Sharing yum between several machines

[Tim]

Tim:
>> I wouldn't do a yum update simultaneously on two or more boxes, though.
>> I don't know how it'd take to two boxes both trying to download the same
>> RPM file to the same place.

Beartooth:
> 	Hmmm ... I do it all the time, every day or two, on five or six 
> boxes behind one router & KVM switch. I run "yum clean all," "updatedb," 
> "rpm --rebuilddb," and then "yum update" whenever the previous update got 
> something; otherwise I just keep repeating "yum update." I get the 
> sequence started on one machine, then KVM-switch to the next and the 
> next, till all have either completed or reported nothing to do. It's 
> quite common for "yum update" to be running simultaneously on two -- or 
> several.

I don't know how well the system will handle two or more computers
trying to create the same file on the same disc at the same time.

In several years, I only once messed around with fixing up the RPM
database, I don't go around doing things to stuff it up, and I haven't
seen it stuff itself up.  I've probably jinxed it, now, but my one and
only time was thanks to a computer locking up hard in the middle of some
updates.

I don't know what people do to shoot their systems in the foot, but I've
never felt the need for doing "yum clean all" (a rather brute force
thing to do).  I've only ever had to do "yum clean metadata" to deal
with repos that were out of kilter (something that's not my fault, nor
my computer's).

If I had a large enough network, and computers all using the same
release, I'd be tempted to pick a particular mirror, and HTTP proxy all
traffic with it it.  It's a simple way to manage this situation.

-- 
[tim at localhost ~]$ uname -r
2.6.27.9-73.fc9.i686

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