[mirror-admin] MM & dynamic DNS behind NAT?

[Dax Kelson]

On Mon, 2009-06-29 at 19:15 +0300, Axel Thimm wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> is there a way to use MM for a non-static IP like a typical home
> network?
> 
> I was using the guru/Dax Kelson DNS/httpd trick, but that doesn't work
> with metalinks. Also people claim that MM can do everything the guru
> scripts could, so I hope this is just some report_mirror config.
> --

I investigated updating my technique to work with the new metalinks XML
served over HTTPS mirror dissemination method. The end result was that I
suspect that it could be done *if* the the yum/python/https code didn't
do certificate validation. Of course, if it doesn't do validation now,
it could in the future.

The features that my technique provided with Fedora 10 and below cannot
be done with Fedora 11 and mirror manager. Namely a fully automated, no
client changes, dynamic or static address support, works 100% of the
time, transparent automatic local mirror.

To regain that functionality there will need to be code added to yum to
support "automatic local mirror detection" and have that code must be
turned on by default.

Yum could take a hint from what IE and Firefox do to automatically find
a local mirror.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_Proxy_Autodiscovery_Protocol

I would avoid any solution that relied on multicast since you want a
solution that will work across subnets and multicast routing is not
widely deployed.

Last week I was talking to Matt Domsch and he is going to add a feature
to Mirror Manager that lets a DNS hostname be specified. Using a dynamic
DNS service/solution will get you close (but no cigar) to functionality
provided by my technique. This missing part is the "works 100% of the
time" piece. MM will only check the hostname to IP mapping at the top of
each hour and depending on timing of dynamic IP changes you will have
unpredictable times when your local mirror will not be used.

Dax Kelson
Guru Labs

--