Updating Linux

Like all other operating systems, Linux needs updates and patches to keep it up-to-date and secure. With Runbooks, you could automate the process of performing routine maintenance such as installing updates. Going one step further, you could also schedule this activity using a scheduled runbook trigger.

Create the runbook

To create a runbook to perform updates on your Linux machines:

From your project’s overview page, navigate to Operations ➜ Runbooks, and click ADD RUNBOOK.
Give the runbook a Name and click SAVE.
Click DEFINE YOUR RUNBOOK PROCESS, and then click ADD STEP.
Click Script, and then select the Run a Script step.
Give the step a name.
Choose the Execution Location on which to run this step.

In the Inline source code section, select Bash and add the following code that matches your Linux distro:

# Run update command
sudo apt-get update 2>&1

# Check for error
if [[ $? -ne 0 ]]
then
    fail_step "apt-get update failed!"
fi

# List upgradable packages
apt list --upgradable 2>&1

# Check for error
if [[ $? -ne 0 ]]
then
    fail_step "List update failed!"
fi

# Run update command
sudo yum check-update 2>&1

# Check for error
if [[ $? -ne 0 && $? -ne 100 ]]
then
    fail_step "yum check update failed!"
fi

This step will download a list of available updates then display them. This step is split out from the actual update process so that you can place any gates such as approvals between listing what is available for update and actually performing the update.

Repeat steps 3-7 above, adding the following code to perform the update in the Inline source code section that matches your Linux distro:

# Perform upgrade
sudo apt-get upgrade -y 2>&1

# Check for error
if [[ $? -ne 0 ]]
then
    fail_step "apt-get upgrade failed!"
fi

# Perform upgrade
sudo yum update -y 2>&1

# Check for error
if [[ $? -ne 0 ]]
then
    fail_step "yum update failed!"
fi

You’ll note the use of 2>&1 which redirects the stderr stream to stdout. Bash writes diagnostic messages to stderr which Octopus interprets as an error so your runbook will show a success with warnings message. The if statement checks to see if an error was actually encountered and will fail the step if it errored.

Samples

We have a Target - Wildfly Space on our Samples instance of Octopus. You can sign in as Guest to take a look at this example and more runbooks in the PetClinic project.

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Page updated on Sunday, January 1, 2023

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