We set up a repository server for several things. To collect maintenance from SUSE and Red Hat; to make snapshots of that maintenance at defined times (monthly); to act as an installation server.
There are a couple of reasons, one of which is the release management concept that Peter talked about. If you want consistent maintenance levels across your systems, you have to have a chunk of disk to hold the set of software you want installed that is separate from what gets downloaded from the maintenance servers every day. It also allows you to do things like set up AutoYaST files so that you can have system profiles defined, and get the system built automatically with just the packages you want. This can include packages you get from _other_ places such as Bacula, WebSphere, DB2, JBoss, whatever. The repository/mirror server can act as the guinea pig for all new maintenance you want to test. Keep it bleeding edge current, or as far back as you want, using the current set of packages or the monthly/quarterly/whatever snapshots you take. Particular RPMs can be removed from a snapshot, or "brought forward" from more current snapshots as desired to get the precise mix of maintenance that works well for you. Note that all this applies to RHEL as well. You can set up a YUM repository, and use up2date to access it, just like RHN. Mark Post -----Original Message----- From: Linux on 390 Port [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Tom Duerbusch Sent: Tuesday, November 29, 2005 2:07 PM To: [email protected] Subject: When do you want a mirrored maintenance server? -snip- So, other than reducing the load on Novell, why/when should I consider having my own mirrored maintenance site? It seems like once a new image is synced up, any new maintenance would be relatively small, and would have minimum impact on you.novell.com. Also, I'm not really sure I want to keep things "very well maintained". On one side, if a production image is working, maintenance may cause it not to work. On the other hand, maintenance may prevent future failures. I don't know. We are still discussing monthly, quarterly, annual update options, and other options. And to mirror all the types of images does get into a bit of disk space. So, what are some reasons for having your own maintenance site. Our GBE is basically idle evenings/nights/weekends. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For LINUX-390 subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: INFO LINUX-390 or visit http://www.marist.edu/htbin/wlvindex?LINUX-390
