[arch-dev-public] Arch mirrors (discuss)

[Roman Kyrylych]

2007/9/28, eliott <eliott at cactuswax.net>:
> Ok. Starting a new thread for some discussion.
>
> Roman did great work generating an up to date mirror list.
>
> I changed the "get arch" page to a layout more conducive to "new users".
> In doing so, I realized that the focus of that page is for downloading
> ISOs (eg. Getting arch).
>
> I think I am going to change the layout a bit, and link directly to
> the /iso/ folder on the mirrors listed. I am going to incorporate the
> changes roman made, regarding mirrors, and only include those that
> offer isos *in that page*.
>
> This leads me to an interesting suggestion. Should be create a page
> with an more official list of mirrors, and list only teir1 mirrrors
> (those that we allow rysnc from on gerolde)?
> We can list the top level http, ftp, and rsync locations for those
> servers (if they have them). We can then link to the Wiki for "teir2"
> mirrors. Those that we do not allow direct sync from gerolde, but are
> viable alternatives nonetheless. Maybe those servers sync from one of
> the teir1 servers.
>
> This should allow us to keep a handle on the teir1 servers, and whom
> we allow to sync against gerolde, as well as provide a mechanism for
> the community to manage the list of teir{n} servers more effectively.
>
> Not sure how the tie-in to pacman's mirror list is going to handle
> this, insofar as teir1..n mirrors.
>
> Thoughts?
>

I'm not 100% sure but I think that all mirrors that are listed in
pacman's mirrorlist are rsyncing from rsync.archlinux.org (if one or
thwo of them are not - then they should, IMO).
Since we don't have a lot of mirrors I don't think it's reasonable to
do 2-tier mirror network.

I propose the following:
1) Any mirror that is not synced from rsync.archlinux.org should not
be listed in pacman's mirrorlist. Users could add any preferred mirror
from "Unofficial mirrors" section on Wiki is enought IMO.
Similarly there's no reason to have a long list of unofficial mirrors
on Get Arch page.
2) All official mirrors should provide and keep up-to-date the following info:
a) FTP/HTTP/rsync URLs
it is highly recommended that they are the same, so users could easily
change which protocol they like to use in pacman's mirrorlist,
we could even add a comment to each server in pacman's mirrorlist
indicating whether alternative protocol is available
b) bandwidth (sometimes there are even different limits for local vs
foreign users)
c) email address of admin
e) timeframes when mirror is synced
3) All official mirrors are recommended to use the script from
http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Local_Mirror#The_synchronization_script
with SYNC_REPO=() or SYNC_REPO=(core extra unstable testing community iso)
4) outdated or incomplete mirrors should be removed from pacman's
mirrorlist and hosts.alllow
5) we should limit the number of official mirrors, depending on the
size of country/region (e.g. not 15 mirrors for Vatican and 2 for USA
:-P)

-- 
Roman Kyrylych (Роман Кирилич)