🚀 go-pugleaf

ian@ilm.mech.unsw.edu.au (Ian Maclaine-cross) writes:

>>>Lots of people run ftp sites for all kinds of motivations - anti-cultists
>>>run ftp sites because they want to spread the word about cults.  I don't
>>>think it's likely the problem is lack of volunteers - hell, I'd volunteer
>>>to run a linux ftp site if it would help.
>>
>>Be sure of what you are saying/offering before you do :)
>>Having setup the linux mirror at ftp.dstc.edu.au (yes .. it was my baby)
>>I can tell you, a *lot* of effort goes in to maintain it. Much more
>>than you imagine.

>A belated thanks for your efforts, David! 

>I suggest to anyone who is thinking of mirroring Linux that
>they consider using a Linux box. ftp.cdrom.com is based on Pentiums.
>CTAN.unsw.edu.au is also a Pentium based mirror running Linux (Debian
>1.1). For a 10GB mirror the Pentium hardware is under $3000 and the
>software is free. 
Hmmm .. bet you it costs a fair bit more to go beyond 4 x 3.5 Gb disks :)
(At least with scsi you can get up to 7 devices (excluding host) per bus and
have multiple busses)

>We do not backup CTAN, it is a mirror not an archive.  Index and ls-lR
>files are locally generated after the ls-lR.Z file is downloaded from
>ftp.tex.ac.uk. We use a similar technique with our partial mirror of
>Debian. 

Ah ... we didn't back ftp.dstc.edu.au for a long while ... and then we had
a disk failure(s). It took 3 months to get back upto date with the mirror.

I strongly suggest to anyone they take atleast weekly full backups of there
linux mirror. It is way too slow re-get the entire linux mirror.
(And now a days .. cost you a small fortune ;)
--
 _--_|\  David Conran,                       Voice: +61-7-3365-3254
/      * Systems Administrator               Fax:   +61-7-3365-1477
\_.--._/ Department of Mathematics,          Email: lucifer@maths.uq.edu.au
      v  The University of Queensland, 4072 "Reach out and grep someone"