Setup Local Repository In Ubuntu 15.04
Why Local repository is important?
As a System administrator, you have to
install software, security updates and fixes often in all systems. Obviously,
it will consume more Internet bandwidth. So instead of downloading and
installing applications every time in all systems from the Ubuntu repositories,
it is good idea to save all applications in a local server in your LAN and distribute
them to the other Ubuntu systems when required. Having a local repository is
really fast and efficient way, because all required applications will be
transferred over the fast LAN connection from your local server. So that it
will save the Internet bandwidth and ultimately it reduces the annual cost of
Internet.
In this tutorial, I will show you how
to setup local repository in Ubuntu 15.04 server in two methods.
APT-Mirror ;
APT-Cacher.
Both methods are very easy to set up
and configure.
All you need is sufficient hard drive
space. At least 50GB or more free space in your local or external hard drive is
recommended. Also, you can use an external hard drive to setup a portable
repository. So, you can use the portable repository on multiple locations in
your LAN.
Method 1: APT-Mirror
In this method, we are going to pull
all packages from the public repository (Ubuntu global server) and save them in
our local Ubuntu server hard drive.
First install Apache server. Apache
web server is important to share the packages over the network.
sudo apt-get install apache2
Now, install APT-Mirror using command:
sudo apt-get install apt-mirror
Now, create a directory to save all
packages.
For example, let us create a directory
called “/myrepo”. We are going to save all packages in this directory:
sudo mkdir /myrepo
Now, open the file
/etc/apt/mirror.list file,
sudo vi /etc/apt/mirror.list
Add the line: set base_path /myrepo
############# config
##################
#
# set base_path /var/spool/apt-mirror
set base_path /myrepo
#
# set mirror_path $base_path/mirror
# set skel_path $base_path/skel
# set var_path $base_path/var
# set cleanscript $var_path/clean.sh
# set defaultarch <running host
architecture>
# set postmirror_script
$var_path/postmirror.sh
# set run_postmirror 0
set nthreads 20
set _tilde 0
#
############# end config
##############
deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu
trusty main restricted universe multiverse
deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu
trusty-security main restricted universe multiverse
deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu
trusty-updates main restricted universe multiverse
#deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu
trusty-proposed main restricted universe multiverse
#deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu
trusty-backports main restricted universe multiverse
deb-src
http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu trusty main restricted universe multiverse
deb-src
http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu trusty-security main restricted universe
multiverse
deb-src
http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu trusty-updates main restricted universe
multiverse
#deb-src
http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu trusty-proposed main restricted universe
multiverse
#deb-src
http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu trusty-backports main restricted universe
multiverse
clean http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu
In the above configuration file, you
can add the Ubuntu source lists depending upon the distribution you use.
For this tutorial, I use the default
source list. Change them as per your requirements.
If you use both 32bit and 64bit
architectures, you should name them separately in the above file. For example,
if you use 32bit architecture, the lines should start with deb-i386 and for
64bit, the lines should start as deb-amd64. Clear? Well, once you saved the
configuration file, populate your repository using the following command:
sudo apt-mirror
Sample output:
Downloading 162 index files using 20
threads...
Begin time: Wed Aug 5 16:09:16 2015
[20]... [19]... [18]... [17]...
[16]... [15]... [14]... [13]... [12]... [11]... [10]... [9]... [8]... [7]...
[6]... [5]... [4]...
Now the packages from the Ubuntu
public repositories are being pulled and saved to your local directory (In our
case it’s /myrepo). Depending upon your Internet speed, it will take hours.
You can cancel this process at any
time. When you start it again, it will resume the downloading process where you
left it off. I strongly advise you to
use a fast broadband Internet connection.
You don’t have to run this command
every day to get new softwares/updates. You can schedule this process using a
cron job. So your machine will automatically run the apt-mirror command on a
regular daily basis and will keep your repository up-to-date.
To do that, edit file
/etc/cron.d/apt-mirror,
sudo vi /etc/cron.d/apt-mirror
Uncomment the line shown in bold:
#
# Regular cron jobs for the apt-mirror
package
#
0 4 * * * apt-mirror
/usr/bin/apt-mirror > /var/spool/apt-mirror/var/cron.log
As per the above example, the cron job
will run every day morning 4am and will start to download the packages.
As I mentioned above, all downloaded
packages are saved in “/myrepo” directory on our local server.
Let us have a look under the /myrepo
directory to make sure the packages are downloaded as shown below:
ls /myrepo/
Sample output:
mirror
skel var
Now the contents of /myrepo directory
should be made available over HTTP (web) to our clients. To do that, simply
create a symbolic link to the /myrepo directory:
cd /myrepo/
sudo ln -s
/myrepo/mirror/us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ ubuntu
Please note: I made this article only
for the testing purpose. So I didn’t download the whole public repository. I
canceled the download process after a couple of minutes.
Client Configuration
It’s quite easy to configure in client
side. Just open your client systems /etc/apt/sources.list file,
sudo vi /etc/apt/sources.list
and add your local repository path:
[...]
deb http://192.168.1.102/ubuntu trusty
universe
deb http://192.168.1.102/ubuntu trusty
main restricted
deb http://192.168.1.102/ubuntu
trusty-updates main restricted
[...]
That’s it. Here 192.168.1.102 is my
Ubuntu server IP address.
Now, update the sources list using
command:
sudo apt-get update
Finally, install packages of your
choice using command:
sudo apt-get install
<package-name>
That’s it. The clients need not to be
connected to the Internet to download packages. Instead, it will get all
packages and updates from your Ubuntu server’s local repository.
Method 2: APT-Cacher
APT-Cacher is different from
APT-Mirror. It does not mirror the entire repository contents. Instead, It
saves the packages requested by the clients on your local network and make them
available to the rest of the clients for future use.
First install Apache server. This is
required to share the packages to your Ubuntu clients over the network:
sudo apt-get install apache2
Now install APT-Cacher.
sudo apt-get install apt-cacher
Choose daemon to run as a standalone
daemon and click OK.
sk@server: -myrepo_001
Now, Edit file
/etc/default/apt-cacher,
sudo vi /etc/default/apt-cacher
and set autostart=1 if it is 0, else
leave as it is.
# apt-cacher daemon startup
configuration file
# Set to 1 to run apt-cacher as a
standalone daemon, set to 0 if you are going
# to run apt-cacher from /etc/inetd or
in CGI mode (deprecated). Alternatively,
# invoking "dpkg-reconfigure
apt-cacher" should do the work for you.
#
AUTOSTART=1
# extra settings to override the ones
in apt-cacher.conf
# EXTRAOPT=" daemon_port=3142
limit=30 "
You can also allow or deny the no of
hosts to access the cache (packages).
To do that, open the
/etc/apt-cacher/apt-cacher.conf file.
sudo vi
/etc/apt-cacher/apt-cacher.conf
Uncomment and update the value for
allowed_hosts to match the individual hosts. Here I allowed systems from
192.168.1.20 to 192.168.1.30.
[...]
## Uncomment and set the IP range ##
allowed_hosts = 192.168.1.20 -
192.168.1.30
#denied_hosts =
[...]
After completing all the steps,
restart apache2 service:
sudo systemctl restart apache2
Or,
sudo service apache2 restart
Client Side Configuration
Now, create a file called
/etc/apt/apt.conf.d/01proxy:
sudo nano /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/01proxy
Add the following line:
Acquire::http::Proxy
"http://192.168.1.102:3142";
Here, 192.168.1.102 is my Ubuntu local
repository server’s IP address. Replace the IP address with your server IP
address.
Now, update the sources list using
command:
sudo apt-get update
Finally, install packages of your
choice using command:
sudo apt-get install
<package-name>
That’s it.
Conclusion
Due to lack of resources, time and
Internet bandwidth, I didn’t completely test both methods. As far as I know,
both methods should work fine and they are highly recommended to save your
Internet bandwidth. Although, both methods are pretty easy to configure and
maintain. You don’t need to be a master In Linux to setup local repository.
Give it a try, you won’t be disappointed.
Good luck!
