NovaPanel updates are separate from your server's operating-system packages. Both are shown on the Updates page, and they behave differently.
What installs itself
| Update | Automatic? |
|---|---|
| NovaPanel releases | Yes, by default from 1.9.7 — see Automatic updates |
| Operating-system security patches | Yes — Ubuntu's own unattended-upgrades, enabled at install |
| Other operating-system packages | No — press Apply All |
Automatic updates
Updates → Automatic updates has three settings:
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| All releases (default) | Every new release installs by itself within about an hour of being published, so the panel always has the latest fixes. |
| Security fixes only | A release installs by itself only when the panel is older than the release that fixed a published security vulnerability. Ordinary releases wait for you to press Update Now. |
| Off | Nothing installs by itself, not even security fixes. |
Panels upgrading to 1.9.7 move to All releases, unless their administrator had turned the old Automatic security updates switch off; those stay off. A panel on 1.9.6 or older needs one press of Update Now to reach 1.9.7, after which it keeps itself current. Only a full administrator can change this setting.
When an update applies you see a notification saying so, and the panel restarts once. It takes a few seconds. Sites, databases, mail and DNS are not touched — only the panel binary is replaced.
If an update fails
The previous version is put back automatically. The panel waits for the new binary to start, and if it does not, restores the one that was working and restarts it. You get a notification saying the update failed, your server keeps running on the version it had, and that release is not retried automatically.
Updating manually
From the panel, Updates → Update Now. From a shell on the server:
nova updateBoth do the same thing, including the roll-back-on-failure behaviour above.
Notices
NovaPanel can also send a notice into your panel — a security advisory, or something else worth knowing about the software. These appear alongside your other notifications. They are read-only messages: nothing that arrives this way can change your server.