Xserve: Receiving Software Update notifications on a "headless" configuration

Issue or symptom

An Xserve without a display connected to it ("headless") may not receive Software Update notifications. In this case, no available updates are listed in Software Update.

Solution

Use one of the following workarounds.

• Use the softwareupdate command-line tool in Terminal to list and install updates. For more information about softwareupdate, type "man softwareupdate" in Terminal, or refer to the Command Line Administration documentation here.
  
  
• Use Server Admin, instead, to check for and install updates.
• Create a launchd job to automate the process. For more information about launchd and why it's preferred over cron, see Getting Started with launchd.
  
  
• Create a cron job to automate the process. You can find more information about cron jobs in this article or via these Terminal commands:
  
  man 8 cron
  man 1 crontab
  man 5 crontab