Mirror Space

[Ben Klein]

2009/9/2 Scott Ritchie <scott at open-vote.org>:
> Ben Klein wrote:
>> 2009/9/2 Scott Ritchie <scott at open-vote.org>:
>>> Austin English wrote:
>>>> Since when is a mirror a bad thing?
>>>>
>>> It isn't, of course, however it can't replace the role of apt server
>>> (which would require users to manually alter their sources.list file).
>>
>> Just like how they have to alter their sources.list to get to
>> budgetdedicated in the first place? The point is that they have a
>> backup solution for when the main apt server is down.
>>
>> Note that Debian mirrors are apt mirrors and are occasionally out of
>> sync - c'est la vie - and the installer actually asks you what mirror
>> you want to use so it can configure sources.list.
>>
>
> The budgetdedicated actually was mirrored for a while (using nslookup
> round-robin redirection) and it created a bunch of problems.

So don't do nslookup round-robin redirection. It's silly for mirrors.
The point of a mirror is you have a completely distinct server
somewhere else that provides the same data, thus creating data
security. If the main server is down, the mirror can be accessed - but
yes, it has to be explicitly accessed (by a modified sources.list in
an apt mirror).

> It's more reliable to just have a mirror of the archive page and let
> people install manually in the case that it's offline, since I seriously
> don't expect another outage like this again.  Then the manual install
> will be updated automagically on the next release when the server comes
> back up.

You don't need to tell me about versioning in apt :P but it won't be
more reliable to mirror only the archives and not the apt server. If
you mirror the full apt repository, then you get load sharing. If you
only mirror the archives, then the mirror is only used by people who
know and can be bothered to install manually.

> It was only offline for the whole weekend because I was physically out
> of town away from the internet and genuinely unaware of it.  I should
> probably give someone my phone number so they can text me if needed.

I don't mean to offend, but you seem a bit possessive about the apt repository.