kernel-headers locks up the server

[BeauSanders]

Last night at 1:47 AM yum installed the current version of kernel-headers on my RHEL5 server:

Mar 17 01:47:47 linux1 yum: Updated: kernel-headers-2.6.18-164.15.1.el5.i386
Mar 17 13:47:22 linux1 syslogd 1.4.1: restart.

This locked the server up until I could physically get to it this afternoon and reboot the server. I then finished downloading and installing the new kernel, rebooted again, and the server appears to be running fine.

This is the second time this has happened on this server.

Has anyone else seen this problem when you setup yum to automatically update your servers? Other than manually updating servers, does anyone have any suggestions on how to keep this problem from happening again?

-Beau

[Rubberman]

Two reasons why I don't do automatic updates:

1. If it ain't broke, don't fix it, unless you really need to.
2. If an automatic update occurs when parts of the updated package set have not been yet updated, bad things can happen.

So, if you are going to do automatic updates, say once a week, then make sure you schedule them for a time during or at the end of the work day when there will be someone on site to deal with fubar situations. Unattended updates of critical systems are not a good idea, as you have discovered. So, rule one for me is to schedule updates when someone will be on site to deal.

[BeauSanders]

Your advice is well taken. Thanks, Rubberman!