This is an important issue. So this section will
spend some effort to explain the backgrounds. We will say this
several times: under no circumstances should you mirror from
ftp.FreeBSD.org.
Mirrors are organized by country. All
official mirrors have a DNS entry of the form
ftpN.CC.FreeBSD.org.
CC (i.e. country code) is the
top level domain (TLD)
of the country where this mirror is located.
N is a number,
telling that the host would be the Nth
mirror in that country.
(Same applies to
wwwN.CC.FreeBSD.org, etc.)
There are mirrors with no CC part.
These are the mirror sites that are very well connected and
allow a large number of concurrent users.
ftp.FreeBSD.org is actually two machines, one currently
located in Denmark and the other in the United States.
It is NOT a master site and should never be
used to mirror from. Lots of online documentation leads
“interactive”users to
ftp.FreeBSD.org so automated mirroring
systems should find a different machine to mirror from.
Additionally there exists a hierarchy of mirrors, which is described in terms of tiers. The master sites are not referred to but can be described as Tier-0. Mirrors that mirror from these sites can be considered Tier-1, mirrors of Tier-1-mirrors, are Tier-2, etc. Official sites are encouraged to be of a low tier, but the lower the tier the higher the requirements in terms as described in Section 2, “Requirements for FreeBSD mirrors”. Also access to low-tier-mirrors may be restricted, and access to master sites is definitely restricted. The tier-hierarchy is not reflected by DNS and generally not documented anywhere except for the master sites. However, official mirrors with low numbers like 1-4, are usually Tier-1 (this is just a rough hint, and there is no rule).
Under no circumstances should you mirror from ftp.FreeBSD.org.
The short answer is: from the
site that is closest to you in Internet terms, or gives you
the fastest access.
If you have no special intentions or requirements, the statement in Section 4.2, “Ok, but where should I get the stuff now?” applies. This means:
Check for those which provide fastest access (number of hops, round-trip-times) and offer the services you intend to use (like rsync).
Contact the administrators of your chosen site stating your request, and asking about their terms and policies.
Set up your mirror as described above.
In general the description in Section 4.2.1, “I just want to mirror from somewhere!” still applies. Of course you may want to put some weight on the fact that your upstream should be of a low tier. There are some other considerations about official mirrors that are described in Section 5, “Official Mirrors”.
If you have good reasons and good prerequisites,
you may want and get access to one of the
master sites. Access to these sites is
generally restricted, and there are special policies
for access. If you are already an official
mirror, this certainly helps you getting access.
In any other case make sure your country really needs another mirror.
If it already has three or more, ask the “zone administrator” (<[email protected]>) or FreeBSD mirror sites mailing lists first.
Whoever helped you become, an official
should have helped you gain access to an appropriate upstream
host, either one of the master sites or a suitable Tier-1
site. If not, you can send email to
<[email protected]> to request help with
that.
There is one master site for the FTP fileset.
This is the master site for the FTP fileset.
ftp-master.FreeBSD.org provides
rsync
access, in addition to FTP.
Refer to Section 3.1, “Mirroring the FTP site”.
Mirrors are also encouraged to allow rsync access for the FTP contents, since they are Tier-1-mirrors.
All FreeBSD documents are available for download at http://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/doc/
Questions that are not answered by the
documentation may be
sent to <[email protected]>.
Send questions about this document to <[email protected]>.