This is an important issue. So this section will spend some
effort to explain the backgrounds. We will say this several
times: under no circumstances should you mirror from ftp.FreeBSD.org.
Mirrors are organized by country. All official mirrors
have a DNS entry of the form ftpN.CC.FreeBSD.org.
CC (i.e., country code) is the
top level domain (TLD) of the country
where this mirror is located. N is a
number, telling that the host would be the
Nth mirror in that country. (Same
applies to wwwN.CC.FreeBSD.org, etc.)
There are mirrors with no CC part. These
are the mirror sites that are very well connected and allow a
large number of concurrent users. ftp.FreeBSD.org is
actually two machines, one currently located in Denmark and
the other in the United States. It is
NOT a master site and should never be
used to mirror from. Lots of online documentation leads
“interactive”users to ftp.FreeBSD.org so
automated mirroring systems should find a different machine to
mirror from.
Additionally there exists a hierarchy of mirrors, which is described in terms of tiers. The master sites are not referred to but can be described as Tier-0. Mirrors that mirror from these sites can be considered Tier-1, mirrors of Tier-1-mirrors, are Tier-2, etc. Official sites are encouraged to be of a low tier, but the lower the tier the higher the requirements in terms as described in Section 2, “Requirements for FreeBSD Mirrors”. Also access to low-tier-mirrors may be restricted, and access to master sites is definitely restricted. The tier-hierarchy is not reflected by DNS and generally not documented anywhere except for the master sites. However, official mirrors with low numbers like 1-4, are usually Tier-1 (this is just a rough hint, and there is no rule).
Under no circumstances should you mirror from ftp.FreeBSD.org. The
short answer is: from the site that is closest to you in
Internet terms, or gives you the fastest access.
If you have no special intentions or requirements, the statement in Section 4.2, “Ok, but Where Should I get the Stuff Now?” applies. This means:
Check for those which provide fastest access (number of hops, round-trip-times) and offer the services you intend to use (like rsync).
Contact the administrators of your chosen site stating your request, and asking about their terms and policies.
Set up your mirror as described above.
In general the description in Section 4.2.1, “I Just Want to Mirror from Somewhere!” still applies. Of course you may want to put some weight on the fact that your upstream should be of a low tier. There are some other considerations about official mirrors that are described in Section 5, “Official Mirrors”.
If you have good reasons and good prerequisites, you may
want and get access to one of the master sites. Access to
these sites is generally restricted, and there are special
policies for access. If you are already an
official mirror, this certainly helps
you getting access. In any other case make sure your
country really needs another mirror. If it already has
three or more, ask the “zone administrator”
(<hostmaster@CC.FreeBSD.org>) or FreeBSD mirror sites mailing lists
first.
Whoever helped you become, an
official should have helped you gain
access to an appropriate upstream host, either one of the
master sites or a suitable Tier-1 site. If not, you can
send email to <mirror-admin@FreeBSD.org> to
request help with that.
There is one master site for the FTP fileset.
This is the master site for the FTP fileset.
ftp-master.FreeBSD.org
provides rsync access, in
addition to FTP. Refer to Section 3.1, “Mirroring the FTP Site”.
Mirrors are also encouraged to allow rsync access for the FTP contents, since they are Tier-1-mirrors.
All FreeBSD documents are available for download at https://download.freebsd.org/ftp/doc/
Questions that are not answered by the
documentation may be
sent to <freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.org>.
Send questions about this document to <freebsd-doc@FreeBSD.org>.