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Joyce Winslow
jwins@oregon.uoregon.edu
In network parlance, "mirroring" is the creation of a local cache
of popular content that's devised to conserve bandwidth and provide a
useful service to local users. To create a mirror, a dedicated local server
is set up to automatically store and regularly update resources such as popular
software archives, making them readily available to local users—usually
at a higher speed than heavily trafficked remote servers can deliver.
The mirrors at ftp.orst.edu, which are maintained by the network engineers
at Oregon State University, are currently run on a Debian GNU/Linux machine
with approximately 300GB of disk space. Mirrored sites include some that were
requested from campus users and others by software vendors like Mandrake Linux.
Scott Kveton, who serves as both the Unix System administrator and DNS/DHCP
administrator at OSU, notes that ftp.orst.edu provides the secondary mirror
for Mandrake Linux in the U.S., serving up close to three terabytes of data
per month for that distribution alone.
Two other Linux distributions, Redhat and Debian GNU/Linux, are also mirrored
at ftp.orst.edu. Kveton cites Debian GNU/Linux in particular as "a very
special archive for us. It's about 55 gigabytes in size and we use it quite
heavily here on campus...We currently are using Debian for our DNS and
DHCP servers, proxy, news servers, as well as ftp.orst.edu."
The mirrors, which are maintained throughout the entire lifetime of the archived
data/software, are updated at least once a day, and some are updated as often
as four times a day.
Members of NERO (Network for Engineering and Research in Oregon) have special
"local" access to ftp.orst.edu mirrors. This special access currently
allows up to 100 concurrent users.
In addition to ftp.orst.edu, OSU also maintains a local mirror of MySQL (http://mysql.orst.edu),
Comprehensive Perl Archive Network (ftp://ftp.orst.edu/pub/CPAN),
GNU software archives (http://gnu.orst.edu),
Ximian (http://ximian.orst.edu), and the
Linux Kernel Archives (http://kernel.orst.edu).
For more information about the mirrors OSU maintains and how to access them, see http://www.net.oregonstate.edu/ftp/