[Gllug] Apt and RPM caching experiences

[John Edwards]

On Mon, Jul 04, 2011 at 11:08:25AM +0100, Chris Bell wrote:
> On Mon 04 Jul, John Edwards wrote:
> 
>> I don't know about Yum/RPM caching, but the default config for Squid
>> in Debian/Ubuntu is not well tuned for the caching of apt files.
>> 
>> In particular you need to reduce the lifetime for the various
>> Packages, Source, Release, Translation and Index files so that
>> they are refreshed more often (or even not cached). Then increase
>> the lifetime of the deb files themselves, along with the maximum
>> object and total cache sizes.
> 
>    No need to bother if you use ftpsync, it uses a modified rsync mirror
> system. Beware that the initial load can take a long time as it checks all
> files, and I have discovered that it re-checked all files in the local
> mirror when I tried to change the source mirror to and from
> rsync.mirrorservice.org when I encountered previous problems. Your local
> mirror can be used for an installation if you enter the mirror details
> manually (top of list of Debian mirrors from the installer).

Ftpsync also requires a lot more disk space and bandwidth than
caching, as well as the occasional bit of maintanence.

The usual reasons for a caching is to speed up download on slow links
or reduce the total monthly transfer. Debian/Ubuntu archives are very
large and most of the packages transfered will never be used, so you
will be transfering much more data as well slowing down your Internet
link.

The speed might be mitigated by doing the transfer at night, but not
the total data transfer if you are capped or charged.

I think it's more efficient to just transfer those packages you need.


-- 
#---------------------------------------------------------#
|    John Edwards   Email: john at cornerstonelinux.co.uk    |
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