Red Hat

Hi all,

I'm quite new with installation of security patches in Linux Redhat Enterprise, here's my question.

I have 2 machine of this RHEL(never patch before) since it never connects directly to the internet(block by firewall) and I want to update the patches now because my boss asked me to update it due to security reason, and I have found the security patches from redhat as per below:

Code:

 http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/rhel4-extras-errata-security.html

but the things that I do not understand is, do I need to update all of this patches? because I saw there's patch like realmediaplayer, acrobatreader, which I never open at all in my servers. do you think I should update all of those? sorry I am really newbie.

I know that 'rpm -qa' will list the packages that have installed while ‘up2date -l' will list the updates available to install. but do I need to install all of those patches or which security patches that is not important or can bring some error to my server?

Thank You.

You don't need to update all of them, but often one patch will require a greater version of another module, requiring an upgrade of that too.

As far as which are the most important? I can't tell you. If RedHat decides something is "Critical" or a "High" security risk, the best policy to Cover Your Ass (CYA) is to update it.

Hi Otheus,

Thanks a lot for your reply,..

btw, before I update this critical patches:

1. Do I need to register to RHEL in order for me to use the up2date?

2. For updates in RHEL need to use up2date, but what is the thing that I need to do before the patches? I mean what should I backup in case my patches did not go well, so at least I can bring back to the normal state again.