SUNScholar/Upgrading/Server Software/Step 3

Back to Upgrading Server

STEP 3 - Check automation

To setup emails alerts for required software security upgrades, type the following in a terminal after logging into the server:

sudo -i

apt-get install apticron

Edit the apticron config to specify the alert recipient:

nano /etc/apticron/apticron.conf

Modify the file to send email to the "root" account. See example below.

# apticron.conf
#
# set EMAIL to a space separated list of addresses which will be notified of
# impending updates
#
EMAIL="root"

CTL+O	= Save the file and then press Enter
CTL+X	= Exit "nano"
CTL+K	= Delete line
CTL+U	= Undelete line
CTL+W	= Search for %%string%%
CTL+\	= Search for %%string%% and replace with $$string$$
CTL+C	= Show line numbers

Ensure that there is a "root" email alias in the "/etc/aliases" file.

nano /etc/aliases

See example below.

# See man 5 aliases for format
postmaster:    root
root: hgibson@sun.ac.za
clamav: root
dspace: hgibson@sun.ac.za

CTL+O	= Save the file and then press Enter
CTL+X	= Exit "nano"
CTL+K	= Delete line
CTL+U	= Undelete line
CTL+W	= Search for %%string%%
CTL+\	= Search for %%string%% and replace with $$string$$
CTL+C	= Show line numbers

To activate the new alias, type the following:

newaliases

You can setup automatic updates, however you do this at your own risk.