You can also share the pacman directory /var/cache/pacman/pkg via NFS or some other protocol. Whenever a new package is requested, it gets downloaded to your login node which stores it for later use in case another client needs it. The drawback is, that you can't upgrade two machines at the same time, because they would interfere each other. Have a look at: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Network_Shared_Pacman_Cache#Network_shared_pacman_cache 2011/6/5 Gary Wright <wriggary@xxxxxxxxx> > On Sat, Jun 4, 2011 at 5:32 PM, Takayuki Muranushi <muranushi@xxxxxxxxx> > wrote: > > Hello, > > > > I'm building a computer cluster with about 20 nodes, all of them > > running ArchLinux. One of them is the 'login' node connected to the > > Internet, other nodes share Internet connection via the login node > > being a router. > > https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Internet_Share > > > > Now, when I update the system (pacman -Syu) or install package on all > > node, I think it's a bad idea because it will consume the mirror > > bandwidth proportional to the number of the nodes. Maybe it's not a > > big issue for 20 nodes, but I'd like to learn nevertheless for future > > use, that: > > > > Is there a way to cache the pacman transaction at the login node, so > > that the communication between the login node and the mirror is > > constant, and the rest of communications only take place within the > > LAN? > > Is seting up a pacman mirror at the login node is the correct solution? > > > > Best, > > > > Takayuki Muranushi > > > > Haven't used it myself, but this [1] might do the trick. > > [1] http://xyne.archlinux.ca/projects/pacserve/ >