Kernel Security and Bug fix update from RHN

mezbaur · 03-26-2010, 05:42 AM

Hello,

I have several Red Hat EL5 machines registered with RHN. I can see several of these update types waiting to be installed:

Kernel security and bug fix update
Kernel security update
Kernel bug fix update

As I go through the description of these updates, I take special notice of these two lines:

The kernel packages contain the Linux kernel, the core of any Linux operating system.
The system must be rebooted for this update to take effect

I would like to know

What sort of changes do these updates make in general
Do these updates change my entire kernel or kernel parameters or kernel related files
What should be best approach to perform these updates since some machines are in Production platform and have not updated for a very long period.

I would be very pleased if someone can kindly answer my queries.

Regards

AlucardZero · 03-26-2010, 08:29 AM

1) Security and bug fix updates. If you read the advisories, they will tell you what they fix. You only have to install the latest kernel.
2) The kernel.
3) Schedule downtime, install the latest kernel, and reboot into it.

mezbaur · 03-26-2010, 11:11 AM

Hello AlucardZero,

Many thanks for your answer. That helps a lot.