Reository wisdom (not lookin' fer howtos)

[ed at hp.uab.edu]

On Tue, 17 Aug 2004, Brian Fahrlander wrote:
>
>    Well, my research into LDAP for authentication is showing GREAT
> benefits over NIS, and I have a third machine (for the home) installing
> upstairs as I type this. This one's delay due to a dirty CDROM, and I
> have to go 'hit' it once in a while.  An FTP install would probably be
> more accurate, if the bandwidth is available.
>
>    I'm curious about repositories; since these could be massive groups
> of PCs (say, hundreds or thousands) it should make sense to maintain a
> separate repo (yum, presumably) on a server somewhere.
>
>    My question is, with all the questions about repo stability and
> such, what's the best way to go about it, strategically? I'm talking
> about whether I should find a local college to sync with, get it
> straight from fedora.us, or exactly what seems to go into making a nice,
> stable mirror?
>

I know everyone wants to create their own local repository. But may I
suggest a different approach. I have many clients with many computers, I
wouldn't want to create a local repository for each client, so I created a
single repository that when used with a proxy server acts like a local
repository.

Have a look:
http://www.edebris.com/fedora.redhat/mirror/
http://www.edebris.com/fedora.us/mirror/

If you configure all of your computers to use the same proxy server, then
you will get the speed of a local yum repository, without configuring
anything but the proxy server you should have anyway.

Note, that this work only because of the proper use of the expires and
If-Modified-Since information sent with the files.

ed