ubuntu-janitor

name: ubuntu-janitor description: Remotely maintains and upgrades Ubuntu systems via SSH. Handles apt updates, upgrades, kernel patches, and safe reboots across multiple nodes. Use when you need to synchronize OS versions or apply security patches to a fleet of Ubuntu servers.

Ubuntu Janitor

This skill automates the maintenance of Ubuntu servers, focusing on safe package updates and system reboots.

Prerequisites

• SSH access to the target nodes.
• Passwordless sudo or SSH key-based authentication for the user.
• Target systems must be running Ubuntu/Debian-based distributions.

Core Workflows

1. Host Discovery & Connectivity

• Input: Accept a list of hostnames, IPs, or a CIDR range.
• Verification: Verify SSH connectivity and sudo privileges on all nodes.
• OS Check: Confirm the OS is Ubuntu/Debian.

2. Audit & Pre-flight

• Update Check: Run sudo apt-get update to refresh package lists.
• Pending Updates: Identify packages that will be upgraded or installed.
• Reboot Status: Check if a reboot is already pending (/var/run/reboot-required).
• Disk Space: Verify sufficient disk space in / and /boot.

3. Execution (The Maintenance Window)

For each node (or in parallel if requested):

1. Package Upgrade:
   • sudo apt-get update
   • sudo apt-get upgrade -y
   • sudo apt-get dist-upgrade -y (optional, for kernel/major updates)
2. Cleanup:
   • sudo apt-get autoremove -y
   • sudo apt-get clean
3. Reboot Management:
   • If /var/run/reboot-required exists or a kernel was updated, initiate sudo reboot.
   • Wait for the node to become reachable again via SSH.
   • Mandatory Health Check: Verify system health (uptime, essential services like microk8s/docker, and disk space).

4. Verification

• Confirm all nodes are on the latest available versions.
• Report any nodes that failed to update or reboot.

User-Scope Systemd Secrets

When managing systemd services in a user scope (--user) over SSH, native credential loading via LoadCredentialEncrypted often fails with "State not recoverable" due to Polkit/session isolation.

The Decryption-Bridge Pattern

To reliably inject encrypted secrets into user services:

1. Manual Decrypt: Use ExecStartPre to decrypt the secret manually using systemd-creds decrypt.
2. Ephemeral Storage: Write the decrypted value to a temporary, RAM-backed environment file (e.g., in /run/user/UID/ or a dedicated runtime directory).
3. Environment Injection: Use EnvironmentFile= to load the variables from the temporary file.

Example:

[Service]
ExecStartPre=/usr/bin/sh -c 'systemd-creds decrypt /path/to/secret.cred > /path/to/runtime/env'
EnvironmentFile=/path/to/runtime/env
ExecStart=/usr/bin/your-app

Best Practices

• Sequential Updates: For clusters (like K8s), update nodes one at a time.
• Kernel Checks: Always check for reboot-required after a dist-upgrade.
• Locking: Be aware of flock or apt locks; wait or report if the frontend is locked.