freebsd stable - Jan 2009 - freebsd-update painfully slow - slower than source code build of world and kernel

Hi,

I'm not sure where to post this, I had trouble finding a suitable  
mailing-list. Please point me in the right direction, if this is the  
wrong place to post this message.

First off, I love the binary update tool for FreeBSD. It is an  
excellent tool, and saves a lot of time and trouble compared to the  
old method (or so I thought, until recently).
I also like seeing the freebsd-update method is in the release notes  
for 7.1-RELEASE, as a official way to upgrade a system.

Yesterday I was struck by happiness, as I noticed 7.1-RELEASE was out  
on ftp.freebsd.org - and decided to start off by upgrading one of my  
companies development servers.
Usually an update with FreeBSD-update is quite quick, but today and  
yesterday it has just been to slow to use, after two days of trying -  
I've still not completed a single upgrade. The
server in question is connected to gigabit internet.

I think it is embarrassing that the binary update tool, is actually  
slower to use than compiling the whole operating system and kernel -  
even on a slow machine! The reason for this,
is not the tool it self, the tool is excellent - but there are no  
mirrors.. We need some mirrors, or such a great tool is not really  
usable at all (except for the really patient).

This also goes for portsnap. Portsnap is also an excellent tool, but  
the experience from using it could be much better. The european  
portsnap mirror is actually slower, than the one in the US.
I've been in contact with Colin, twice, about hosting another portsnap  
mirror. Using a proxy server, does not cut it - not for my use, sorry.  
I tried it, it didn't help. The last time I didn't receive an
answer.

As I was saying to Colin, both myself and a friend who works for the  
Norwegian government, should be able to run a mirror for portsnap on  
good bandwidth. Many other people have offered
to host mirrors, why is having mirrors a bad thing?

I know the 6.4 and 7.1 releases have very many patches, due to  
conversion from CVS to SVN. I have previously upgraded servers in  
Norway and UK to 6.4-RELEASE with freebsd-update,
and speed has been acceptable, not great, but enough to keep me using  
and loving the tool. Still, I think more people will use freebsd- 
update, since it is more practical to use, especially for
non homogenous environments.

Hopefully this will improve in the future, I don't mean to come across  
as a whining grunge, but it is quite frustrating to me, as a loving  
freebsd user.

Congrats on a new release, I will be using it in a another day or so  
(or whenever freebsd-update is done - maybe I will eat my own words,  
and just do a regular build)!



Best regards,


Daniel Bond.

Hi Stefan.

Yes, I am also noticing this. Luckily interrupting it and starting it  
again resumes. Judging from the speed of http://www.daemonology.net/  
(hosted on same site), the freebsd-update server must be absolutely  
hammered.



On Jan 6, 2009, at 9:50 AM, Stefan Miklosovic wrote:
> Hi,
>
> My opinion is same. I tried to upgrade from 7.0-RELEASE to 7.1- 
> RELEASE but even after
> copying all the stuff from 7.0-RELEASE CD (src etc) and having  
> GENERIC kernel in /boot/,
> "freebsd-update upgrade -r 7.1-RELEASE" started to work properly
but
> hase not done its work.
> All tries stopped at some failure during a downloading. I have been  
> trying this about half a day,
> three times, but no change :((
>
> On Tue, Jan 6, 2009 at 9:03 AM, Daniel Bond <db@danielbond.org>
wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I'm not sure where to post this, I had trouble finding a suitable  
> mailing-list. Please point me in the right direction, if this is the  
> wrong place to post this message.
>
> First off, I love the binary update tool for FreeBSD. It is an  
> excellent tool, and saves a lot of time and trouble compared to the  
> old method (or so I thought, until recently).
> I also like seeing the freebsd-update method is in the release notes  
> for 7.1-RELEASE, as a official way to upgrade a system.
>
> Yesterday I was struck by happiness, as I noticed 7.1-RELEASE was  
> out on ftp.freebsd.org - and decided to start off by upgrading one  
> of my companies development servers.
> Usually an update with FreeBSD-update is quite quick, but today and  
> yesterday it has just been to slow to use, after two days of trying  
> - I've still not completed a single upgrade. The
> server in question is connected to gigabit internet.
>
> I think it is embarrassing that the binary update tool, is actually  
> slower to use than compiling the whole operating system and kernel -  
> even on a slow machine! The reason for this,
> is not the tool it self, the tool is excellent - but there are no  
> mirrors.. We need some mirrors, or such a great tool is not really  
> usable at all (except for the really patient).
>
> This also goes for portsnap. Portsnap is also an excellent tool, but  
> the experience from using it could be much better. The european  
> portsnap mirror is actually slower, than the one in the US.
> I've been in contact with Colin, twice, about hosting another  
> portsnap mirror. Using a proxy server, does not cut it - not for my  
> use, sorry. I tried it, it didn't help. The last time I didn't  
> receive an
> answer.
>
> As I was saying to Colin, both myself and a friend who works for the  
> Norwegian government, should be able to run a mirror for portsnap on  
> good bandwidth. Many other people have offered
> to host mirrors, why is having mirrors a bad thing?
>
> I know the 6.4 and 7.1 releases have very many patches, due to  
> conversion from CVS to SVN. I have previously upgraded servers in  
> Norway and UK to 6.4-RELEASE with freebsd-update,
> and speed has been acceptable, not great, but enough to keep me  
> using and loving the tool. Still, I think more people will use  
> freebsd-update, since it is more practical to use, especially for
> non homogenous environments.
>
> Hopefully this will improve in the future, I don't mean to come  
> across as a whining grunge, but it is quite frustrating to me, as a  
> loving freebsd user.
>
> Congrats on a new release, I will be using it in a another day or so  
> (or whenever freebsd-update is done - maybe I will eat my own words,  
> and just do a regular build)!
>
>
>
> Best regards,
>
>
> Daniel Bond.
> _______________________________________________
> freebsd-stable@freebsd.org mailing list
> http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-stable
> To unsubscribe, send any mail to
"freebsd-stable-unsubscribe@freebsd.org
> "
>

Hello!
> Usually an update with FreeBSD-update is quite quick, but today and 
> yesterday it has just been to slow to use, after two days of trying - 
> I've still not completed a single upgrade.
> This also goes for portsnap. Portsnap is also an excellent tool, but 
> the experience from using it could be much better. The european 
> portsnap mirror is actually slower, than the one in the US.
I can only verify your experiences with both freebsd-update and the 
speed of the portsnap mirrors lately.

-BR, Henrik Schewe

On Tue, 6 Jan 2009, Daniel Bond wrote:
> I'm not sure where to post this, I had trouble finding a suitable 
> mailing-list. Please point me in the right direction, if this is the wrong 
> place to post this message.
>
I think freebsd-ports would have been the place.
> Yesterday I was struck by happiness, as I noticed 7.1-RELEASE was out on 
> ftp.freebsd.org - and decided to start off by upgrading one of my companies
> development servers.
> Usually an update with FreeBSD-update is quite quick, but today and
yesterday
> it has just been to slow to use, after two days of trying - I've still
not
> completed a single upgrade. The
> server in question is connected to gigabit internet.
>
> I think it is embarrassing that the binary update tool, is actually slower
to
> use than compiling the whole operating system and kernel - even on a slow 
> machine! The reason for this,
> is not the tool it self, the tool is excellent - but there are no mirrors..
> We need some mirrors, or such a great tool is not really usable at all 
> (except for the really patient).
>
This is a known issue that Colin sent out a message about to freebsd-ports 
and freebsd-questions.

Basically there is a surge in in traffic right now due to the 7.1 release. 
And there is another update machine on the way.

The message is included belov my sig.

 	/Chris


Hi all,

For the benefit of those of you who are noticing problems with portsnap
right
now: The release of FreeBSD 7.1 has resulted in a very large amount of
traffic
to update1.freebsd.org, which is hosted by the same box as
portsnap-master...
so the portsnap mirrors are having some trouble syncing right now.  If you
find
that portsnap doesn't work, please be patient -- once the flood of people
upgrading systems to 7.1-RELEASE has subsided things should get back to
normal.

(Before people ask: update2.freebsd.org is going to exist soon.  No, I'm 
not looking for more mirrors right now.)

-- 
Colin Percival
Security Officer, FreeBSD | freebsd.org | The power to serve
Founder / author, Tarsnap | tarsnap.com | Online backups for the truly
paranoid