Hi,

I have two linodes one runs apache webserver and one my sql databases, both are in production.

yum update returns a lot of updates. My concern is since both servers are in production how do I assess the impact of these updates on apache and my sql serves?

Can anyone help me figure out if these updates are actually required?

Regards,
Avinash

I suggest checking the RHN errata pages (links available in emails from CentOS announcements mailing list) and decide whether to apply or not, especially if it would require service or server restart, which I do with patches to remote vulns or glibc.

You can also have yum-cron installed (check only, NO auto updateS) so you can asses these as they become available, check the RHN errata site manually. With yum-cron you get update announcements even for third party repos like EPEL, and in my case PostgreSQL repo too.

yum-cron package is on CentOS 6.x, otherwise check yum-updatesd. At any rate, watch out how you configure them, don't have them do updates automatically.