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Chef cookbook

autopatch_ii

Description

Chef Cookbook for automatically patching nodes on a specific schedule (weekday, hour, and minute). Handles weekly or monthly patching routines with or without node splay for large environments.

Much of this code was copied from chef cookbook auto-patch written by Brian Flad. I've modified it to work with windows and use windows more flexible task scheduling with some magic to get it to also work with linux cron.

Requirements

Platforms

  • RHEL based platforms
  • Debian based platforms
  • Windows baased platforms

Cookbooks

  • cron
  • logrotate

Attributes

Attribute Default Comment
['autopatch_ii']['disable'] false Boolean, enable or disable patches
['autopatch_ii']['domain'] 'example.com' String, Domain server resides in
['autopatch_ii']['task_username'] 'SYSTEM' String, Used only for winows task scheduling
['autopatch_ii']['task_frequency'] :monthly Symbol, one of either :monthly or :weekly
['autopatch_ii']['task_frequency_modifier'] 'THIRD' String, used to denote which week of the month you want to run the task
['autopatch_ii']['task_months'] 'JAN,FEB,MAR,APR,MAY,JUN,JUL,AUG,SEP,OCT,NOV' String, CSV list of short names for months you want the task to run in, * is used for all months
['autopatch_ii']['task_days'] 'TUE' String, which days of the week in short form you want the task to run on
['autopatch_ii']['task_start_time'] '04:00' String, 24h Time format for when to start patches
['autopatch_ii']['desired_timezone_name'] nil String, TZ database name https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tz_database_time_zones
['autopatch_ii']['working_dir'] node['os'] == 'windows' ? 'C:\chef_autopatch' : '/var/log/chef_autopatch' String, Directory for log file and temp files
['autopatch_ii']['command'] value_for_platform_family(windows: "PowerShell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Command "#{node['autopatch_ii']['working_dir']}\autopatch.ps1"", default: '/usr/local/sbin/autopatch 2>&1',) String, cron command to start script
['autopatch_ii']['download_install_splay_max_seconds'] 3600 Integer, Max allowed random time to wait before downloading and installing patches, this way we don't overwhelm on premise patch repo
['autopatch_ii']['email_notification_mode'] 'Always' String, whether to send email after patches and before reboot with status of patch install
['autopatch_ii']['email_to_addresses'] '"test@example.com"' String, email address for nodes to send the email to
['autopatch_ii']['email_from_address'] "#{node['hostname']}@example.com" String, email address the email came from
['autopatch_ii']['email_smtp_server'] 'smtp.example.com' String, email server to forward the email to, relay with no authentication is recommended
['autopatch_ii']['auto_reboot_enabled'] true Boolean, to reboot the server automatically after patches have been installed or to leave it for manual reboot
['autopatch_ii']['updates_to_skip'] os.windows? ? '' : [] Regex String to pass to windows -notmatch or Array of Strings, package names to skip during patches on linux
['autopatch_ii']['update_command_options'] '' String, any additional options to be passed to the yum command on linux
['autopatch_ii']['private_lin_autopatch_disabled_programmatically'] false Boolean, DO NOT MODIFY THIS, this is modified programatically based on if cron job should skip this month or not

Recipes

  • recipe[autopatch_ii] configures automatic patching and patches server on first chef-client run
  • recipe[autopatch_ii::firstrun_patches] creates a lock file and runs patches for the first time, afterwards doesn't run as long as lock file exists on the filesystem.
  • recipe[autopatch_ii::linux] creates cron job and sets up autopatch scripts
  • recipe[autopatch_ii::windows] creates windows task and sets up autopatch scripts

Usage

  • Change any attributes to fit your patching cycle
  • Add recipe[autopatch_ii] to your node's run list

Weekly automatic patching

Just use the node["autopatch_ii"]['task_frequency'] = :weekly attribute to override the monthly setting.

Automatic patching of large numbers of nodes

If you're auto patching many nodes at once, you can optionally modify the splay to prevent denial of service against your network, update server(s), and resources:

  • Adding node["autopatch_ii"]["splay"]

Disabling automatic patching

  • Specify node["autopatch_ii"]["disable"] to true
  • Run chef-client on your node

License and Author

Author:: Brian Flad (bflad417@gmail.com)

Author:: Corey Hemminger (hemminger@hotmail.com)

Copyright:: 2022

Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at

http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations under the License.