P2P agents for software distribution - saving the WAN from meltdown?!?

Tue Jun 17 18:19:19 UTC 2008

Netfortius wrote:
> Has anybody used (and been successful at) a bit-torrent-like agent for fast 
> distribution of LEGAL software (install programs of large-DVD size), across 
> multiple sites, all over the globe, with bad WAN connectivity? I have read a 
> couple of references online (e.g. 
> http://torrentfreak.com/university-uses-utorrent-080306/) about such, but I 
> am a little reluctant to do it in a corporate environment, especially in the 
> light of potential misuse of such ... unless finding a way to install, use 
> and remove the P2P agent, all in one shot ... catch 22, sort of (distributing 
> the P2P agent, that is :)) ...

well if the connectivity universally sucks no amount of p2p is going to 
help... We have some experience with large file distribution in this 
fashion because of the fedora core DVD iso's and we can say generally at 
this point that the mirror infrastructure serves more iso's on release 
day than the torrents do...

that said the p2p client does rule out needing to select a mirror that 
has free slots during a flash crowd.

> Stefan
> 
> P.S. If inappropriate for this mailing list, I apologize - but the "long fat 
> pipe" thread gave me the idea to ask here, vs. sysadmin-like lists, as the 
> potential for network impact is my primary concern.
> 