apt-dater

If you're looking for a reliable tool that can help you manage package updates on a large number of remote hosts, apt-dater may be exactly what you need. This software features a ncurses frontend that is specifically designed to help you manage package updates on Debian-based hosts that use apt.

Keep in mind that you will need to pre-configure this software on your management server in order to use it effectively. You can do this by copying and modifying the apt-dater.conf, hosts.conf, and screenrc configuration files that come with the software. These files will allow you to define your managed hosts and configure various other settings related to your updates.

Before you can use apt-dater, you will also need to ensure that each of your managed hosts has an SSH server and sudo installed. You can then create a user that will be used to install updates on these systems (note that using root is not recommended). To do this, you will need to modify the /etc/sudoers file on each managed host by adding the following line:

Defaults env_reset,env_keep=MAINTAINER the-user ALL=NOPASSWD: /usr/bin/apt-get, /usr/bin/aptitude

Finally, you will need to create a user on your management server that will perform updates on your Debian hosts. You can generate an SSH keypair and distribute the public key(s) to each managed host using the ssh-copy-id command. With all of these steps completed, you will be able to use apt-dater to manage updates on all of your managed hosts from a single location.