[CentOS] Yum / Up2date issues and mirror.centos.org

[Bryan J. Smith]

Les Mikesell <lesmikesell at gmail.com> wrote:
> There are places where you might want to hand-configure
> IP addresses too, but DHCP is a lot handier.

So what's the difference between configuring your system to
use DHCP and configuring your system to use a proxy?  I
honestly don't get it.  @-o

> How is that a solution?  Proxies are used where you don't
> allow direct outbound access.  How do you do ftp without
> configuring a proxy on every client?

The question is, why aren't you configuring software for a
proxy in the first place?  You do it once ... done.|

> How do you propose this should work without per-box
> configuration?

Why don't you just configure it at install-time, like
everything else?  Again, I don't understand how this is
different than anything else you configure at install-time.

Furthermore, we're back to the "how to you change anything on
all systems when you need to?"  Don't you have some sort of
configuration management of all your Linux systems? 
Something that can redistribute system changes to all
systems?

This has nothing to do with YUM.

> OK - ftp breaks when you NAT it too - sometimes.

I'm not talking about just FTP, I'm talking about HTTP too. 
HTTP can and _does_ break because it's a stream protocol that
carries a lot of rich service data over it.  Some of those
rich service data streams don't take kindly to transparent
proxies.

[ As a side note, I mentioned that HTTP-based repositories
should use WebDAV services instead.  Because WebDAV adds file
management to the protocol. ]

> Of what?

Of the CentOS repository.

> Yes, just mirror the whole internet locally - or at least
> all yummable repositories...

Of the packages you use, yes.  Take some load off the CentOS
mirrors if you have enough systems.

> And all of the fedora repositories, and all the 3rd party
> add on repositories, and the k12ltsp variations, and the
> ubuntu/debian apt repositories.

Yes!  Once you have the first sync, it is not much to
download a day.  In fact, if you're about conserving the
bandwidth you use for updates, hell yes!  If your point is
that you have all those repositories to sync from and that is
a "burden," then my counter-point is "Exactly!  You're
yanking from all those different repositories from _multiple_
systems already -- so why not just do it from _one_?"  ;->

When you have a number of systems, there is _no_negative_ to
this, other than having the disk space required!  APT And YUM
repositories are "dumb" FTP/HTTP stores.  rsync down and
serve.  Save your bandwidth and save your headaches.

> It doesn't make sense to cache things unless at least one
> person uses it.

Now I'm really confused.  If you're not using a repository,
then do _not_ mirror it.  I don't understand that point you
just made.  Or are you adding yet more unrelated items just
to make a point?

> The point of the internet is that you can get the latest
> when you need it, and the point of a cache is that only one
> person has to wait.

We're talking about software repositories.  If you are
pulling multiple files from multiple systems, mirror it. 
These aren't some arbitrary web sites, they are known
repositories.

If you have enough systems, you should be doing this anyway
-- out of sheer configuration management principles.  You
don't want people grabbing arbitrary software on a mass
number of systems, but only what you allow from your own
repositories.

If you don't have a lot of systems, then take the few seconds
to add the proxy line during install -- or make it part of
your Kickstart post-install script, etc... (whatever you
normally do at install-time).

> Yes, CentOS is as much a victim as the other distros on
> this point.

I just don't know what you expect CentOS to solve.


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