Re: Sorting out ftp.gnome.org mirroring.

[Owen Taylor <otaylor redhat com>]

Dan Mueth <dan eazel com> writes:

> On Tue, 20 Feb 2001, Alan Cox wrote:
> 
> > > Well, the other option would be to put ftp.gnome.org on a different
> > > network, and have it so only mirrors and package maintainers access the
> > > current ftp.gnome.org.  This would make ftp.gnome.org into a mirror
> > > itself, and would take some of the bandwidth pressure off our current
> > > servers.
> > 
> > This is how kernel.org works
> > 
> > master.kernel.org = no end users
> > ftp.kernel.org = { subset of ftp.*.kernel.org }
> 
> It sounds like everybody here agrees on a few basic ideas:
> 1) We need a master ftp server which does not allow anonymous ftp
> 2) We need to organize our mirrors a little better, so we know which ones
> are reliable and up-to-date, and clean out mirrors which aren't mirroring
> anymore.
> 
> I think we can set up a very nice system in the long term.  But since I
> will not be doing this work myself, and because we want a solution very
> soon, I'm proposing the minimal solution that gets the job done.  If the
> people who implement this (Martin and Gregory?) would like to do a nicer
> solution, that would be wonderful.  I'd at least like to see this minimal
> system set up before GNOME 1.4beta2 (2/28) if at all possible.

I agree that we need to resolve this soon. I'm not sure if 1-week
is going to be enough, but we can probably make things better.

> Summary:
> * ftp.gnome.org has anonymous ftp access, but only holds a MIRRORS file

I think that's what we have now :-)

I think Alan's suggestion of making ftp.gnome.org a mirror round
robin is good if we can get a set of mirrors that are:

 - Regularly up to date
 - With high enough bandwidth.
 - With the same directory structure

(Though I don't see any evidence that ftp.kernel.org is currently
a round-robin)

> * ftp.gnome.org runs ftp on a second port without anonymous ftp access for
> mirrors only to rsync the packages

We don't need to run ftpd if the mirrors are going to rsync :-)

I'm not sure if ftp-based mirroring is necessary. I'd certainly
prefer if all mirrors used rsync.

> * We create a set of instructions for how to mirror ftp.gnome.org and put
> it on www.gnome.org and ftp.gnome.org.  This should include emailing
> ftp-admin gnome org with the URL and maintainers address of the mirror.

> 1) Put out a request for volunteers for mirroring on Gnotices and
> gnome-list

I don't think we need MORE mirrors, we need BETTER mirrors. That
is, what really need are a handful of well-connected, well-maintained
mirrors. 

Here's my alternate list of what we need to do:

 * We need to decide where we want people to mirror from on
   ftp.gnome.org -- /pub/GNOME or /pub

   I think /pub/GNOME makes more sense, but then /pub/guppi
   will have to be moved to /pub/GNOME/projects/guppi or
   something.

 * We need to send out a request-for-information to the
   mirror contact addresses we have or can dig up:

   - What should be used as the permanent contact address?

   - Do you mirror via rsync or ftp?

   - Could you mirror via rsync?

   - How frequently do you mirror?

   - Would it be possible to put a link from /pub/GNOME to the
     GNOME mirror directory?

   - If not, what is your mirror directory?  

   - Would you be willing to be in a round-robin for 
     ftp.gnome.org, or for a regional address (for example:
     ftp.eu.gnome.org.)

   It should also include the information that ftpmaster gnome org
   is the contact address for ftp.gnome.org. [ Right now,
   I am the ONLY person on gnome-ftp-maint. This is bad. ]

 * After a few days once we get these responses, we turn off
   all the mirrors from the mirror list where we haven't
   gotten a response.

 * If it looks like a round-robin will work, then we set one
   up and make ftpmaster.gnome.org point to the current
   ftp.gnome.org. (rsync only, or perhaps non-anonymous
   FTP if there is sufficient demand.)

 * Clean up ftp.gnome.org; I suggest we remove all binary
   packages, since they are universally out of date / unmaintained.

The parts we really need a volunteer for are:

 - Dig up possible contact emails for mirrors in the list
   we don't have a contact email for.

 - Write the survey and send it out.

 - Collate the responses.

The rest of it is pretty easy.

Regards,
                                        Owen