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#1 2019-07-09 16:55:11

dcbdbis
Member
From: Aurora, Colorado
Registered: 2004-09-10
Posts: 247

[SOLVED] Unusual Offline repo mirror

Good Morning All,


I have been awarded a contract for some highly secure software. The requirements for this project are a blend of MILSPEC-498, and various HIPAA requirements. The project requires two separate workstations. The main development workstation  will be deployed in an air-gap model, and a separate second machine will have an offline arch repo mirror on it. The customer hasn't specified Arch - I am specifying Arch. It's my daily driver. I have no clue what their target distro is and don;t care. The app will be statically linked with all it needs to be standalone.

This second machine that has been provided to me - is to be the arch mirror, which once rsync has done it's job - can be taken offline, scanned per the customer's requirements, then reconnected via a private physical network to the air-gapped workstation and then act as a Arch Mirror for pacman. It's "sneakernet" I know....In this manner the air-gapped workstation never sees the router, never sees the gateway, nor the internet at all. There is a whole list of requirements that I have to meet that I'll not bore the group with here. I can handle it all - except establishing an offline arch mirror for internal. In this case - I don't know where to begin - or which server Arch would prefer that I use, or a recommended mirror for that matter. (Denver, USA is my location)

OR - would it be best to put the entire mirror on a portable HDD, scan it per the customer's requirements - then "sneakernet" it over to and plug it into the air-gap workstation for pacman to use as it's offline mirror. I have been provided with three 1TB drives and a SATA cradle for E-SATA connectivity.

I didn't see anything like this in the wiki.... Hopefull I didn't miss something obvious.

How do I take this dedicated machine and put an arch repo mirror on it? One that will only be operated in-house? I'll be using rsync to minimize bandwidth and keep the mirror up to date weekly once the initial mirror has been created - but I do not know if Arch has a dedicated repo for just such private, offline usage or not.

Am I overthinking it? Is it just as simple as choosing a mirror, pointing rsync at the mirror and this dedicated machine and letting rsync do it's thing? Followed by some tweaks to the mirrorlist in /etc/pacman.d? This assumes an FTP server on this to be offline arch repo machine.

What about the mirrorlist in /etc/pacman.d? What do I need to do to the air-gap workstation's config for it to use this internal, offline mirror I am about to create? I am sure there is some magic I have to work here to point it at the local machine once it's offline.... But again what I am trying to do is not in the wiki. It's simply not a normal setup. I'm concerned about the keys.....is why I am asking.


Pointers to articles, etc are solicited and requested.


Sincerely and respectfully,

dcb

Last edited by dcbdbis (2019-07-10 00:15:25)

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#2 2019-07-09 22:05:40

fukawi2
Ex-Administratorino
From: .vic.au
Registered: 2007-09-28
Posts: 6,217
Website

Re: [SOLVED] Unusual Offline repo mirror

dcbdbis wrote:

Am I overthinking it? Is it just as simple as choosing a mirror, pointing rsync at the mirror and this dedicated machine and letting rsync do it's thing? Followed by some tweaks to the mirrorlist in /etc/pacman.d?

Yes. Just rsync from whatever mirror has an acceptable performance (speed, update delta etc) to you.

dcbdbis wrote:

What about the mirrorlist in /etc/pacman.d?

In your /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist

Server = file:///media/usb/arch-rsync-copy/$repo/os/$arch
dcbdbis wrote:

Pointers to articles, etc are solicited and requested.

man pacman.conf

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#3 2019-07-09 22:35:31

progandy
Member
Registered: 2012-05-17
Posts: 5,184

Re: [SOLVED] Unusual Offline repo mirror


| alias CUTF='LANG=en_XX.UTF-8@POSIX ' |

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#4 2019-07-10 00:16:25

dcbdbis
Member
From: Aurora, Colorado
Registered: 2004-09-10
Posts: 247

Re: [SOLVED] Unusual Offline repo mirror

Thank you - both of you for the reply.

Exactly what I was looking for.

Thank you again!


dcb

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