Debian // synchronize packages/version between multiple servers

Question

I'm currently managing a dozen servers. apt-cacher-ng is installed on the development server to maintain the packages.

The idea is to have exactly the same version and number of packages on the production servers.

We first make the update/upgrade on the dev server, then after validating the install (which can take a few hours or a day), we make the same on the production servers.

The problem is that between the time we make the update on the dev and on the production server, versions of packages may have changed so production servers won't get the same version of the packages.

Can I force the clients (production servers) to sync with the dev server, and not retrieve newer packages on the internet?

Or, is there any clever automated way to make sure my clients are in sync with the dev server ?

Thanks for reading.

Answer 1

You an always ask for a particular version. From the man page:

A specific version of a package can be selected for installation by following the package name with an equals (=) and the version of the package to select. This will cause that version to be located and selected for install. Alternatively, a specific distribution can be selected by following the package name with a slash (/) and the version of the distribution or the Archive name (i.e. stable, testing, unstable).

I'd make a script that records the exact versions of the package installed on the dev servers, and then another script that does apt-get for that exact version of each package.