Now that we’ve covered the basic SSH knowledge required to start setting up your server, there’s one more thing I want to go over before actually installing our server software. That is, of course, keeping your server’s Operating System up-to-date.

Just like it’s important to keep your personal computer up-to-date with the latest security updates and bug-fixes, it’s also important to keep your server up-to-date. You defiantly don’t want your server to get hacked just because you didn’t update it, now would you? Luckily, it’s fairly easy to update your server’s Operating System.

Start by logging into your server with SSH. Then, run the following command to clear out the update cache:

yum clean all

Then, run the following command to check for updates to the Operating System and any installed packages:

yum upgrade

If it finds any updates, it will prompt you to confirm the upgrade, to confirm simply type in y and press enter. This will then start the update process. If no updates are available, it will let you know and end the command.

I would recommend that you check for updates at least a couple of times every month, once a week preferably. It’s important to note that server versions of Linux do not automatically check for updates and install them, like Windows and Mac OS X does.

N.B. These articles will assume that you have either Fedora Core or CentOS as an Operating System on your server. We will not be covering FreeBSD because not all Linux software is compatible with it (which could complicate our articles and potentially confuse readers).