I am using unattended-upgrades across multiple servers. I would like package updates to be rolled out gradually, either randomly or to a subset of test/staging machines first. Is there a way to do that for APT on Ubuntu?

An obvious option is to set some machines to update on Monday and the others to update on Wednesday, but that only gives me only weekly updates…

The goal of course is to avoid a Crowdstrike-like situation on my Ubuntu machines.

edit: For example. An updated openssh-server comes out. One fifth of the machines updates that day, another fifth updates the next day, and the rest updates 3 days later.

  • lnxtx (xe/xem/xyr)@feddit.nlEnglish
    43·
    5 months ago

    In an ideal world, there should be 3 separated environments of the same app/service:
    devel → staging → production.

    Devel = playground, stagging = near identical to the production.

    So you can test the updates before fixing production.

    • remramOP
      61·
      5 months ago

      So you can test the updates before fixing production.

      My question is how to do that with APT.

      • lnxtx (xe/xem/xyr)@feddit.nlEnglish
        7·
        5 months ago

        I think there is no a out-of-the-box solution.
        You can run security updates manually, but it’s too much to do.

        Try to host apt mirrors in different stages, with unattended-updates tuned on.
        Devel will have the latest.
        Staging the latest positively tested on the devel.
        Production the latest positively tested on the staging.

        • remramOP
          7·
          5 months ago

          Making multiple mirrors seems like the best solution. I will explore that route.

          I was hoping there was something built into APT or unattended-upgrades, I vaguely remembered such a feature… what I was remembering was probably Phased Updates, but those are controlled by Ubuntu not by me, and roll out too fast.