I'm somewhat new to Red Hat and Linux in general. I've been reading that you can use YUM to update Linux servers. Can anyone point me to a good tutorial on setting this up? Everything I've been reading is general and vague. I'm looking for a way to keep all our Linux servers updated with critical and security patches from Red Hat. Does this require a subscription or is it free?

Thanks,
Scott

Red Hat's RHEL's are updated with application called up2date, and you need the subscription to do it. If you can or will not pay, You should convert to CentOS, practically the copy of RHEL, but without subscription and official support from Red Hat. CentOS does use yum for update, and there is relatively easy conversion path from RHEL to CentOS (and reverse) by (almost) just changing repository for updates and updating gradually from one distro to another.

If you use Fedora for servers, typing "yum update" should start the update.

Unfortuantely my management doesn't want to pay for the subscriptions for all our servers. Is there any way to get patches for Red Hat for free or am I pretty much out of luck?

Thanks,
Scott

You might be able to pay only for one system and use it co create local repository. That would also save some bandwidth in case of large number of servers iven if they all have subscription.

Since RHEL systems will refuse to update automatically even from local repository, start thinking about converting RHEL systems over to CentOS. Since you will not pay for subscription, you will have no benefits like prompt support by staying on RHEL, so converting to CentOS will assure you have regular updates and you will in both cases look for the help on the forums like this one.

CentOS is created from RHEL sources Red Hat publishes regularly, and for almost all intentions and purposes they are the the same thing. Many companies that have admins capable of solving problems on their own or with the third party help are using it in production.

As of RHEL 5.x, its yum, not up2date.
The underlying db is still rpm.
http://kbase.redhat.com/faq/docs/DOC-2531

The only systems you can get support from RH from are those you've paid for.
If you're mgmnt won't pay, you have to cvt to Centos to get the updates.
Personally I'd go for a clean install, just to be on the safe side.

This is really ridiculous. Just last week, in this exact forum, someone was correcting me that RHEL 5.x does not use yum, but only up2date! I wish you guys would have nice chat and agree on this issue. I only use CentOS so I am totally clueless and now I really do not know if I should even bother to answer questions related to updating or installing packages.

Well thanks to everyone for your advice. I guess we'll look into either paying for subscriptions or moving over to CentOS.

Hi Scott,

You might want to let your management know that not buying subscriptions for all of your servers puts you in violation of the agreement you entered into with Red Hat. If they catch you doing this, they can disentitle the ones you did purchase.

Matt...

@DrLove
from that page (RH knowledge base) I linked to earlier.

Whoever said RHEL 5.x uses up2date is wrong!