Question About Auto Package Updates

[Ahmet CAVUSOGLU]

Server operating system version

Ubuntu 24.04.2 LTS

Plesk version and microupdate number

18.0.68

Hi

We using Plesk version 18.0.68 on Ubuntu 24. Plesk and package automatic updates are disabled. However, when I logged into the panel today, I saw that the system packages were automatically updated. Does anyone have any information on this?

Additionally, the system is running on Hostinger VPS and the default update settings may have been set to automatic?

Thanks

 

[Ahmet CAVUSOGLU]

Now I looked at the VPS system in Contabo and there is a similar problem there. Could it be that Plesk 18.0.68 version cannot fully intervene in the package update settings in Ubuntu 24? Or have you received any notification regarding this issue before? @Sebahat.hadzhi

 

[learning_curve]

We using Plesk version 18.0.68 on Ubuntu 24. Plesk and package automatic updates are disabled.

So are we. We've have Plesk updates disabled (from within Plesk) for over 7 years now. We've always manually updated Plesk itself and whatever the current server OS is. The exception however, is all of the Plesk Extensions, which ARE auto-updated (by Plesk). FWIW This manual update process has never caused us any issues (e.g. like the one that you've posted here) at all, in all of that time.

However, when I logged into the panel today, I saw that the system packages were automatically updated. Does anyone have any information on this?

See above (just in case that in reality, it was only Plesk extensions that were updated)

Additionally, the system is running on Hostinger VPS and the default update settings may have been set to automatic?

Here's the YMMV factor, as we're on IONOS Cloud Servers, not Hostinger VPS, so we have full root level control, hence no IONOS involvement in updates.

 

[Ahmet CAVUSOGLU]

Hi @learning_curve

Thank you for your feedback.

We have full root permissions in both cases for Hostinger VPS and Contabo VPS. As you did, our updates are disabled from Plesk.

The reason I asked this question is that I saw that PHP and Mariadb update packages came in the Plesk panel 1-2 days ago. However, the next day, I saw that they were removed from the list even though updates were disabled. When I connected via SSH, I saw the message "Restart Required" and concluded that the system itself did this.

I wanted to understand if there is a problem with the update management in the new version of Plesk.

Thanks

 

[learning_curve]

The reason I asked this question is that I saw that PHP and Mariadb update packages came in the Plesk panel 1-2 days ago. However, the next day, I saw that they were removed from the list even though updates were disabled. When I connected via SSH, I saw the message "Restart Required" and concluded that the system itself did this.

Understood, it does seem odd, that the updates took place, given that they are disabled within Plesk and that you have full root access for your VPS which means that you shouldn't have a higher priority update config issue, which, is the very reason you've posted, to be fair!

You'll probably already be aware, but FWIW; the PHP updates are located here: ~/etc/apt/sources.list.d/plesk.list and the MariaDB updates are located here: ~/etc/apt/sources.list.d/mariadb.list. The PHP config / updates are maintained by Plesk, the MariaDB config / updates by yourself. There was some changes with the config & format of updates between Ubuntu 22.04 and Ubuntu 24.04, which might be a factor in your case - IF - you've run an OS Dist-Upgrade.

I wanted to understand if there is a problem with the update management in the new version of Plesk.

No, well not in our case (with our config), but somewhere (or so it appears from your post) the "disable" option is currently being ignored with your config.

 

[learning_curve]

Again @Ahmet CAVUSOGLU you'll probably, already be aware, but all of these options should be disabled within the Plesk Panel:
"Automatically install Plesk updates".
"Automatically install updates for third-party components shipped by Plesk".
"Automatically install system package updates".

If you want to completely disable the System Updates tool, you could add the following lines in panel.ini: [updates] systemUpdatesTool = off
Thinking that disabling the tool however, will no doubt hide the "Tools & Settings > System Updates" section in the Plesk UI.

The Plesk article is here: https://support.plesk.com/hc/en-us/...67-How-to-enable-disable-autoupdates-in-Plesk

 

[Sebahat.hadzhi]

Hello, @Ahmet CAVUSOGLU . As far as I am aware, there are currently no ongoing issues with the automatic package upgrades in Plesk, nor I can see any recent reports from other users. I might very well be mistaken, but I think if unattended-upgrades is active it might might perform PHP package upgrades. In any case, if you continue observing the issue it might be best for our support engineers to take a further look.

 

[Ahmet CAVUSOGLU]

Hi,

Thanks for your all feedback. I did some research on the unattended-upgrades topic mentioned by @Sebahat.hadzhi and saw that it can be disabled without uninstalling the service and applied the relevant commands. (You are responsible for the actions related to the command.)

sudo systemctl disable --now unattended-upgrades
sudo systemctl status unattended-upgrades (To check the status of the service)

Afterwards, I checked for updates in the Plesk panel on my backup server and was able to update the newly arrived packages in the panel, so disabling the service seems to have only disabled the automatic installation.

I could not see its effect on the Plesk package update. (I am still testing, the issue will become clearer as updates such as php and mariadb arrive.)

I will report the developments if there is a positive or negative situation.

Have a nice day