Re: Question about yum: 5 (different) machines, 1 (slow) dialup connection

Robert Heller wrote:
I have 5 machines, all with a (more or less) stock CentOS 4.3 install
(from the CentOS 4.3 CDs I bought from cheapbytes). Each machine has a
somewhat 'unique' set of packages installed (for various reasons
ranging from processor class/count to various usage and hardware
differences). I'd like to get them up-to-date, but don't really want to
download 245 (or so) RPM files up to 5 times (some of those RPMs are
pretty good sized). (Plus the 45meg Kernel SRPM, since three of the
machines need a custom-built kernel.)

Instead, I'd like a list of URLs for the RPMs and take this list (a
'shopping list' if you will) and download these RPMs someplace where
there is a fast internet connection onto some sort of removable media
(USB thumb drive(s), Zip carts, etc.) or onto my Laptop's hard drive or
something.

I have a list of package names (generated with 'yum check-update' on
one of the machines [I'll probably run 'yum check-update' on each
machine and create a 'union' of the results]), but not the URLs of the
files to download.

Is this possible? If so how?

Assuming that you run the same version of CentOS on each machine, it certainly is; just instruct yum to only fetch the packages on a machine with a fast Internet connection, and dump them in an NFS-shared directory on your LAN.
Re-direct all machines' package repositories to that NFS share (i.e. mount them on it) and voila - one repository for all your machines.

You can even go one step further: NFS-share *all* of your repositories on the LAN, and any machine can both download and use any of the packages in it.
As long as you don't try to download the same package on more than one machine simultaneously, there are no locking issues.
The easiest way to set this up is to have each machine run its updates a few hours apart - they will all download their unique packages themselves, and re-use anything that has already been downloaded before.

Upgrade heaven :)

J.
.

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