[Yum] Maintaining yum repositories

[Robert G. Brown]

On Fri, 21 Nov 2003, Nielsen, Steve wrote:

> For new installs I would prefer the RPMs installed be the latest
> versions (for security purposes) vs. the original ones that came with
> the distro. Plus installing the originals then upgrading (via yum) will
> cause the builds to take longer too. I manage a large number of machines
> and need all the security and time savings I can get. :)

You're talking a trivial amount of time (typically ballpark of a minute,
depending on how many updates there are) and it isn't "your time" -- the
whole process is automated so all you do is initiate the kickstart and
do something else until the machine reboots itself, fully patched, post
install.  Exactly the same amount of your time, but a whole lot easier
and with no script magic besides yum itself.  And besides, installs are
typically install once, use a long time.

So I suppose it might be worth it, but it isn't worth it to us even in a
beowulf cluster environment with truly LARGE numbers of machines.  Too
easy to break something, because updates are NOT just a matter of
slotting in replacement RPMs.  That's what yum is FOR -- it resolves a
whole lot of problems before they become problems, sometimes by just
refusing to function.

And anyway, the first nightly update the time is going to be spent
anyway, equally unattended in both cases.  A string gets no shorter
moving its pieces around.

   rgb

> Steve
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Satish Balay [mailto:balay at fastmail.fm]
> Sent: Friday, November 21, 2003 12:17 PM
> To: Yellowdog Updater, Modified
> Subject: RE: [Yum] Maintaining yum repositories
> 
> 
> 
> 
> On Fri, 21 Nov 2003, Nielsen, Steve wrote:
> 
> > So the basic steps would be:
> > rsync down the updates
> > merge udpates into distro <--- here
> > rebuild the hdlist
> 
> Why bother with this merge and weeding out the old versions? Why
> not just let yum pick up the latest versions?
> 
> Satish
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Robert G. Brown	                       http://www.phy.duke.edu/~rgb/
Duke University Dept. of Physics, Box 90305
Durham, N.C. 27708-0305
Phone: 1-919-660-2567  Fax: 919-660-2525     email:rgb at phy.duke.edu