2012-08-09-how-to-create-local-ubuntu-repository
Table of Contents
We have about 40 computers installed with Edubuntu, and more than a dozen of servers (most of them running on virtual machines). They all need to be updated time after time with the latest version of packages. Also, time after time, new packages need to be installed. These packages come from some central Ubuntu Repository servers.
All this activity for keeping computers up-to-date (up to the latest version) consumes lots of bandwidth and takes a lot of time. And there are new package updates almost every day! For one computer this can be acceptable, however for lots of computers it may become unbearable.
One solution for this problem is to create a local mirror of the ubuntu repository.
1 Creating an APT Mirror
Fortunately, creating a local mirror of the APT packages is very
easy. There is even a tool that helps to create it, called
apt-mirror. So, the first step is to install it:
aptitude install apt-mirror
The next step is to customize its configuration file,
/etc/apt/mirror.list. It should look like this:
set base_path /data/apt-mirror set defaultarch amd64 set nthreads 5 deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu precise main restricted universe multiverse deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu precise-updates main restricted universe multiverse deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu precise-backports main restricted universe multiverse deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu precise-proposed main restricted universe multiverse deb-i386 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu precise main restricted universe multiverse deb-i386 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu precise-updates main restricted universe multiverse deb-i386 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu precise-backports main restricted universe multiverse deb-i386 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu precise-proposed main restricted universe multiverse deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu precise-security main restricted universe multiverse deb http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu precise partner deb http://extras.ubuntu.com/ubuntu precise main deb-i386 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu precise-security main restricted universe multiverse deb-i386 http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu precise partner deb-i386 http://extras.ubuntu.com/ubuntu precise main deb http://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb/ stable main deb http://packages.medibuntu.org/ precise free non-free deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/epoptes/ppa/ubuntu precise main deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/loneowais/gmailwatcher.dev/ubuntu precise main deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/webupd8team/gnome3/ubuntu precise main deb-i386 http://packages.medibuntu.org/ precise free non-free deb-i386 http://ppa.launchpad.net/epoptes/ppa/ubuntu precise main deb-i386 http://ppa.launchpad.net/loneowais/gmailwatcher.dev/ubuntu precise main deb-i386 http://ppa.launchpad.net/webupd8team/gnome3/ubuntu precise main #deb-src http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu precise main restricted universe multiverse #deb-src http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu precise-updates main restricted universe multiverse #deb-src http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu precise-backports main restricted universe multiverse #deb-src http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu precise-proposed main restricted universe multiverse #deb-src http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu precise-security main restricted universe multiverse #deb-src http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu precise partner #deb-src http://extras.ubuntu.com/ubuntu precise main #deb-src http://archive.canoniccom/ubuntu precise partner clean http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu
The URL-s here are the same to what I have on
/etc/apt/sources.list on my computers. I am storing the packages
on the directory /data/apt-mirror, which has plenty of free disk
space (at least 200 GB). I am mirroring the packages for both
amd64 and i386 architectures, and i am skipping the source
packages (deb-src) to save some space.
Now we can start making the mirror (or updating it) by running
apt-mirror.
- Note
- If the mirroring process is interrupted, start it again
by typing
apt-mirror. If it refuses to start (claiming that it is already running), look out for/data/apt-mirror/var/apt-mirror.lockand remove it. - Note
- Initially it can take a lot of time (several days) to make a full mirror, depending on the speed of the network connection.
After mirroring is done, we can export the mirror by HTTP:
ln -s /data/apt-mirror/mirror /var/www/apt-mirror
Of course, apache has to be already installed (aptitude install
apache2).
2 Configure clients for using the local repository
In order to use this mirror from a client, modify
/etc/apt/sources.list to use something like this
http://192.168.10.50/apt-mirror/archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/
instead of http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/. It should look
like this:
deb http://192.168.10.50/apt-mirror/archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise main restricted # deb-src http://192.168.10.50/apt-mirror/archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise main restricted deb http://192.168.10.50/apt-mirror/archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise-updates main restricted # deb-src http://192.168.10.50/apt-mirror/archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise-updates main restricted deb http://192.168.10.50/apt-mirror/archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise universe # deb-src http://192.168.10.50/apt-mirror/archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise universe deb http://192.168.10.50/apt-mirror/archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise-updates universe # deb-src http://192.168.10.50/apt-mirror/archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise-updates universe deb http://192.168.10.50/apt-mirror/archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise multiverse # deb-src http://192.168.10.50/apt-mirror/archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise multiverse deb http://192.168.10.50/apt-mirror/archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise-updates multiverse # deb-src http://192.168.10.50/apt-mirror/archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise-updates multiverse deb http://192.168.10.50/apt-mirror/archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise-backports main restricted universe multiverse # deb-src http://192.168.10.50/apt-mirror/archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise-backports main restricted universe multiverse deb http://192.168.10.50/apt-mirror/security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu precise-security main restricted # deb-src http://192.168.10.50/apt-mirror/security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu precise-security main restricted deb http://192.168.10.50/apt-mirror/security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu precise-security universe # deb-src http://192.168.10.50/apt-mirror/security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu precise-security universe deb http://192.168.10.50/apt-mirror/security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu precise-security multiverse # deb-src http://192.168.10.50/apt-mirror/security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu precise-security multiverse deb http://192.168.10.50/apt-mirror/extras.ubuntu.com/ubuntu precise main # deb-src http://192.168.10.50/apt-mirror/extras.ubuntu.com/ubuntu precise main deb http://192.168.10.50/apt-mirror/dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb/ stable main ## Please report any bug on https://bugs.launchpad.net/medibuntu/ deb http://192.168.10.50/apt-mirror/packages.medibuntu.org/ precise free non-free #Medibuntu - Ubuntu 11.10 "precise ocelot" # deb-src http://packages.medibuntu.org/ precise free non-free #Medibuntu (source) - Ubuntu 11.10 "precise ocelot" deb http://192.168.10.50/apt-mirror/archive.canonical.com/ubuntu precise partner #Added by software-center
Here, 192.168.10.50 is the IP of the server where we have created
the mirror.
3 Keeping the APT mirror synchronized
To synchronize our local repository with the central one, we can
just run apt-mirror at any time. However I usually prefer to
automate things, so I have created the script /etc/cron.daily/aptmirror:
#!/bin/sh rm /data/apt-mirror/var/apt-mirror.lock /usr/bin/apt-mirror /data/apt-mirror/var/clean.sh
This will run automatically each day (during the night). Make sure
that it is executable: chmod +x /etc/cron.daily/aptmirror .
4 Doing release upgrade from our local ubuntu repository
Once in a while (once in 6 months or so), Ubuntu makes new releases. It would be usefull if we can upgrade from our local APT mirror. However this needs some further steps to be taken.
- First of all, get a local copy of dist-upgrader files:
cd /data/apt-mirror/mirror mkdir dist_upgrade cd dist_upgrade export dist_upgrader_url='http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/precise/main/dist-upgrader-all/current' wget $dist_upgrader_url/precise.tar.gz wget $dist_upgrader_url/precise.tar.gz.gpg wget $dist_upgrader_url/ReleaseAnnouncement wget $dist_upgrader_url/ReleaseAnnouncement.html
- Get a local copy of the files meta-release and
meta-release-lts as well:
cd /data/apt-mirror/mirror/dist_upgrade/ wget http://changelogs.ubuntu.com/meta-release wget http://changelogs.ubuntu.com/meta-release-lts
- Modify the URL-s in the file meta-release to look like this:
Dist: oneiric Name: Oneiric Ocelot Version: 11.10 Date: Thu, 13 Oct 2011 12:00:00 UTC Supported: 1 Description: This is the 11.10 release Release-File: http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/oneiric/Release ReleaseNotes: http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/oneiric-updates/main/dist-upgrader-all/current/ReleaseAnnouncement ReleaseNotesHtml: http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/oneiric-updates/main/dist-upgrader-all/current/ReleaseAnnouncement.html UpgradeTool: http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/oneiric-updates/main/dist-upgrader-all/current/oneiric.tar.gz UpgradeToolSignature: http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/oneiric-updates/main/dist-upgrader-all/current/oneiric.tar.gz.gpg Dist: precise Name: Precise Pangolin Version: 12.04 LTS Date: Thu, 26 Apr 2012 12:04:00 UTC Supported: 1 Description: This is the 12.04 LTS release Release-File: http://192.168.10.50/apt-mirror/archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/precise/Release ReleaseNotes: http://192.168.10.50/apt-mirror/dist_upgrade/ReleaseAnnouncement ReleaseNotesHtml: http://192.168.10.50/apt-mirror/dist_upgrade/ReleaseAnnouncement.html UpgradeTool: http://192.168.10.50/apt-mirror/dist_upgrade/precise.tar.gz UpgradeToolSignature: http://192.168.10.50/apt-mirror/dist_upgrade/precise.tar.gz.gpg
Do the same for the file meta-release-lts.
- On each system that is to be upgraded install update-manager-core:
aptitude install update-manager-core
- On each system that is to be upgraded modify the URL-s in the
file
/etc/update-manager/meta-releaseto look like this:# default location for the meta-release file [METARELEASE] URI = http://192.168.10.50/apt-mirror/dist_upgrade/meta-release URI_LTS = http://192.168.10.50/apt-mirror/dist_upgrade/meta-release-lts URI_UNSTABLE_POSTFIX = -development URI_PROPOSED_POSTFIX = -proposed
- Run
do-release-upgradeon the systems that should be upgraded. Now everything should be retrieved from the local mirror, without going out to the Internet. - Note: Make sure to comment out all lines starting with deb-src
on
/etc/apt/sources.listbefore starting the upgrade, since we have not retrieved the source packages in our local mirror.