Feature changed by: Alex Tsariounov (tsariounov) Feature #306896, revision 4 Title: Zypp-proxy - A proxy cache server for zypper updates Hackweek IV: Unconfirmed Priority Requester: Important Requested by: Alex Tsariounov (tsariounov) Description: This project will create zypp-proxy which is a server proxy used for caching update packages that are used by machines on the local network on a locally designated host machine that acts as a proxy to the openSUSE updates repositories. The project is similar in function and requirements to the Debian project apt-proxy, details of which can be found here: http://apt-proxy.sourceforge.net/ This project is useful for those who run many local (both physical and virtual) openSUSE machines and like to keep them up to date with updates; however, they do not wish to waste bandwidth for downloading the same updates over and over to all local machines whether when keeping exisiting machines up to date, or building new machines and having to re-download all updates yet again. For some people, simply mirroring the entire openSUSE updates repository is sufficient to provide local network updates; however, for most, since they do not use near as many packages as that repository provides, doing this simply wastes disk space. These people will find zypp-proxy most useful. Both server and client setup will be quite simple. The server will use the public openSUSE updates repositories to check for updates. The clients will point to the local server (the proxy) machine for updates rather than the public servers. When a client requests an update, the zypp-proxy server first checks if the public server has a more up to date package that what it has cached locally. If the public server doesn't, then zypp-proxy serves the locally cached package. If the public server does have a more up to date package, then zypp-proxy first downloads it to its local cache and then serves it to the client. How many old versions of packages to keep will be a configurable. The first implementation will support openSUSE 11.1 only, with support for other openSUSE releases following suit. + Discussion: + #3: Alex Tsariounov (tsariounov) (2009-07-16 18:25:40) + I believe, and I could be wrong, that SMT actually creates a complete + mirror of the updates repo locally. This may be ok for a datacenter + SLES customer or install, but since openSUSE's repos are so much + bigger, this will trade network bandwidth wastage for disk space + wastage. Either one does not sit well with the primary target of + openSUSE who is the Linux enthusiast. Secondarily, SMT's name is + "Subscription Management Tool", for openSUSE there are no + subscriptions, so the name becomes misleading. + Third, SMT is built and installed as an Add-on product, this complexity + is not needed for a simple proxy server. A simple rpm install is all + that should happen. + Having said that, perhaps there is some code that can be shared. Does + SMT use libzypp? I was planning on using libzypp and hence + implementing zypp-proxy in either C++ or python. Python is preferred + but I don't know the status of libzypp's python bindings. + Perhaps SMT can stand some modificaitons to not creaet a complete + mirror of the updates repository, but only mirror the updates that are + actcually used? -- openSUSE Feature: https://features.opensuse.org/306896