RHEL 7 yum-cron automatic patching

Overview

RHEL 7 based operating systems can take advantage of the yum-cron package for easy scheduling of yum updates. yum-cron supports downloading, applying, notifications, randomization of start time, and other options. While you can setup a simple crontab file yourself, this config file based method can be easier to manage across multiple systems.

Process

yum install yum-cron
vim /etc/yum/yum-cron.conf
# configure as needed or use following sed commands to enable patching
sed -i 's|apply_updates = no|apply_updates = yes|g' /etc/yum/yum-cron.conf
sed -i 's|random_sleep = 360|random_sleep = 30|g' /etc/yum/yum-cron.conf
systemctl --now enable yum-cron

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References

• https://www.redhat.com/sysadmin/using-yum-cron