Updating Redhat Enterprise Linux 4 to a specific Update level

[f0rmat]

I have 2 machines, one has RHELAS 4 and one has RHELAS 4 Update 1

I want to get both machines to update 2, but not update 3(which is the latest update) so I can't just do a up2date -u --installall

What is the best way to go about doing so? I am not very familiar with how to update these boxes.

ideas?

 

[ZaSter]

I'm not sure that can be done. You could run

up2date --nox -l

to see what updates are available for your machines, but I don't know of a way to tell up2date to limit it updates to a certain "Update" level.

One idea I had was to query the /etc/redhat-release file's package like so:

rpm -qif --requires /etc/redhat-release

and try to limit the packages you install to those listed as a result of that command.

Just curious, why do you want to avoid a complete update when known problems will be fixed by the updates?

 

[f0rmat]

ill check those out, thanks. I had a feeling it may not be able to be done, which if it requires a rebuild, I suppose such is life.

The reason why I need to avoid a complete update is, these machines are development build machines for our software products that we make. We certify that we support such and such a platform, so we have to build on that exact platform. If we support Red Hat EL AS 4 update 1, we have to keep an update 1 machine around to build on, regardless. Ill let you know how I get on.

Cheers,

 

[Annihilannic]

You can (usually) create a channel in RHN with a specific set of packages, then configure the server to use that channel, and then run up2date as usual.

Annihilannic.

 

[f0rmat]

if I have a machine already at update 2 is there a way that I can output a list of what's on there, and feed it into up2date on another machine so it'll replicate itself to whatever I give it?

 

[ZaSter]

One technique I use, which is extremely valuable when combined with VMware, is to keep a set of the Red Hat installation CDs as ISO images for the various versions and update levels I need to maintain. That way I can rebuild either real machines or just maintain VMware virtual machines to that specific level of Red Hat Linux and test our software against that specific update level.

I don't know what up2date determines as the set of packages that comprise an "Update" level. I'm still learning about up2date (and Fedora Core's "yum" up2date equivalent) and probably have more questions than answers

 

[f0rmat]

ZaSter,
Agreed.

I always keep my ISO's around, and believe me, if I could get our engineers to move to a VMware architecture, it would make my life so easy, but they refuse to. They complain their builds will not be as efficient etc..

Bollocks if you ask me.

I ended up rebuilding the machine. I popped in my update 2 CD's and it gave me the option of upgrading, which I did(nervously) and things didn't work properly.. so here I stand, fdisking and cleanly installing AS4 update 2 =]