Enable automated updates

Enable automated software updates on Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 10 by activating DNF Automatic timer units. By enabling these units, you ensure your system remains consistently protected and up-to-date without requiring manual effort.

Before you begin

  • You specified the behavior of DNF Automatic by modifying the /etc/dnf/automatic.conf configuration file.

About this task

To run DNF Automatic once, you must start a systemd timer unit. However, if you want to run DNF Automatic periodically, you must enable a timer unit.

You can use one of the timer units provided in the dnf-automatic package, or you can create a drop-in file for the timer unit to adjust the execution time.

You can use the following timers:

  • dnf-automatic-download.timer: Downloads available updates.
  • dnf-automatic-install.timer: Downloads and installs available updates.
  • dnf-automatic-notifyonly.timer: Reports available updates.
  • dnf-automatic.timer: Downloads, downloads and installs, or reports available updates.

Procedure

To enable and start a systemd timer unit immediately, enter: 
# systemctl enable --now <timer_name>

If you want to only enable the timer without running it immediately, omit the --now option.

Results

  • Verify that the timer is enabled: 
    # systemctl status <systemd_timer_unit>
  • Optional: Check when each of the timers on your system ran the last time: 
    # systemctl list-timers --all