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

[Chris (Ducky) Chapin]

On Tue, 23 Sep 2003, Systems Administrator wrote:

> On Mon, 22 Sep 2003, Chris (Ducky) Chapin wrote:
> 
> > 
> > 
> > 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.
> 
> http://www.globecom.net/ietf/draft/draft-miller-mftp-spec-03.html

>From the looks of it, MTFP is sort of what I'm looking for... except the
handling of the 3000 some-odd files (which could be bundled into maybe a
few dozen archives). All hosts get one global set, but only need parts of
others.

Also, I'm looking to support hosts that come on and off the network
(laptops), which I don't think would be that big of a deal, honestly. But
the section about "NAK Implosions" raises an eyebrow since WAN links could
make a few hundred hosts spew NAK requests (We have an office in Israel
whose ISP is routinely DoS'd).

Something to look into in my Copious Amounts of Free Time(tm). =)

-Chris

--

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