On 7 Oct 2003, Jason L Tibbitts III wrote: > I'm getting yum going and so far it's keeping a hundred or so machines > updated without any problems at all. I even have a nice setup where I > can stage updates to test machines before I roll them out to everyone. > But I have a few questions: > > --- > > I've seen folks structure their stock RPM repositories as "base" and > "updates". Is there some special reason to do it this way instead of > keeping "base" updated constantly? I install new machines from the > same repository and I certainly want them to get the proper packages > at install time rather than having to install them and then update > them. I don't think so, although others may disagree. There is a good reason (again IMO) to keep multiple repositories if you build or rebuild certain packages locally that aren't in some basic e.g. rpm tree you are mirroring. Maintaining repositories separately by source/category is reasonable; whether or not you want to consider updates to belong in their own repository is up to you. yum will use the most recent/highest revision (unless told otherwise) to update across all repositories, regardless. > --- > > Has anyone tried keeping laptops updated? The problem I see is that > they won't always be on the network, but I don't know how badly things > will blow up when that happens. I also can't do IP restrictions on > the server and I'm not sure if I can do any kind of secure or > authenticated HTTP to get the packages. This works fine. yum's nightly cron update silently fails, which is what you want it to do. Your biggest risk is that if you NEVER have the laptop on during the cron period, it can drift out of date relative to the repository, so you'll need to hand update it periodically. If your server restricts access by IP (and you have a host in the right IP space that you can ssh into) you can set up an ssh port forwarding connection and update through that (I've done this and can provide details as requested). If you are trying to rsync mirror from an IP restricted repository this can be done the same way, via an ssh tunnel. rgb > > Thanks for yum and any info you might provide, > -- > Jason L Tibbitts III - tibbs@xxxxxxxxxxx - 713/743-3486 - 660PGH - 94 PC800 > System Manager: University of Houston Department of Mathematics > _______________________________________________ > Yum mailing list > Yum@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx > https://lists.dulug.duke.edu/mailman/listinfo/yum > Robert G. Brown http://www.phy.duke.edu/~rgb/ Duke University Dept. of Physics, Box 90305 Durham, N.C. 27708-0305 Phone: 1-919-660-2567 Fax: 919-660-2525 email:rgb@xxxxxxxxxxxx