Topic: How to Update Only the things Security concerning

[josempinto]

  Hello,

  I am concerned about the security of the server, and the security issues updates.

  But I am concerned too, about the people having problems on getting their server running after an update.

  Is there a way to update only the things having to do with security, anti-virus, anti Spam rules, but not the other ones...???

  Thank you in Advance.

  Regards.

[cactus]

  Hello,

  I am concerned about the security of the server, and the security issues updates.

  But I am concerned too, about the people having problems on getting their server running after an update.

  Is there a way to update only the things having to do with security, anti-virus, anti Spam rules, but not the other ones...???

  Thank you in Advance.

  Regards.

I have not heard of people that had a server not running after an upgrade. Most of the issues with the latest updates were cosmetic issues (with the server-manager navigation panel being disorganized, but not being disfunctional, others are concerning badly coded and tested contribs).

If you have a stock server and have issues with upgrades please report them in the bugtracker so the devs can device a fix, if it is a general issue or help you solve your problem if it is an individual case.

Updates to the SME Server core are tested by the dev team, for stcok SME Servers only. If you do not have contribs installed you will not have much to worry about.

One of the problems on this is that only problems are posted, as people are looking for a solution. Succesful installs rarely get posted as there is nothing to fix

Most of the problems caused on updates are because of user errors AFAIK.

[josempinto]

I have not heard of people that had a server not running after an upgrade. Most of the issues with the latest updates were cosmetic issues (with the server-manager navigation panel being disorganized, but not being disfunctional, others are concerning badly coded and tested contribs).

If you have a stock server and have issues with upgrades please report them in the bugtracker so the devs can device a fix, if it is a general issue or help you solve your problem if it is an individual case.

Updates to the SME Server core are tested by the dev team, for stcok SME Servers only. If you do not have contribs installed you will not have much to worry about.

One of the problems on this is that only problems are posted, as people are looking for a solution. Succesful installs rarely get posted as there is nothing to fix

Most of the problems caused on updates are because of user errors AFAIK.

Thank you for your reply, the reply you gave me is the political and ethical correct and the best answer,

But your answer lets-me concerned, very concerned, because of 2 (two) reasons:

First, it is because you have not answered what I asked.

Second, because I have a friend of mine, who tried to do a yum update on a server version 7.2, which had never been updated, just installed from the CD (downloaded). This friend, posted on this forum it’s problem, he did and answered all the questions the dev. team and the doc. team asked for, bad got to the end with being unable to update the server, and no solution for the problem.
Fortunately because a previous bad experience, of this friend, he (tried to) made de update on a test server. Now because de things went wrong on the test server, and because the lack of solutions, he is afraid on doing the update on the production server.

 ...And I am afraid too!!!!

My friend was told to: open a bug, but, because my friend is new to SME (but not new to Unix) we got crazy wit this kind of answer. We considers himself new, and not with expertise to open bugs. Should People open bugs indiscriminately, when it can be a user problem? It is not more correct, to be the experts to open the bugs, if they have no solution, and are sure that it is a true bug...???

Regards.

[mercyh]

Is there a way to update only the things having to do with security, anti-virus, anti Spam rules, but not the other ones...???

The short answer is, "If you really know what you are doing it is possible to update only the anti-virus." The real answer is "it is not a good idea and much more risky then running the full update package."

How are you going to determine "what only has to do with security"? There have been many updates that are not anti-virus or anti-spam that were security related. I have had the experience of doing an update and the the server being hosed. (Cactus, Yes it was user errror.) I have a moment of trepidition every time I hit the Software Installer page if the server manager. I have a few more resources now then I used too. (a test server) My current procedure:

1. Sit on my hands for a few days after the new updates come out and watch the forums to see if they are causing any trouble.
2. Apply the updates to my test server do not get impatient with YUM, It may take an hour to complete when you think it should take 5 minutes.
3. Apply the updates to my production server.
4. E-mail my offsite installs and have the responsible people apply the updates to the offsite servers.

* If you are going to wait for several updates to come out before you apply them, you are at a much greater risk of hosing things up.

[mrjhb3]

  Hello,

  I am concerned about the security of the server, and the security issues updates
  But I am concerned too, about the people having problems on getting their server running after an update.

  Is there a way to update only the things having to do with security, anti-virus, anti Spam rules, but not the other ones...???

  Thank you in Advance.

  Regards.

Then run yum update from the command line.  I find this method much more reliable then using the server-manager interface.

John