We recommend that you install Red Hat Enterprise Linux updates on a regular basis, as they are intended to resolve bugs and fix security issues. How often you choose to install updates is up to you, but we would advise installing updates at least once a month.
As always, we recommend you perform a full system backup before installing any software or making hardware changes.
In most cases, installing Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) software updates will not impact Eclipse. The base software components that make up the core Eclipse package (UniVerse, JBoss, VSIFAX, etc.) are all installed and maintained separately from RHEL’s rpm software update mechanisms. These updates do have the ability to impact certain OS components used by Eclipse and various companion products (telnet-server, sendmail, postfix, vsftpd, samba, etc.), but the system is configured in such a way to minimize the impact of changes to these components.
Eclipse performs validation testing for each major release of the OS (RHEL 6, RHEL 7, etc.), and our server compatibility page will reflect the latest supported version(s) of the operating system. If we notice any issues resulting from a recent release of an OS package, our first response will be to resolve the problem directly with the vendor. If the software change necessitates changes to our software or configuration, we will provide workarounds as necessary for our existing customers and integrate the fix(es) into the current release of Eclipse.