Re: Package management, multicast, and a Newbie question :)

[Chris (Ducky) Chapin]

On Mon, 22 Sep 2003, Systems Administrator wrote:

> > I'm interested in technologies like this because we've got more than 2200
> > centrally managed unix hosts that need access to roughly 100M of
> > configuration and binary data. They range from desktops to lab machines,
> > and with generic compute servers definately in the minority.
> 
>       Wouldn't this be better done as a multicast?  

Multicast takes care of getting packets to lots of hosts, mostly streaming
since it's UDP.  Unfortunately for multicast, it's absolutely required
that files used for configuration are guaranteed to get there, something
better for TCP unless you build a protocol on top of udp to add the
reliability. And then I don't think a multicast system would work too well
with hosts requesting resends. =)  Resends could be done out of band and
the multicast would just take care of the bulk of data, but this already
reaks of trying to shoehorn functionality into the wrong technology.

-Chris

--

 Christopher 'Ducky' Chapin                        ducky@qualcomm.com
 Unix Systems Administrator - Qualcomm, Inc.           (858) 651-5433
 IT Host Services - AE-209F