How do I set up a local FTP installation site?

V

Vertygo

Here at work we do many installations of FreeBSD and I want to make it faster and less painful. So here's what I want:

A server that can be used to install FreeBSD 5.5r, 7.0r (i386 + amd64), and 8.1r (amd64) via ftp.

Here's what I have so far:

An ubuntu server with 150GB HDD space. I have configured vsftpd on it and can connect anonymously. I have already added 8.1r (amd64) images and made it look very similar to the ftp.freebsd.org site. However, it doesn't work with any new installs. It keeps telling me that 8.1 release could not be found.

This site mentions something about loopback mounting the disc iso's, but I honestly don't get what that means. I have worked with linux for awhile, but am far from being a linux guru.

I was wondering exactly what the installation cd looks for on an ftp server. Does it look for an ISO? A specific file or folder in the ftp root directory? Or can I just set up a folder like the one in "releases" that has everything on the ISO already extracted out. Any help would be appreciated.
 
I never setup a mirror, but here's how you mount an ISO image:

# mdconfig -a -t vnode -f $path_to_ISO
Now you have a new md(4) device, probably /dev/md0.
Mount this like a normal CD:
# mount -t cd9660 /dev/md0 $mountpoint
 
Hey, are you sure you want ftp server?
I personally dislike that dinosaur protocol because of firewalling issue.

What I would recommend is to use web server that will make autoindex (nginx, hiawatha, checrokee [don't like using it on FreeBSD, at list now], lighttpd and probably apache can do it {but I never used it})

Check my server:
http://files.bsdroot.lv/
 
lme@ said:
I never setup a mirror, but here's how you mount an ISO image:

# mdconfig -a -t vnode -f $path_to_ISO
Now you have a new md(4) device, probably /dev/md0.
Mount this like a normal CD:
# mount -t cd9660 /dev/md0 $mountpoint
Click to expand...

Thanks for the help. I got it to work. I mounted the ISO of each OS then copied the x.x-RELEASE folder to my ftp root directory. Since there is no difference in names between amd64 and i386 I had to make separate folders for each. But other than that it's working like a charm.

So when doing an install I use ftp://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx/i386/ or /amd64/ and it starts right up.

My next goal is to put all the FreeBSD boot discs I need on a single CD or USB memory stick (they run about 50MB each) and then select the OS I need for that particular install from a list after boot. However, that's easier said than done. I have an idea of how I am going to do it, but any suggestions would help.

Oh, and is your icon from Monkey Island? hah. I haven't played that in years.
 
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