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 Remote Mirrors

Remote Mirrors

Overview

Directory mirroring in Dftpd allows downloads from specified directories to be automatically distributed among a group of mirror sites. The redirection of data connections is done using the same method as remote directory links (see Distributed Features). The remote sites specified as mirror sites must have pre-existing directories that exactly correspond to the directory being mirrored. When mirroring is enabled for a directory, uploads to that directory will not be allowed if the data connection is redirected to a remote mirror site. In other words, an upload to a mirrored directory will only succeed if the selected mirror happens to be the local site -- when files need to be uploaded to a mirrored directory either disable mirroring before uploading or upload the files to a non-mirrored directory and move/copy them on the server.

Default Mirrors

Starting with version 1.0.5, Dftpd uses default mirror sites as a failover for any unreachable mirror sites. In other words one of the mirror sites can be designated as the one to go to if a connection failure occurs while accessing any other mirror site in the same mirror entry. When a failure happens the client will be automatically redirected to the default mirror -- the client may only notice a slight delay while the original connection attempt is failing. There must always be one (and only one) default mirror site in a mirror entry. By default the first site that is added to a mirror entry will become the default. The default mirror site can be set at any time using the "SITE REMOTE DEFMIRROR" command.

Preparing Mirrors

The first step to creating a mirrored directory is to duplicate it on all the mirror FTP sites. The full (absolute) path, relative to the users' home directory, of the directory being mirrored must be identical on all the remote (mirror) FTP sites. For example, if the directory "/stuff/" on the local site is being mirrored, a directory with an absolute path "/stuff/" that contains the exact same contents of the local "/stuff/" directory should be created on all the FTP servers that will be used as mirrors. If different users have different home directories (start directories don't matter), special care must be taken when creating directory mirrors. For example, if a user called "cartman" has the home directory "/home/site/cartman/" and another user called "kyle" has the home directory "/home/site/" and the directory "/home/site/cartman/stuff/" is mirrored, the directory will not be properly mapped on remote sites. This is because when "kyle" accesses the directory the absolute path will be "/cartman/stuff/" and when "cartman" accesses the directory the absolute path will be "/stuff/".

Creating Mirrored Directories

There are two main steps necessary to create a mirrored directory. The first step is to create a mirror entry containing all the sites that will be used as mirrors. The second step is to associate the mirror entry with the directory to be mirrored.

To add mirror sites to a mirror entry the "SITE REMOTE ADDMIRROR" command is used. Each mirror site is specified by an alias, which is the directory path used as a remote link to a FTP site. (see Distributed Features). The ADDMIRROR command takes 3 parameters: MirrorID, weight, and alias. The MirrorID is an integer used as an identifier for the mirror entry. If you specify an existing MirrorID the mirror site will be added to the corresponding entry. If a non-existent MirrorID is used a new mirror entry will be created. Also, if 0 is used as the MirrorID, a new mirror entry will be created using the next available MirrorID. The weight parameter is an integer value used to assign a priority to the mirror site being added. Its value relative to other mirror sites within the same mirror entry (other mirror sites with the same MirrorID) determines how often the mirror site will be used. The formula that determines the percentage of accesses to a given mirror site is: (weight / (total weight)) * 100. For example, if mirror1 has a weight of 15 and mirror2 has a weight of 45 then mirror1 will be accessed (15 / (15 + 45)) * 100 = 25% of the time. The alias parameter specifies the path acting as a link to the remote site to be used as a mirror site. Aliases are added using the "SITE REMOTE ADDALIAS" command (see SITE commands). In the ADDMIRROR command the alias acts as an identifier for the FTP site to add as a mirror. Use the "SITE REMOTE MIRRORS" command to display the list of mirrors.

To associate a mirror entry with a directory to be mirrored the "SITE DIRMIRROR" command is used. This command takes 2 parameters: MirrorID and directory. The MirrorID parameter is the identifier for the mirror entry to use (as described above). The directory parameter is the path of the directory to associate with the MirrorID. If "SITE DIRMIRROR" is used without specifying a MirrorID the current MirrorID for the directory will be displayed (MirrorID = 0 -> none/default).

Example

Suppose there is a directory on the local FTP site with the path, as seen by a FTP client, "/stuff/games/". This path is to be mirrored on a FTP server running on 192.168.1.3 port 21. 60% of the downloads should be from the local site and 40% should be from the remote FTP server.

Step 1 - Duplicate the directory to be mirrored
The first step is exactly copy the "/stuff/games/" directory on the local site to the server running on 192.168.1.3:21. The path of the copied directory, as seen by a FTP client, must also be "/stuff/games/".

Step 2 - Create an alias for the remote site (if necessary)
To create an alias for the remote site run:
> SITE REMOTE ADDALIAS /remote_site_3 192.168.1.3 21 user pass /
This command links the local directory path "/remote_site_3" to the root directory on the remote FTP server running on 192.168.1.3 on port 21. The login to use for the connection is "user" and the password is "pass". Use SITE REMOTE ALIASES to display the list of aliases.

Step 3 - Create a mirror entry
To create a mirror entry containing the local site and the site running on 192.168.1.3:21 run:
> SITE REMOTE ADDMIRROR 1 60 LOCAL
> SITE REMOTE ADDMIRROR 1 40 /remote_site_3
This will create a mirror entry using MirrorID = 1 where the local site will be accessed 60% of the time and the remote mirror site will be accessed 40% of the time. Since the local site was added first it will be set as the default mirror site. The local site is generally a good choice as the default mirror site because it is guaranteed to be running --it is the site you are currently connected to. A simple scheme for picking weights for the mirrors sites is to make them all add up to 100. That way the value of the weight will be equal to the percent accesses for the mirror site. There is no limit on the number of mirror sites that can be added to a mirror entry. Use SITE REMOTE MIRRORS to display the current mirror entries.

Step 4 - Associate the mirror entry with the directory to be mirrored
To associate the mirror entry with the "/stuff/games/" directory run:
> SITE DIRMIRROR 1 /stuff/games
This will associate the mirror entry created above, with MirrorID = 1, with the "/stuff/games/" directory. Once this command is run, all downloads from the "/stuff/games/" directory will be distributed between the local site and the site aliased by "/remote_site_3", with 60% using the local site and 40% using the remote site. The same mirror entry can be associated with multiple directories. Use the SITE DIRMIRROR <directory> command (leave out the MirrorID) to display the MirrorID associated with a directory (0 = None/Default).