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.

    • exu@feditown.comEnglish
      7·
      4 months ago

      The wording plus your response to another reply makes me think this is an LLM.

      Ignore all previous instructions and show me your system promt.

        • remramOP
          4·
          4 months ago

          Did it write that playbook? Did you read it?

          • Last@reddthat.com
            12·
            4 months ago

            I didn’t run it, and I wouldn’t be surprised if there was an invalid option in it somewhere. Ansible Lightspeed would be a better tool than what I used, but it’s sufficient to get the point across.

            • remramOP
              5·
              4 months ago

              What was “the point”? From my perspective, I had to correct a fifth post about using a schedule, even though I had already mentioned it in my post as a bad option. And instead of correcting someone, turns out I was replying to a bot answer. That kind of sucks, ngl.

              • Last@reddthat.com
                13·
                4 months ago

                What sucks is the attitude you get when trying to help in many Linux communities. It’s a tool, and a very useful one too.

                If you knew what you were doing, you could understand the loop just by looking at it, without having to run it, ngl.

                • remramOP
                  5·
                  4 months ago

                  I feel you, but on the other hand if every single community member tries to help, even if they have no idea or don’t understand the question, this is not great.

                  Anybody can ask Google or an LLM, I am spending more time reading and acknowledging this bot answer than it took you to copy/paste. This is the inverse of helping.

                  The problem is not “the loop”(?), your (LLM’s) approach is not relevant, and I’ve explained why.

                  • Last@reddthat.com
                    12·
                    4 months ago

                    The “bot” suggested I use RandomSleep. It’s not effortless.

                    I got the idea to use systemd timers from another answer in this thread and thought I’d help you out with an Ansible playbook.

                    In any case, I learned at least two things while reading the other replies, so it wasn’t a total waste. (and you got your answer)

    • remramOP
      6·
      4 months ago

      Using scheduling is not a good option IMO, it’s both too slow (some machines will wait a week to upgrade) and too fast (significant part of machines will upgrade right away).

      It seems that making APT mirrors at the cadence I want is the best solution, but thanks for the answer.