CentOS - Oct 2004 - should cAos block access to mirror.caosity.org?

Hey,

Greg suggested that I take a straw poll.  

Should cAos take steps to prevent getting stuck with a
big ISP bill in the future?  

For example, should cAos:

a) for new installs, have the yum.conf point to public
mirrors, rather than to mirror.caosity.org?

b) make sure that "yum update" does not substitute a
new yum.conf file that points only to
mirror.caosity.org?

c) allow public mirrors to access mirror.caosity.org
directly, but block direct access by everyone else?

On the other hand, do the benefits of allowing direct
access to mirror.caosity.org by everyone outweigh the
costs of occasionally big ISP bills?

Feel free to express your views, Greg is listening.

Rick

Just out of curiosity, do .iso downloads make up a significant portion of
bandwidth on mirror.centos.org?  I was surprised to not find bittorrent
available for them...  I would imagine these files to take up a
significant portion of the bandwidth for new releases.

At the very least more mirrors should be added to mirror.centos.org, and
if that still doesn't help, then go further by removing the primary source
from mirror.centos.org and restricting access to only mirrors.

-Dave

On Fri, 2004-10-29 at 21:46 -0700, Rick Graves wrote: 
> Hey,
> 
> Greg suggested that I take a straw poll.  
> 
> Should cAos take steps to prevent getting stuck with a
> big ISP bill in the future?  
> 
> For example, should cAos:
> 
> a) for new installs, have the yum.conf point to public
> mirrors, rather than to mirror.caosity.org?
I think that the yum.conf should not point directly to
mirror.caosity.org for new installs. 
> b) make sure that "yum update" does not substitute a
> new yum.conf file that points only to
> mirror.caosity.org?
I don't think you should change yum.conf on old installs.  But the owner
will have to change, if mirror.caosity.org stops working.
> c) allow public mirrors to access mirror.caosity.org
> directly, but block direct access by everyone else?
I would block all traffic to mirror.caosity.org except for authorized
rsync mirrors.

Prior to doing this, obviously you would want to have an FAQ up on the
website that explains exactly how to change old yum.conf files and
example yum.conf entries for all mirrors and all sections.
> 
> 
> On the other hand, do the benefits of allowing direct
> access to mirror.caosity.org by everyone outweigh the
> costs of occasionally big ISP bills?
> 
I'm not sure what the benefits are ... out of courtesy, I have changed
all my yum.conf's to point to mirror.  I think one problem is, a new
update comes out and everyone wants to sync it now ... not waiting for
the mirrors to update.

I don't want the developer's to have to foot a huge bill to provide
CentOS.

I would be glad to become a permanent seed for a CentOS bittorrent...I
only have about 20kbs to give.
> Feel free to express your views, Greg is listening.
> 
> Rick
-----------------------
Johnny Hughes
<http://www.HughesJR.com/>

> -----Original Message-----
> [mailto:centos-admin at caosity.org] On Behalf Of Rick Graves
> Sent: Friday, October 29, 2004 9:47 PM
> 
> For example, should cAos:
> 
> a) for new installs, have the yum.conf point to public
> mirrors, rather than to mirror.caosity.org?
Yes, simply make sure that you have enough free mirrors that the bandwidth
supply is not limited.
> 
> b) make sure that "yum update" does not substitute a
> new yum.conf file that points only to
> mirror.caosity.org?
> 
Yes - requires good FAQs
> c) allow public mirrors to access mirror.caosity.org
> directly, but block direct access by everyone else?
> 
Yes - requires good FAQs
> On the other hand, do the benefits of allowing direct
> access to mirror.caosity.org by everyone outweigh the
> costs of occasionally big ISP bills?
> 
Not if it impacts your ability to continue providing your core services.

Feeding everyone off of mirror sites is just a minor inconvenience.  To
those who want the latest updates within 30 secs of announcements, fine.
Just don't make the announcements until the mirrors have been rsync'd.

Post instructions for modifying yum.conf anf for rsyncing isos in your faq
and move on.  Let the community bear some of the burden for the wonderful
work that you are doing.

Just my $.02

-jeff

Rick Graves wrote:
>Hey,
>
>Greg suggested that I take a straw poll.  
>
>Should cAos take steps to prevent getting stuck with a
>big ISP bill in the future?  
>
>For example, should cAos:
>
>a) for new installs, have the yum.conf point to public
>mirrors, rather than to mirror.caosity.org?
>  
>
yes of course
>b) make sure that "yum update" does not substitute a
>new yum.conf file that points only to
>mirror.caosity.org?
>  
>
yes of course.
The yum.conf file should contain the whole commented mirror list, so 
changing the mirror is as simple as uncommenting a line somewhere.
It would be better if  yum could include a local configuration file that 
is not overwritten by updates, using a preprocessor like cpp, m4 or by 
simply adding the include directive...

One more thing, is it possible to have the mirrors with exactly the same 
paths, you you can make mirror.caosity.org point to all mirrors?
>c) allow public mirrors to access mirror.caosity.org
>directly, but block direct access by everyone else?
>
>On the other hand, do the benefits of allowing direct
>access to mirror.caosity.org by everyone outweigh the
>costs of occasionally big ISP bills?
>
>  
>
what is the mirrors syncronisation perdiod?
if it is about 1 day or less, it should be ok.
>Feel free to express your views, Greg is listening.
>
>Rick
>
>_______________________________________________
>CentOS mailing list
>CentOS at caosity.org
>http://lists.caosity.org/mailman/listinfo/centos
>
>  
>