Python RPM and CentOS

[rbt]

Not really a Python question, but I thought some on this list may be 
able to answer.... so here goes:

I have several machines on which I must install CentOS. There are many 
updates to CentOS and it's very time consuming to do the updates over 
the network. I have a local copy of all of the updated rpms. Would it be 
reasonable to do something like this to upgrade them locally and more 
quickly than over the network???

updated_rpms = [list of updated rpms]

for f in updated_rpms:

     try:
         os.popen("/bin/rpm --nodeps -U %s" %f)

     except Exception, e:
         print e


Thanks,

rbt