Managing lots of ubuntu workstations

[Matthew Palmer]

On Sat, Oct 15, 2005 at 11:14:17PM -0500, Rich Duzenbury wrote:
> I've got numerous ubuntu machines here.  I'm feeling guilty about using
> the update agent on each one to keep the machine up to date as I keep
> downloading the same files over and over for each machine update.  Of
> course it takes a bunch of time to keep downloading all the files as
> well.
> 
> I did a search of the wiki and didn't find much.  I'd like to download
> updates from ubuntu one time, and then update all my machines from that
> machine.

apt-proxy is the package you want.

> Surely there is a strategy for administering numerous ubuntu machines?

Yes, there is.  Lots of them.  Don't try and get any two experienced admins
to completely agree on how it should be done, though.  It's a personal
experience thing, and a "what fits with my way of thinking" thing.  What
seems perfectly logical for one person is complete insanity to another.

> Are there some docs somewhere for how to set up an internal
> repository?  

This is separate and distinct from a partial mirror (as apt-proxy will give
you), but apt-ftparchive is a useful tool for helping you to maintain your
internal repository, although if you're doing a fair bit of packaging,
mini-dinstall is a better top-level solution.

> Is this a good idea?

What?  Saving bandwidth and download time?  Certainly.  A local repository? 
Only if you've got tweaked packages that you need to deploy to your own
hosts; it is a valuable way to deploy your own local customisations to
software, though.

- Matt