Production installs from the same package snapshot as test.
LinuxAid keeps dated snapshots of your package repositories, and you pin each update tag to one. Packages the mirror picks up after that date stay off your pinned servers until you move the pin.
The problem with live repositories
Whatever upstream published that morning
A server that installs straight from the upstream repositories gets the packages as they are at that moment.
Production gets packages test never saw
Updating test days before production doesn't help when each run installs whatever is current that day.
How LinuxAid does it
Mirror the upstream repositories
Point your Ubuntu, Debian, CentOS or Rocky Linux servers at the LinuxAid repository server, and they install their distribution packages from its mirror instead of from the internet.
Keep dated snapshots
Every Sunday the server takes a dated snapshot of the mirror.
Pin each update tag to a date
You pin each tag to a snapshot date, and its servers install from that snapshot instead of the live mirror.
Move the pin one tag at a time
Move test to the newer snapshot first. When test is fine, move staging, then production.
Three update tags, one snapshot
test
- Pinned snapshot
- 2026-10-04
- Service window
- Tue 6 Oct, 22:00
staging
- Pinned snapshot
- 2026-10-04
- Service window
- Thu 8 Oct, 22:00
production
- Pinned snapshot
- 2026-10-04
- Service window
- Mon 12 Oct, 22:00
Test updates from the 2026‑10‑04 snapshot on Tue 6 Oct, and production updates from the same snapshot on Mon 12 Oct.
Technical details
The pin
Set the date in the update tag's hiera file.
agents/tags/staging.yaml
common::system::repo::snapshot: '2026-10-04'On the distribution sources, the pin only applies to servers that got LinuxAid before the pinned date. A server set up on or after that date installs them from the live mirror.
The repository server
This role sets up the LinuxAid repository server, with snapshots on by default. Snapshots hardlink the mirror's packages instead of copying them, so a package that stays in the mirror takes disk space once. The server deletes each snapshot after 60 days unless you change retention_days.
role::package_management::repoWhat Obmondo adds
A service window per update tag
Obmondo books a service window for each update tag, in the order your update cycle sets.
One snapshot per update cycle
About 24 hours before the cycle's first service window, Obmondo pushes a branch to your LinuxAid config repo. It moves every pinned tag in the cycle to the newest snapshot your repository server reports.
The snapshot date on each booking
Merge the branch, and each pinned tag installs from that snapshot in its own service window. From the first window on, every booking in the cycle shows the snapshot date in the Obmondo dashboard. Leave it unmerged, and the tags keep their current pin.
Want snapshots on your servers?
Opt in on the Features page in Obmondo, or talk to us to set up snapshots on your repository server.