Will Running ‘yum update’ Affect My Java or Python Applications on Amazon Linux 2?

In scientific computing, we avoid using the OS versions of Python, R, or Java due to the risk of updates disrupting our work. We manage current versions ourselves using tools like environment-modules. That said, in your case, while the risk isn’t zero, it's relatively low—testing outside production is wise.

I think the risk is fairly low, but never patch your production systems without doing some testing first. Updates through yum or dnf usually shouldn't introduce major breaking changes to things like Python interpreters, but caution is key!

It really varies depending on your application's infrastructure. If your app isn't installed via RPM, yum won't know about its dependencies, and that can lead to unexpected changes. We use golden images or Docker containers for safety, but if your app is straightforward without external library dependencies, you should be okay.

It really depends on whether the application developers have linked their software to system libraries or if they've bundled their own versions. Sometimes, updates can go sideways and cause issues, but it’s not always a guarantee that something will break.

If you're unsure about how an update will affect your applications, it's smart to snapshot your EBS volumes first. That way, if something goes wrong, you can restore your instance. Cloning the instance for testing purposes can also save you headaches. Check out the AWS documentation for more details on backup procedures.