this post was submitted on 29 Oct 2025
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Or asked the other way around: How long do you keep your servers running without installing any software updates?

update means something like

sudo dnf update

or something ....

apt-get upgrade
apt-get update
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[–] mjr@infosec.pub 49 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Those apt commands are in a less-good order. It's usually better to update apt, then upgrade the system.

I upgrade as soon as reasonably possible after the notification appears, if the system isn't on auto-upgrade.

[–] njordomir@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

I do sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade

Is there any reason to not combine the commands since the output always prompts prior to changes anyway?

[–] dust_accelerator@discuss.tchncs.de 37 points 1 day ago (6 children)

Every night at ~ 12-1am

unattended updates / transactional-update are awesome.

Stuff has been running for years, and it's still up to date.

[–] southernbeaver@lemmy.world 20 points 1 day ago

This guy scares me

[–] DasFaultier@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 day ago

This is the way! At least install security upgrades nightly using unattended-upgrades and reboot from time to time to get the latest Kernel version.

[–] gopher@programming.dev 2 points 1 day ago

Once per week for me. Works really great on openSUSE MicroOS. Had to roll back maybe a couple of times the last few years.

That said, I run basically everything in containers so the OS installed things are lean.

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[–] Dran_Arcana@lemmy.world 19 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Unattended-upgrade does security-only patching once every 4 hours (in rough sync with my local mirror)

Full upgrades are done weekly, accompanied by a reboot

I find that the split between security patching and feature/bug patching maintains a healthy balance knowing when something is likely to break but never being behind on the latest cve.

[–] cenzorrll@piefed.ca 3 points 1 day ago

For me, unattended-upgrade does it's thing. Updating other packages happens whenever I think about it. Very few things are not containerized and there's very little added beyond the base Debian install, so when I do update its maybe a dozen packages.

I would previously reboot during thunderstorms if we lost power, but now that I've got a UPS I probably ought to come up with a different plan.

[–] sneezycat@sopuli.xyz 16 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (3 children)

Well, one of the reasons I'm using debian on my server is so I can kinda forget about it...

I'll update maybe once a month, or every couple months. I don't always restart though, so my kernel is probably a bit behind :'D

[–] eksb@programming.dev 7 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I use Debian stable and subscribe to the debian-security-announce mailing list, so I update each time I get an email from it.

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[–] PlanterTree@discuss.tchncs.de 4 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

lol. Same issue for me. I run it for months, and surprisingly (for me) nothing breaks at all.

But fucking ssh shows warnings regarding some "post quantum crypto" stuff; recommending software update, that was not there before lol.

[–] atzanteol@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 day ago (7 children)

That's... Not how it works.. Debian is "stable" not "secure". You use Debian so that is easier to run updates frequently since they'll be unlikely to break things.

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[–] CompactFlax@discuss.tchncs.de 11 points 1 day ago (1 children)

When I remember. About once a month.

[–] spacelord@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Same here. No auto updates, no touching of a stable system without my manual intervention. 😅

Last thing I need in my life is a broken system at home when I don’t have time for it!

[–] pHr34kY@lemmy.world 8 points 1 day ago

Whenever I ssh into it.

[–] slazer2au@lemmy.world 7 points 1 day ago

Once a week. I have a bash script that does an apt update upgrade and pulls new docker images.

[–] rikudou@lemmings.world 5 points 1 day ago

Monthly unless I learn about a vulnerability that would require it sooner.

[–] hexagonwin@lemmy.sdf.org 5 points 1 day ago

maybe like once in 3 months. i usually update when i need to setup something new on the server that needs to install new packages.

[–] Sir_Kevin@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 1 day ago

On Windows, almost never since it was a disruptive shitshow. Now that I've got everything running Linux it's weekly. Often sooner if I happen to be remoting in and manually update.

[–] deleted@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago

I do it every 3 to 5 days. I usually do it when I have time to fix things if it goes south.

[–] First_Thunder@lemmy.zip 3 points 1 day ago

Using nix :P

I update the flake every now and then via nix flake updated and then do a rebuild

[–] Shimitar@downonthestreet.eu 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Gentooer here. Emerge sync &; world daily at night.

Weekly a manual check for stuff that doesn't autoupdate for reasons.

Monthly / biweekly podman compose pull for containers. Manual, because i don't trust that kind of autoupdate.

Edit: opnSense updates are manual only when I remember because if it breaks, I must be at home to fix it or i lose remote access and that's bad.

[–] hydrian@twit.social 3 points 1 day ago (2 children)

@PlanterTree Systems facing public internet, security updates are applied daily automatically.

up to now I install all my updates manually, maybe I should look into this: how to auto-update.

[–] reseller_pledge609@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

I SSH in and run an update manually, once a week.

I'm not knowledgable and comfortable enough to let updates happen automatically and feel like I could trust it to keep running. Not yet, anyway.

Edit: But at some point I might do what another commenter said and make sure security updates run automatically and check other updates weekly.

[–] lemming741@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago

Probably every 2 months. When I have a day off work with nothing to do. I have a few VMs that are more fragile than I want to admit and if something breaks I want to have time to tinker instead of just restoring a backup.

[–] confusedpuppy@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 1 day ago (2 children)

On Alpine Linux I update my two Pi servers at 2 in the morning daily. It's simpler compared to Debian which needs unattended-updates. Just add apk update && apk upgrade to a cron job and you're good to go.

I only have three docker services which is simple enough to update manually.

I like to keep things as simple as possible for my already chaotic brain.

[–] non_burglar@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Be careful with unattended upgrades, even on alpine. A recent breaking change in python3 broke my alpine 23 ansible instance. Thankfully I have backups, but if you're going to automate the upgrade, you should automate tests as well.

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[–] stratself@lemdro.id 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

To make it even simpler, apk -U upgrade

[–] confusedpuppy@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 17 hours ago

apk seems to have some tricks in there that aren't as well known.

I managed to catch in the IRC channel that apk add doc will automatically download any related man pages for packages with any future downloads through apk. That made life a bit more convenient instead of downloading all those packages separately.

[–] melfie@lemy.lol 3 points 1 day ago

I run Ubuntu Server 24.04 LTS with k3s. I update my container versions every few months, though not everything I’m running all at once. I update the actual system packages via apt maybe once a year and end up nuking and re-installing everything every couple years on average. I deliberately block all inbound WAN traffic in my firewall and use k8s network policies to aggressively limit egress WAN connections because I’m aware that I’m bad about keeping things up to date.

[–] lambalicious@lemmy.sdf.org 3 points 17 hours ago

Only mostly when I want to. Which tends to be on Mondays and Saturdays.

I'm running Sid on servers, so automatic updates are actually a risk. Used to be Debian Stable, but maaan the docker and podman improvements.... make me drool.

[–] snekerpimp@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

Almost everything I have runs Debian or NixOS, so…….. once a month? Except for VMs I’m playing around with, which usually get updated every time I log into them, or instal stuff.

[–] suicidaleggroll@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

Every couple of days. I don't auto-update, but I've streamlined the process to the point that I can just open a single web page and see the number of pending updates for every system on my network, docker containers included, each one with a button. Clicking the button applies the update and reboots if necessary. So it takes about 15 seconds of effort to update everything, which is why I don't mind doing it so often.

[–] illusionist@lemmy.zip 2 points 1 day ago

On my ubuntu I use unattended updates but that doesn't work reliably. I have to update it manually most of the time. Once every other month.

On my fedora server it auto updates every day at 4 reliably.

The next server is going to be atomic such that the server restart is even shorter (not that I would care about it at 4).

[–] bjoern_tantau@swg-empire.de 2 points 1 day ago

Automatic upgrades handle the security patches. Everything else maybe once a month. My big services like Nextcloud auto update as well.

[–] Evotech@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

Weekly. Cronjob.

[–] Auli@lemmy.ca 2 points 13 hours ago

Every day or at least once a week. Should automate it.

[–] jbk@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 1 day ago

podman quadlets with auto updates running on opensuse microos

im not yet self hosting a ton of services tho

[–] vga@sopuli.xyz 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

If I have something serious, I will set up automatic upgrades. If short downtimes are ok, also with automatic reboots when the kernel updates, but if they are not, with notifications that I should go reboot them.

If it's not anything serious, whenever I remember to.

[–] Treczoks@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

Apt update and upgrade happen automatically.

[–] Kolanaki@pawb.social 2 points 1 day ago

Mine is set to update all the stuff I use, and the OS, automatically whenever an update is available. 🤷‍♂️

[–] sobchak@programming.dev 2 points 19 hours ago (2 children)

When something doesn't work. I.e. when an app update causes incompatibility with a service. I think I have one server that's a few years without an update (distro version may actually be EOL for all I know).

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[–] troed@fedia.io 2 points 1 day ago

All services are dockerized, updated nightly.

Server OS runs a kernel-patch service for real time exploit patching.

All other updates as soon as they appear.

Yeah, sometimes I'll need to go in a repair - but that's way better than having to clean up after having been exploited due to not keeping up on security patches.

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