This post will show you how to enable automatic system updates for your CentOS 9 / RHEL 9 / Rocky 9 system.


Update your system

It might be a good idea to update your system before installing something. Kind of ironic isn’t it? We’ll do it anyway.

[root@rocky ~]# yum update


Install dnf-automatic

[root@rocky ~]# yum install dnf-automatic


Configure dnf-automatic

This will enable daily updates

[root@rocky ~]# vi /etc/dnf/automatic.conf

apply_updates = yes


Set a schedule for updates

By default updates are installed once a day at 06:00 with a random delay of 60m, I suggest changing that to 04:00 with a delay of 15m

[root@rocky ~]# systemctl edit -f dnf-automatic-install.timer

# [Timer]
# OnCalendar=*-*-* 4:00
# RandomizedDelaySec=10m
# Persistent=true


Start dnf-automatic

Lastly start dnf-automatic and enable it to start automatically at boot time

[root@rocky ~]# systemctl enable dnf-automatic.timer
[root@rocky ~]# systemctl start dnf-automatic.timer