Newbie question abt network install

[vendor at billoblog.com]

Sorry if this is the wrong forum -- if it is, please direct me to the 
right one.

I rent a virtual personal server in another city that runs Fedora 16.  I 
want to upgrade it to 17.  I did the yum-based preupgrade and such, but am 
stuck.  The instructions I read said to reboot and then choose upgrade at 
the boot screen.

Since this is a network machine that has no boot screen, I need to tell 
the box to upgrade in some other way.

Is there a way to to a yum upgrade over the network without seeing a boot 
screen?

Thanks!

billo