So, I finally installed Watchtower to auto update my containers. I was a little hesitant because just letting apps auto update kind of makes me a little nervous. Even Windows updates give me bouts of trepidation. Everything went well, there was a little hiccup with Netdata but resolved in less than 5 minutes.
My question is that there are four remaining containers that haven’t been updated: Speedtest Tracker, Portainer, Doppler Task, and Dockge.
2025-04-19T06:00:46.510622594Z INFO[38092] Session done Failed=0 Scanned=48 Updated=0 notify=no
2025-04-19T08:00:46.040690535Z INFO[45292] Session done Failed=0 Scanned=48 Updated=0 notify=no
2025-04-19T10:00:45.952863778Z INFO[52492] Session done Failed=0 Scanned=48 Updated=0 notify=no
2025-04-19T12:00:47.755915129Z INFO[59694] Session done Failed=0 Scanned=48 Updated=0 notify=no
2025-04-19T14:00:50.046498408Z INFO[66896] Session done Failed=0 Scanned=48 Updated=0 notify=no
Is this indicative of an issue? Do I just need to update these four manually or will Watchtower eventually update them?
Additionally, has anyone ever had any problems with auto updating? It does make me a bit nervous, however I think I will get used to relying on Watchtower.
Auto updates can cause problems. Some recommend it, some tell you to not do it. My standpoint is, when a container can’t work with auto updates, they suck. Sure there are containers who require some additional attention after an update, like gitea with some config changes but I use it in an environment where it can be offline of some time.
If a container uses Postgresql, you can’t auto update. So far I didn’t found a well maintained container, that can do this. You also should keep an eye on your containers. As I mentioned, Gitea had some config changes, breaking the default theme (nothing major). They even screwed up their tags and I had 3 times an RC in a tag where no RC should get published. With Jellyfin I was on a tag that didn’t got any updates anymore and I needed to use a different one.
That’s interesting. I certainly will keep that in mind.
To be more specific: Postgresql requires manual steps with major versions. Tutorials I found require you to dump the database in the old version first, then update and then import. You could use a tagged version of postgresql and just auto update there but the main container might require a newer version. I saw containers who try this but none looked production ready.