Not upgrading package on Ubuntu through APT

[djoos-cookbooks]

Not upgrading package on Ubuntu through APT

[djoos]

Hi @GuyPaddock,

the server-monitoring-agent.rb runs the install action on the package (line 15) - not an upgrade.

Would you mind changing :install to :update and let me know whether that solves your issue? Let me know how it goes so I can update the recipe...

Thanks in advance for your feedback!

Kind regards,
David

[et304383]

You don't want upgrades happening on chef client runs. This can be potentially damaging to systems. You want updates to software packages to be controlled and planned.

[djoos]

I think that the decision whether to upgrade or not should be in the hands of the DevOp... What about having an attribute (default behaviour stays as it currently is :install), so you could change the behaviour easily to :update.

What do you think?

[et304383]

Certainly better than changing default behaviour to update. I still think this is a process/procedure issue with how @GuyPaddock and his team are approaching upgrades, not a Chef issue.

[djoos]

Hi @GuyPaddock,

I finally managed to have a look into the issue... The New Relic docs gave me the background on the error message you are getting.

You're using this cookbook's Python agent - this recipe installs the latest Python agent, but actually only when there hasn't been any version installed already.

# install latest python agent
python_pip 'newrelic' do
  if node['newrelic']['python-agent']['python_venv']
    virtualenv node['newrelic']['python-agent']['python_venv']
  end
  action :install
  if node['newrelic']['python-agent']['python_version'] != 'latest'
    version node['newrelic']['python-agent']['python_version']
  end
end

...the documentation/comments are confusing as using "latest" doesn't actually mean that it will upgrade to a newer version whereas that is kind of what is suggested. Instead it uses the latest available version upon (first) installation.

Perhaps it makes sense to make the action configurable as mentioned above. Keep :install as default, but :upgrade would have the expected behaviour for your situation... That change would keep everyone happy, as you can make the call whether to go for install or upgrade.

Give it a go by forking the cookbook and modifying the recipe to :upgrade rather than :install - that should sort out your issue...

Thanks in advance for your feedback!

Kind regards,
David

[welearnednothing]

Just a head's up: upgrading the server monitor agent is failing with the following error:

Setting up newrelic-sysmond (2.0.2.111) ...
STDERR: Configuration file `/etc/newrelic/nrsysmond.cfg'
 ==> Modified (by you or by a script) since installation.
 ==> Package distributor has shipped an updated version.
   What would you like to do about it ?  Your options are:
    Y or I  : install the package maintainer's version
    N or O  : keep your currently-installed version
      D     : show the differences between the versions
      Z     : start a shell to examine the situation
 The default action is to keep your current version.
*** nrsysmond.cfg (Y/I/N/O/D/Z) [default=N] ? dpkg: error processing newrelic-sysmond (--configure):
 EOF on stdin at conffile prompt
Errors were encountered while processing:
 newrelic-sysmond
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)
---- End output of apt-get -q -y install newrelic-sysmond=2.0.2.111 ----
Ran apt-get -q -y install newrelic-sysmond=2.0.2.111 returned 100
[2015-02-25T16:27:49-08:00] FATAL: Chef::Exceptions::ChildConvergeError: Chef run process exited unsuccessfully (exit code 1)

I'll file a ticket, but I figured it was relevant to the folks on this thread. Also it would be nice to have the new properties for this listed in the docs :)

I'll try to find time to put together a PR, but if anyone wants to beat me to it, feel free!

[djoos]

see #157 (@welearnednothing)