmy.world on 29 Oct 17:16 next collapse

Anything exposed to the internet gets a daily / weekly update, depending on how exposed it is, how stable the updates are and how critical a breach would be. For example nginx would be a daily update.

Anything behind a vpn gets a more random update schedule mostly based on when I feel like it (probably around once a month or every other month)

jbk@discuss.tchncs.de on 29 Oct 18:19 next collapse

podman quadlets with auto updates running on opensuse microos

im not yet self hosting a ton of services tho

pHr34kY@lemmy.world on 29 Oct 21:28 collapse

Whenever I ssh into it.