Mirror Space

[Scott Ritchie]

Ben Klein wrote:
> 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).
> 

I do keep a local mirror of all the content, and as of now I actually
have two separate budgetdedicated servers hosting the data
(wine.budgetdedicated.com and wineold.budgetdedicated.com).  More
doesn't hurt, of course.

>> 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.
> 

Sure, it doesn't hurt to mirror the apt archive too, but I'm not sure
how much actual load balancing is going to happen at this point since it
will require a manual change on each user.  Once Karmic comes out in 2
months, new users will be pointed to the PPA instead.  I could also
point Jaunty and earlier users there as well, albeit with longer
instructions.

>> 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.

I want to phase it out and get rid of it.  Funny kind of possessiveness ;)

Thanks,
Scott Ritchie