Auter

Automatic Update Transaction Execution by Rackspace

Automatic updates for RHEL and Debian based distributions with the ability to pre-download packages, run hooks, and perform automated reboots.

Why use Auter?

It is important to maintain regular system patching on Linux servers to keep up with the latest bug and security fixes; some of these updates will require service or server reboots which is where Auter fits in.

Auter provides a flexible, host-based, solution for updating system packages via the distributions default package manager. It is possible to configure independent configuration profiles that can be run individually either manually on the command line, or scheduled using cron jobs. This would allow weekly updates to take place without a reboot, and a monthly patching schedule for the kernel and other core services that require a reboot.

Auter is also capable of caching available updates, and subsequently only installing from the cache. This allows package versions to be synchronized across environments that have different installation dates.

There are also cases when other options are more suitable:

I want to update nightly and handle reboots manually: yum-cron or dnf-automatic
I want to manage updates via a central management console: RHN Satellite, or configuration management systems such as Chef or Puppet

Installation

Auter is available for RHEL and its derivatives via the EPEL repository.

$ yum/dnf install auter

There isn't currently a package maintained for Debian, however we provide a .deb package on the releases page.

Setup

All Auter configuration information is stored in /etc/auter/auter.conf; it allows you to set basic options such as the sleep delay (MAXDELAY), and whether automatic reboots should take place (AUTOREBOOT).

More information can be found on the Wiki.

Usage

Auter can be run manually:

$ auter --prep
$ auter --apply

or via cron:

# Prep Every Friday at 22:00
0 22 * * Fri root /usr/bin/auter --prep
# Apply Every Saturday at 23:00
0 23 * * Sat root /usr/bin/auter --apply

For more examples and usage, please refer to the Wiki.

Contributing

Please read HACKING.md for details on how to contribute, and the process for submitting pull requests.

Maintainers

Nick Rhodes
Paolo Gigante

See also the list of original contributors who started the project.

Related projects

Auter Manager: Simplify the installation of Auter across multiple servers with a single master configuration file written in CSV.