Question Should I update the packages via the operating system?

[Kroptokin]

Server operating system version

AlmaLinux 8.9 (Midnight Oncilla)

Plesk version and microupdate number

Plesk Obsidian Version 18.0.57 Update #5, last updated on Dec 23, 2023 02:30 AM

Hi
Should I run a command to update the system modules e.g. dnf update or does Plesk do this for me?

 

[Kaspar]

Should I run a command to update the system modules e.g. dnf update or does Plesk do this for me?

Plesk does this for you by default. You can check in Tools & Settings > Update Settings if the "Automatically install system package updates" option is enabled.

Kernel updates are excluded from the Plesk Update Manager, so you'll still have to run updates for these manually.

 

[Kroptokin]

Thanks Kaspar.

I had an unfortunate occurrence. I wonder if I could ask you if you have any insight into this? I tried to reboot my server (AlmaLinux 8.5 with Plesk) and it got stuck during the boot process with a message about tainted kernel:

"module verification failed: signature and/or required key missing - tainting kernel"

This was after I did two things (stupidly):

i. Installed node.js - I think from a repo which I manually added i.e. a non-standard repo
ii. ran sudo dnf update

The latter seemed to install a lot including, I saw in the output, something to do with the kernel.

Do you know what might have caused the "tainted kernel" issue? -Is i. or ii. a more likely option?

For now; I will just take your advice and only update the OS via Plesk - but does it matter that I am not updating the kernel?

 

[Kaspar]

Do you know what might have caused the "tainted kernel" issue? -Is i. or ii. a more likely option?

That's is unfortunate. I don't know to be honest. It's not something I've experienced before. I am afraid I am not much of a help on this.

For now; I will just take your advice and only update the OS via Plesk - but does it matter that I am not updating the kernel?

It's a good security practice to install all available OS updates, including kernel updates. So running dnf update regularly is advised.