What's the best approach when it comes to updating a production(on ec2) machine that can't go down?

Posted by Ryan Detzel on Server Fault See other posts from Server Fault or by Ryan Detzel
Published on 2011-02-23T14:50:02Z Indexed on 2011/02/23 15:26 UTC
Read the original article Hit count: 120

Filed under:

ubuntu

|

amazon-ec2

|

upgrade

We have three main servers on ec2, web, database, and search. I logged in today to find:

77 packages can be updated. 45 updates are security updates.

which scares the crap out of me so I want to update these machines asap but I'm scared to just run the updates on a live running system. Is this safe to do, what's the best approach when it comes to doing security updates on production machines?

© Server Fault or respective owner

Related posts about ubuntu

Cannot update, apt-get cannot fetch index files

as seen on Ask Ubuntu - Search for 'Ask Ubuntu'
I have a fresh install of Ubuntu 11.10 from the iso 'ubuntu-11.10-desktop-amd64.iso'. I installed this in VMWare Fusion 4.1.1 running on OSX 10.7.3. When setting up the VM, I allowed easy install to take care of creating my user and installing VMWare tools. No problems during installation, everything… >>> More
'sudo apt-get update' error on Ubuntu 12.04

as seen on Ask Ubuntu - Search for 'Ask Ubuntu'
When I type in 'sudo apt-get update' I get this mohd-arafat-hossain@TUD:~$ sudo apt-get update [sudo] password for mohd-arafat-hossain: Ign http://bd.archive.ubuntu.com precise InRelease Ign http://bd.archive.ubuntu.com precise-updates InRelease Ign http://bd.archive.ubuntu… >>> More
Opening Skype, Opera, OpenOffice logs me off

as seen on Ask Ubuntu - Search for 'Ask Ubuntu'
Whats common among Skype, Opera, OpenOffice in Ubuntu ? Whenever I open these applications I get logged off and shows back me the login screen. This started happening since the 10.10 upgrade. Forgot to mention : Yes, its x64.Each time I open these applications, the UI shows and then crashes. I… >>> More
Update information outdated

as seen on Ask Ubuntu - Search for 'Ask Ubuntu'
I have a warning triangle that my update information is outdated, the last update was 12 days ago. I use Ubuntu 11.10. A run of sudo apt-get update produces the following output: Ign http://ppa.launchpad.net oneiric InRelease Ign http://de.archive.ubuntu.com oneiric InRelease … >>> More
ubuntu/apt-get update said "Failed to Fetch http:// .... 404 not found"

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
Hi all, I'm trying to run apt-get update on ubuntu 9.10 I've configured my proxy server and I can access the internet without any problem: /etc/apt# wget "http://www.google.com" Resolving (...) Proxy request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK Length: 292 [text/html] Saving to: `index.html' 100%[=================================================================================================================================>]… >>> More

Related posts about amazon-ec2

Amazon EC2 spot instances - is there a catch ?

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
I needed to start a new EC2 instance today and decided to try out the new spot instances, where you can reduce your instance cost by bidding on the maximum per-hour price you're prepared to pay. Since today's spot price was only 35c / hour, compared with 85c / hour for an on-demand instance, I was… >>> More
Amazon EC2 spot instances - is there a catch ?

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
I needed to start a new EC2 instance today and decided to try out the new spot instances, where you can reduce your instance cost by bidding on the maximum per-hour price you're prepared to pay. Since today's spot price was only 3.5c / hour, compared with 8.5c / hour for an on-demand instance, I… >>> More
Amazon EC2 master node hanging

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
Hi, I am using cloudera setup to launch a cluster with hadoop on Amazon. Sometimes, the master hadoop node hangs and we have to restart the job from the job. Did anyone face similar problem and resolve the issue. Thank you. >>> More
Can't Connect to IIS Ftp Site under Amazon EC2

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
IIS 7.5: Ftp Firewall Suport: Data Ranges 49152-65535 using external Ip of Amazon EC2 static IP Ftp IPv4 Restriction: allow: Amazon EC2 static IP Ftp Authentication: Anonymous: Enabled, Basic: Disabled, IISMgr: Enabled Ftp Authorization: Allow All Users: Read/Write Windows Firewall (Inbound): Open… >>> More
Amazon EC2 EBS volume scheduled backup/snapshots using puppet

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
I am not a Linux admin, although I wish I was, and I have seen these questions Amazon EC2 Backup Strategy Amazon EC2 + EBS:: Regular backup plan? Simple Backup Strategy for Amazon EC2 instances / volumes? And this suggestion http://alestic.com/2009/09/ec2-consistent-snapshot I tried using… >>> More