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Keep Droplets updated Ubuntu 16.04

Posted on August 3, 2016

Im working on setting up a lot of droplets, on Ubuntu 16.04, However it is very time consuming to go into each of the droplets and run sudo apt-get update and sudo apt-get dist-upgrade.

So what I have done is I have added following into my root crontab: sudo crontab -u root -e

0 3 * * * root /usr/bin/apt-get update && /usr/bin/apt-get dist-upgrade -q -y >> /var/log/apt/myupdates.log

However it is not working, and I was wondering if there is other things I need to think about?

PS: I have followed DO tutorials on how to disable root, so I dont have a root user, is this a problem?

Thanks



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Your idea is good, and removing root would fix it, but I suggest looking into this as it provides more options and integrates better: https://help.ubuntu.com/16.04/serverguide/automatic-updates.html

  1. You do have a root user, the password is disabled(! in /etc/shadow), but you can still use sudo -i, su is blocked.
  2. Remove root from the entry, it should be: 0 3 * * * /usr/bin/apt-get update && /usr/bin/apt-get dist-upgrade -q -y >> /var/log/apt/myupdates.log (I had the same issue a few months ago)

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