As a matter of policy and because I'm at the end of a DS/1 that needs to feed my customers needs, I've set up a local subset mirror of Centos 3.3. It's a subset because I don't copy any of the x86_64 directories ( no machines that use them ) but it's also a superset because I've added an additional "local" directory structure that contains things that I need - amavis, clamav etc. I can do "yum install amavisd-new" from any of my servers and have yum install or update the packages that are needed.
The advantage for everyone in doing this is that I don't have to use up my DS/1 bandwidth for installs or updates of multiple machines and the mirrors don't get hit with a dozen requests for the same file from one location. (I was quite annoyed when the updated yum package wanked up my custom yum.conf) An additional benefit to me is that updates to my real customer servers go at a hundred megabit rate rather than the time it'd take to suck down a new kernel or openoffice through a DS/1.
I'd like to recommend that everyone with some kind of server farm do this. The local mirror doesn't have to be wonderful - mine is a 200mhz PPro machine built out of junked parts - all it has to do is serve FTP. You'll save money in the long run and reduce the cost to the donated mirrors. Someone pays for the bandwidth, one way or the other.
I do this, and it's really easy. And like you said a custom channel is good if you have some special packages that you also maintain internally.
On Sat, 4 Dec 2004, Ed Clarke wrote:
I'd like to recommend that everyone with some kind of server farm do this. The local mirror doesn't have to be wonderful - mine is a 200mhz PPro machine built out of junked parts - all it has to do is serve FTP. You'll save money in the long run and reduce the cost to the donated mirrors. Someone pays for the bandwidth, one way or the other.
Let me add that Yam might help setting up and managing a local mirror. Especially if you also want to provide the ISO images and want to save some diskspace.
http://dag.wieers.com/home-made/yam/
The current config file does not include CentOS examples mainly because the version numbering of CentOS makes it hard to offer something that works in 3 months from now.
Kind regards, -- dag wieers, dag@wieers.com, http://dag.wieers.com/ -- [all I want is a warm bed and a kind word and unlimited power]
On Sat, 04 Dec 2004 05:27:25 -0500, Ed Clarke clarke@cilia.org wrote:
don't get hit with a dozen requests for the same file from one location. (I was quite annoyed when the updated yum package wanked up my custom yum.conf)
I believe the yum rpm udates will move your original files to something like yum.conf.rpmsave.
At least I've seen that several times and I'm not sure how it gets created - maybe Seth can clarify.
Greg
On Sat, 2004-12-04 at 08:11 -0700, Greg Knaddison wrote:
On Sat, 04 Dec 2004 05:27:25 -0500, Ed Clarke clarke@cilia.org wrote:
don't get hit with a dozen requests for the same file from one location. (I was quite annoyed when the updated yum package wanked up my custom yum.conf)
I believe the yum rpm udates will move your original files to something like yum.conf.rpmsave.
At least I've seen that several times and I'm not sure how it gets created - maybe Seth can clarify.
rpm moves the files around if they are marked as config(noreplace), etc.
So if a file got overwritten it's a function of rpm deciding that it was either unchanged or not a config file.
-sv
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Dag Wieers -
Ed Clarke -
Greg Knaddison -
Matt Shields -
seth vidal