Unattended-Upgrades Role for Ansible

Install and setup unattended-upgrades for Ubuntu and Debian (since Wheezy), to periodically install security upgrades.

NOTE: If you have used version 0.0.1 of the role, you can delete the file /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/10periodic as it is not needed anymore. You can use the following one-shot command:

ansible -m file -a "state=absent path=/etc/apt/apt.conf.d/10periodic" <host-pattern>

Requirements

The role uses apt module which has additional dependencies. You can use bootstrap-debian role to setup common Ansible requirements on Debian-based systems.

If you set unattended_mail to an e-mail address, make sure mailx command is available and your system is able to send e-mails.

The role requires unattended-upgrades version 0.70 and newer, which is available since Debian Wheezy and Ubuntu 12.04 respectively. This is due to Origins Patterns usage; if this is not available on your system, you may use the first version of the role.

Automatic Reboot

If you enable automatic reboot feature (unattended_automatic_reboot), the role will install update-notifier-common package, which is required for detecting and executing reboot after the upgrade.

NOTE: This feature is not currently supported on Debian Jessie, due to a missing replacement for the said package. Attempt to enable this feature on unsupported system will cause a failure. See the discussion in #6 for more details.

Role Variables

• unattended_origins_patterns: array of origins patterns to determine whether the package can be automatically installed, for more details see Origins Patterns below.
  • Default for Debian: ['origin=Debian,codename=${distro_codename},label=Debian-Security']
  • Default for Ubuntu: ['origin=Ubuntu,archive=${distro_codename}-security,label=Ubuntu']
• unattended_package_blacklist: packages which won't be automatically upgraded
  • Default: []
• unattended_autofix_interrupted_dpkg: whether on unclean dpkg exit to run dpkg --force-confold --configure -a
  • Default: true
• unattended_minimal_steps: split the upgrade into the smallest possible chunks so that they can be interrupted with SIGUSR1.
  • Default: false
• unattended_install_on_shutdown: install all unattended-upgrades when the machine is shuting down.
  • Default: false
• unattended_mail: e-mail address to send information about upgrades or problems with unattended upgrades
  • Default: false (don't send any e-mail)
• unattended_mail_only_on_error: send e-mail only on errors, otherwise e-mail will be sent every time there's a package upgrade.
  • Default: false
• unattended_remove_unused_dependencies: do automatic removal of new unused dependencies after the upgrade.
  • Default: false
• unattended_automatic_reboot: Automatically reboot system if any upgraded package requires it, immediately after the upgrade.
  • Default: false

Origins Patterns

Origins Pattern is a more powerful alternative to the Allowed Origins option used in previous versions of unattended-upgrade.

Pattern is composed from specific keywords:

• a,archive,suite – e.g. stable, trusty-security (archive=stable)
• c,component – e.g. main, crontrib, non-free (component=main)
• l,label – e.g. Debian, Debian-Security, Ubuntu
• o,origin – e.g. Debian, Unofficial Multimedia Packages, Ubuntu
• n,codename – e.g. jessie, jessie-updates, trusty
• site – e.g. http.debian.net

You can review the available repositories using apt-cache policy and debug your choice using unattended-upgrades -d command on a target system.

Additionaly unattended-upgrades support two macros (variables), derived from /etc/debian_version:

• ${distro_id} – Installed distribution name, e.g. Debian or Ubuntu.
• ${distro_codename} – Installed codename, e.g. jessie or trusty.

Role Usage Example

- hosts: all
  roles:
  - role: jnv.unattended-upgrades
    unattended_origins_patterns:
    - 'origin=Ubuntu,archive=${distro_codename}-security'
    - 'o=Ubuntu,a=${distro_codename}-updates'
    unattended_package_blacklist: [cowsay, vim]
    unattended_mail: 'root@example.com'

Patterns Examples

By default, only security updates are allowed for both Ubuntu and Debian. You can add more patterns to allow unattended-updates install more packages automatically, however be aware that automated major updates may potentially break your system.

For Debian

# Archive based matching
unattended_origins_patterns:
  - 'origin=Debian,codename=${distro_codename},label=Debian-Security' # resolves to codename=jessie
  - 'o=Debian,a=stable'
  - 'o=Debian,a=stable-updates'
  - 'o=Debian,a=proposed-updates'

For Ubuntu

In Ubuntu, archive always contains the distribution codename

unattended_origins_patterns:
  - 'origin=Ubuntu,archive=${distro_codename}-security'
  - 'o=Ubuntu,a=${distro_codename}'
  - 'o=Ubuntu,a=${distro_codename}-updates'
  - 'o=Ubuntu,a=${distro_codename}-proposed-updates'

License

GPLv2