Chapter 25. Managing software updates in the web console

Learn how to manage software updates in the RHEL 8 web console and ways to automate them.

The Software Updates module in the web console is based on the yum utility. For more information about updating software with yum, see the Updating software packages section.

25.1. Managing manual software updates in the web console

You can manually update your software using the web console.

Prerequisites

Procedure

  1. Log in to the RHEL 8 web console.

    For details, see Logging in to the web console.

  2. Click Software Updates.

    The list of available updates refreshes automatically if the last check happened more than 24 hours ago. To trigger a refresh, click the Check for Updates button.

  3. Apply updates. You can watch the update log while the update is running.

    1. To install all available updates, click the Install all updates button.
    2. If you have security updates available, you can install them separately by clicking the Install Security Updates button.
    3. If you have kpatch updates available, you can install them separately by clicking the Install kpatch updates button.
  4. Optional: You can turn on the Reboot after completion switch for an automatic restart of your system.

    If you perform this step, you can skip the remaining steps of this procedure.

  5. After the system applies updates, you get a recommendation to restart your system.

    We recommend this especially if the update included a new kernel or system services that you do not want to restart individually.

  6. Click Ignore to cancel the restart, or Restart Now to proceed with restarting your system.

    After the system restart, log in to the web console and go to the Software Updates page to verify that the update has been successful.

25.2. Managing automatic software updates in the web console

In the web console, you can choose to apply all updates, or security updates and also manage periodicity and time of your automatic updates.

Prerequisites

Procedure

  1. Log in to RHEL 8 web console. For details, see Logging in to the web console.
  2. Click Software Updates.
  3. In the Settings table, click the Edit button.
  4. Pick one of the types of automatic updates. You can select from Security updates only, or All updates.
  5. To modify the day of the automatic update, click on the every day drop-down menu and select a specific day.
  6. To modify the time of the automatic update, click into the 6:00 field and select or type a specific time.
  7. If you want to disable automatic software updates, select the No updates type.

25.3. Managing on-demand restarting after applying software updates in the web console

The intelligent restarting feature informs the users whether it is necessary to reboot the whole system after you apply a software update or if it is sufficient to only restart certain services.

Prerequisites

Procedure

  1. Log in to the RHEL 8 web console. For details, see Logging in to the web console.
  2. Click Software Updates.
  3. Apply an update of your system.
  4. After a successful update, click Reboot system…​, Restart services…​, or Ignore
  5. If you decide to ignore, you can return to the restart or reboot menu by doing one of the following:

    1. Rebooting:

      1. Click the Reboot system button in the Status field of the Software Updates page.
      2. (Optional) Write a message to the logged in users.
      3. Select a delay from the Delay drop down menu.
      4. Click Reboot.
    2. Restarting services:

      1. Click the Restart services…​ button in the Status field of the Software Updates page.

        You will see a list of all the services that require a restart.

      2. Click Restart services.

        Depending on your choice, the system will reboot or your services will restart.

25.4. Applying patches with kernel live patching in the web console

The web console allows users to apply kernel security patches without forcing reboots by using the kpatch framework. The following procedure shows how to set up the preferred type of patching.

Prerequisites

Procedure

  1. Log in to the web console with administrative privileges. For details, see Logging in to the web console.
  2. Click Software Updates.
  3. Check the status of your kernel patching settings.

    1. If the patching is not installed, click Install.

      cockpit kernel patching install

    2. To enable kernel patching, click Enable.

      cockpit kernel patching disabled

    3. Check the check box for applying kernel patches.
    4. Select whether you want to apply patches for current and future kernels, or for the current kernel only. If you choose to subscribe to applying patches for future kernels, the system will apply patches also for the upcoming kernel releases.

      cockpit kernel patching future

      cockpit kernel patching current

    5. Click Apply.

Verification

  • Check that the kernel patching is now Enabled in the Settings table of the Software updates section.

    cockpit kernel patching enabled