Running a private Ubuntu Mirror

It is possible to set up a local server to keep a synchronized

copy of all the Ubuntu packages, allowing later installs of

packages for any local machine even in the absence of an internet

connection.

To do this a script called

apt-mirror can be run on the server.

crontab

0 1 * * * /usr/local/bin/apt-mirror

The location of the mirror is specified in

apt-mirror.conf

/etc/apt/apt-mirror.conf

set mirror_path /disk/ftp/Mirror

set cleanup_freq daily

set mirror_verbose yes

The origin servers are specified in

mirror.list

. It is possible to choose which architectures and Ubuntu releases

to fetch as well as whether to fetch just the binary packages or

also the sources.

/etc/apt/mirror.list

​

deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu noble main restricted universe multiverse

deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu noble-security main restricted universe multiverse

deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu noble-updates main restricted universe multiverse

deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu noble-backports main restricted universe multiverse

​

deb-i386 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu noble main restricted universe multiverse

deb-i386 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu noble-security main restricted universe multiverse

deb-i386 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu noble-updates main restricted universe multiverse

deb-i386 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu noble-backports main restricted universe multiverse

​

#deb-src http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu noble main restricted universe multiverse

#deb-src http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu noble-security main restricted universe multiverse

#deb-src http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu noble-updates main restricted universe multiverse

#deb-src http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu noble-backports main restricted universe multiverse

​

clean http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu

The mirrored packages could be served up to local machines in a

number of ways, I am using

vsftpd to serve the files via FTP.

/etc/vsftp.conf

anonymous_enable=YES

anon_upload_enable=YES

anon_mkdir_write_enable=YES

dirmessage_enable=YES

xferlog_enable=YES

connect_from_port_20=YES

listen=YES

pam_service_name=vsftpd

seccomp_sandbox=NO

isolate_network=NO

anon_root=/disk/ftp/

no_anon_password=YES

hide_ids=YES

pasv_min_port=40000

pasv_max_port=50000

write_enable=YES

On local machines, the mirror on the server can then be specified

as the source for

apt to use to retrieve packages.

/etc/apt/sources.list.d/ubuntu.sources

​

Types: deb

URIs: ftp://server/Mirror/mirror/archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu

Suites: noble noble-updates noble-backports

Components: main universe restricted multiverse

Signed-By: /usr/share/keyrings/ubuntu-archive-keyring.gpg

​

## Ubuntu security updates. Aside from URIs and Suites,

## this should mirror your choices in the previous section.

Types: deb

URIs: ftp://server/Mirror/mirror/security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu

Suites: noble-security

Components: main universe restricted multiverse

Signed-By: /usr/share/keyrings/ubuntu-archive-keyring.gpg