Information about the mirrors mailing list

Responding to messages sent to the mirrors mailing list

Responding to messages sent to the mirrors mailing list

Who can reply to mail?

Mail to is handled by the same team appointed to handle mail to . The instructions for that list will generally apply here with some additional considerations listed below. Naturally you can substitute for in that document where appropriate.

Are there any other tasks for the on call person?

The on call person should be taking primary responsibility for updating the mirrors page and communicating with admins at our mirror sites about any problems, questions or concerns. The on call person should also be responsible for updating the mirroring FAQ.

What information do we request of those running mirrors?

If someone wants to mirror us, have them start by filling out the form at http://www.NetBSD.org/docs/mirror.html if they have not already done so.

While a "contactkeyid" field is listed there, new mirror submissions usually forget to include it. Please make sure to request a PGP key ID for each new mirror.

Things to check before adding a new www mirror

We prefer that our mirror sites run a separate virtual web server for a NetBSD.org mirror on a separate IP address, so that clients using HTTP/1.0 still get to the correct web site.

To check to see if a new www mirror is a HTTP/1.1 “host:” based virtual web server, try the following: 

      $ telnet netbsd.mirror.site 80
      GET / HTTP/1.0 <cr>
      <cr>

If you get what looks like NetBSD's index.html, things are ok. If not, try: 

      $ telnet netbsd.mirror.site 80
      GET / HTTP/1.1 <cr>
      Host: netbsd.mirror.site <cr>
      <cr>

If only the latter works, they're using HTTP 1.1 virtual hosting.

How do I add a mirror to our database / documentation?

Here's the details on updating mirrors.db and the relevant documentation.

  • Add the new contact information into localsrc/admin/mirrors/mirrors.db. The different entries in mirrors.db are sorted alphabetically by country.
  • make MIRRORS=<new-mirror-name> check to verify that the new mirror is up to date
  • make update-keys to update the mirror maintainers' keyring
  • If htdocs/mirrors/index.html is out-of-date, make update.
  • make to regen htdocs/mirrors/index.html
  • make commit to commit the mirror database, the maintainers' keyring and htdocs/mirrors/index.html
  • If it's a new www mirror, add it to the form at htdocs/index.html and all the translated index pages. Do not forget to mention it if the mirror supports IPv6 connectivity.

How do I add a CNAME alias for a mirror?

To add a CNAME alias, you'll want to update localsrc/netbsd1_etc/namedb/prim/NetBSD.org. Also, please remember to update the SOA serial when making changes to this file. Afterwards, you should send a message to noting you've done so, and requesting an update.

If you are not comfortable editing the zone file yourself, send a message to noting what CNAME alias you want set up, and requesting they update after they've handled that.

When the DNS zone has been updated and the new mirror is reachable through its CNAME alias the mirror's entry in localsrc/netbsd1_etc/namedb/prim/NetBSD.org and the HTML index pages should be updated with the new name as well.

How are mirrors verified to be up to date?

The script localsrc/admin/mirrors/checkmirrors.pl can be used to check all or a given set of mirrors for up-to-date-ness. It does that by fetching a handful of files from ftp.NetBSD.org and then fetching the same files from each mirror, comparing the checksums.

This script runs weekly on mollari (with the "-q" flag) and checks all mirrors in mirrors.db. Any output generated is sent to mirrors@NetBSD.org.

It is recommended that the on-call person verifies the status of this mirror, comments out the entry in the mirrors.db file and contacts the mirror maintainer.

If any mirrors are verified to be outdated, the on-call person should contact the mirrors' maintainers and kindly ask them to check into the updating mechanisms they have in place to ensure that they are syncing all data correctly. At the on-call person's discretion, any mirrors with outdated data may be commented out or completely removed from the mirror database.

It may be advisable to temporarily comment out any mirrors and include a date stamp in the commentary to check again at a later point in time and if the same problem continues to persist and no feedback from the mirror maintainer has been received, then the entry should be removed completely.

How can I reach all the mirror admins?

Use the mailing list mentioned in localsrc/admin/mirrors/README.

Anything else?

Take a look at localsrc/admin/mirrors/README for more details.