«

I'm replacing an old server with a new one, and I need to support
various Perl scripts which use lots of CPAN modules. The new server
has LAN network access only; it does not have access to our corporate
proxy server, which is the only way I can get to the internet (the old
server has proxy access, but not the new one, for various reasons
related to the network architecture of our data center).

I need to install a boatload of modules on the new server - many of
which have many prerequisites (and the prerequisites have
prerequisites...). The CPAN module usually figures all of that out for
me, but now I'm faced with the prospect of trying to figure out what I
need, download each one individually (as tar.gz files), sFTP them to
the new server, and install them manually (in the correct order, of
course). Yuck!

I'm looking for suggestions as to how to make that process less
painful. I've even thought maybe I could (somehow) download all of
CPAN (using the old server) and rsync it out to the new server (I've
got loads of disk space) and make the new server a "mirror" so I can
use the CPAN module and tell the machine to install modules from
itself... I don't know if that really makes sense, though (it's an idea
born of complete desperation).

If you had to install a hundred hairy & scary modules on a server
without internet access, how would you do it???

--
http://DavidFilmer.com

wrote:
> I'm replacing an old server with a new one, and I need to support
> various Perl scripts which use lots of CPAN modules. The new server
> has LAN network access only; it does not have access to our corporate
> proxy server, which is the only way I can get to the internet (the old
> server has proxy access, but not the new one, for various reasons
> related to the network architecture of our data center).
>
> I need to install a boatload of modules on the new server - many of
> which have many prerequisites (and the prerequisites have
> prerequisites...). The CPAN module usually figures all of that out for
> me, but now I'm faced with the prospect of trying to figure out what I
> need, download each one individually (as tar.gz files), sFTP them to
> the new server, and install them manually (in the correct order, of
> course). Yuck!
>
> I'm looking for suggestions as to how to make that process less
> painful. I've even thought maybe I could (somehow) download all of
> CPAN (using the old server) and rsync it out to the new server (I've
> got loads of disk space) and make the new server a "mirror" so I can
> use the CPAN module and tell the machine to install modules from
> itself... I don't know if that really makes sense, though (it's an idea
> born of complete desperation).
>
> If you had to install a hundred hairy & scary modules on a server
> without internet access, how would you do it???

Check out CPAN::Mini : this will allow you to create a mirror of just
the most recent versions of each CPAN module (around 0.5GB when I ran it
earlier today. Configure the new server to use this mini-mirror as its
CPAN repository, making sure it avoids the proxy (no point in specifying
a proxy for a local resource).

Good luck (am also forced to fight with a proxy on a daily basis),

Mark

On 2006-01-19, <> wrote:
>
> I'm looking for suggestions as to how to make that process less
> painful. I've even thought maybe I could (somehow) download all of
> CPAN (using the old server) and rsync it out to the new server (I've
> got loads of disk space) and make the new server a "mirror" so I can
> use the CPAN module and tell the machine to install modules from
> itself... I don't know if that really makes sense, though (it's an idea
> born of complete desperation).

You may think it's desperate, but in fact it sounds perfectly
reasonable. You could probably even update your CPAN mirror
periodically by grabbing it on a machine with internet access and
transferring the mirror (CD/DVD/hard disks), if you needed to be
sure of having recent versions of your modules.

--keith

--
kkeller-
(try just my userid to email me)
AOLSFAQ=http://wombat.san-francisco.ca.us/cgi-bin/fom
see X- headers for PGP signature information

Mark Clements wrote:
> Check out CPAN::Mini : this will allow you to create a mirror of just
> the most recent versions of each CPAN module (around 0.5GB

dood, I owe you a beer!

Thanks!!! That's exactly what I need!

--
http://DavidFilmer.com