hi guys,

I'm preparing some servers to roll out and have decided to use CentOS for this project... but some questions...

1) I read that Centos 4.4 can support both yum and up2date. I thought up2date is only for rhel? If so.. does it mean to use it, I will need an account with RHN? (which seems to defeat the purpose of using centos?)

1a) If I use yum, is there anything additional I need to set to have it check for updates periodically? Do i need to set additional respositories (not very sure about using yum pardon me)

2) What's the version of mysql and php with 4.4? is it v5?

3) is it really identical to RHEL? Except its for the community? I can install packages via RPM files?

4) What's the servercd for?

thanks people!

centos run their own up2date interface just like they do for yum. you don't need any subscriptions, but only get the centos updates not direct redhat ones.

using yum you'd normally let the yum service do it's own updates if you do want the hands free aprooach. personally i think that idea is awful...

no idea what version of mysql, just look in their yum repos to see...

yes it's the same, other than graphics, name and support avenues.

servercd is a stripped down version just for servers, which does not include the X window system etc... (which you shouldn't run on a real server) to fit onto a single cd. you can still install anythign you wish via yum afterwards.

so.. there is a up2date server for yum then? I suppose its better to use that, from the way you describe yum hahaha... right?

what do you mean by yum have a "hands free approach"?

i can still install a server using the other cds yah? i'm definitely not installing X hahaha

Whether you use up2date or yum, the packages will be downloaded from the same repositories.
I think he meant that, there is a yum related service which can automatically, check for, fetch and install updates for you. You don't have to do anything because its all automated.

hmm in an enteprise environment, would that be consider be better?

hell no. you have a production server doing something nice and important, and at 4am one morning when the auto update runs, something dodgy gets installed, and your server dies a death witout you lifting a finger... ouch. within enterprise, anyone involved in updates really should be justifying every single update on it's own merits, and not just because it's there.

and up2date is fine to run if you wish. it works in parallel to yum, and the two know nothing about one another.

i'm not sure how does up2date works in centos...i guess i will find out more when i get my hands to it.

but yum.. so far... i have limited experience on it... and it seems not able to resolves dependencies based on my limited usage with it. anyone concur?

still downloading the iso for centos... so have yet to try.

what are your views? what are your best practices?
I am concern mainly about patching management...

thanks people!

yum can resolve anything that it contains in the first place, it's not designed for you to say "i've downloaded wobble.blah.1.2.3.rpm from obscurerpms.com" and expect yum to install it for you with deps it knows nothing about. you can use additional repo's like dag for extra packages, but essentially if that's your experience you really won't be using it correctly.

I guess so... but the last time I used it i tried to install a package via yum, and it failed while trying to resolve dependency. I did it FC4. Think I will try again with Centos this time round. Still one more disc to go.