This script yum update on boot. This allows machines that have been turned off for an extended amount of time to become secure immediately, instead of waiting until the next early morning cron job. To install this, copy yum-updateonboot.init to /etc/init.d/yum-updateonboot and copy yum-updateonboot.sysconfig to /etc/sysconfig/yum-updateonboot After copying the files, run: /sbin/chkconfig --add yum-updateonboot There are a couple of configuration options in /etc/sysconfig/yum-updateonboot REBOOT_RPMS - any rpms listed in this variable will have their version and release numbers checked before and after the updates. If there is any change in those numbers, or in the number of installed packages with that name, the init script will immediately reboot the system. This is intended to catch kernel updates and immediately boot into the new kernel, instead of having to later schedule a downtime to do it. GROUPLIST - This is a list of groups that the init script will call 'yum groupupdate' on (its called after the 'yum update' and before the last check of rpm versions for REBOOT_RPMS). This way you will also install any updates to yum groups that you may have in your local repositories.