I am using unattended-upgrades across multiple servers. I would like package updates to be rolled out gradually, either randomly or to a subset of test/staging machines first. Is there a way to do that for APT on Ubuntu?

An obvious option is to set some machines to update on Monday and the others to update on Wednesday, but that only gives me only weekly updates…

The goal of course is to avoid a Crowdstrike-like situation on my Ubuntu machines.

edit: For example. An updated openssh-server comes out. One fifth of the machines updates that day, another fifth updates the next day, and the rest updates 3 days later.

  • gnuhaut@lemmy.ml
    4·
    5 months ago

    Ubuntu only does security updates, no? So that seems like a bad idea.

    If you still want to do that, I guess you’d probably need to run your own package mirror, update that on Monday, and then point all the machines to use that in the sources.list and run unattended-upgrades on different days of the week.

    • remram@lemmy.mlOP
      42·
      5 months ago

      Ubuntu only does security updates, no?

      No, why do you think that?

      run your own package mirror

      I think you might be on to something here. I could probably do this with a package mirror, updating it daily and rotating the staging, production, etc URLs to serve content as old as I want. This would require a bit of scripting but seems very configurable.

      Thanks for the idea! Can’t believe I didn’t think of that. It seems so obvious now, I wonder if someone already made it.

      • just_another_person@lemmy.world
        43·
        5 months ago

        Yes, Ubuntu DOES only do security updates. They don’t phase major versions of point releases into distro release channels after they have been released. You have no idea what you are talking about in this thread. You need to go do some reading, please. People are trying to help you, and you’re just responding by being rude and snarky. The worst snark as well, because you think you are informed and right, and you’re just embarrassing yourself and annoying the people trying to help you.

        • remram@lemmy.mlOP
          34·
          5 months ago

          Go away. You’re here pretending that Ubuntu only does security updates. You have never received a bugfix from Ubuntu? And I am the one who doesn’t know what he’s talking about?

          Why do you insert yourself into conversations with other people? I am the one who’s rude?

          • just_another_person@lemmy.world
            42·
            5 months ago

            🙄 read my comment in the context of what I was replying to, which is what the original posted was referring to in that maintenance updates ONLY. I clarified it pretty well, and that means no point releases, which is what that poster was referring to.

          • gnuhaut@lemmy.ml
            1·
            5 months ago

            Yeah no the other poster is correct, I meant Ubuntu doesn’t do feature updates after release. You seem worried about something that’s quite unlikely to happen (breakage introduced from minimal patches), while delaying security fixes. And I assume the vast majority of updates are security fixes.

            And I also think you’re being rude in this whole thread.

            • remram@lemmy.mlOP
              2·
              5 months ago

              Sure, bugfix and security.

              I’m sorry but I got a lot of very dumb answers like “have a staging environment” and “use a schedule”, even though I listed both this points in my (very short) post already. The most detailed answer I got is a playbook copy/pasted from an LLM, and this one dude was getting into all subthreads to tell me I don’t understand what I’m asking until I blocked him. So you don’t have to worry about me, this was probably my first and last thread on Lemmy ;-) Either way, apologies if I got heated up.