BSD and Linux ISO Distribution
Skip
the wait: Get BSD and Linux ISOs
in 5-10mins
Available
for Linux, Windows, MacOSX
and now Java
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Do you need a BSD or Linux ISO image, but you do
not want to wait for an hour to get it using HTTP
or FTP? If so, Logistical Networking may help. Like mirroring, we store
multiple copies of each of these ISO images in several
places in the US. Each copy is striped over multiple servers. For each
ISO, we have an exNode
that contains the locations of all the pieces. Unlike HTTP or FTP
mirroring where
the user must choose a mirror, our download clients automatically try
to retrieve pieces of the file from all available servers. In
doing so, they automatically load-balance over all the servers to
achieve the highest throughput available. Using exNode-based
Logistical Networking tools, you can cut the download time down to 5-10
minutes if you are connected to a research network such
Internet2 and ESnet.
Currently, we have two exNode-compatible download clients. The Logistical
Distribution Network (LoDN) client is a Java Web Start
application. In
combination with the LoDN environment, the LoDN client
provides an integrated content distribution service. The LoDN Java
clients are still in beta and may take a minute or two to get
started. The other client tools are the LoRS tools. These are C based
command line tools
and libraries. We also provide a Tcl/Tk GUI for easier use. The LoRS
tools may be more reliable when downloading files.
For either set of tools, you will want to use a
blocksize of 512 KB or 1 MB and you will need to adjust the number of
threads
accoring to your Internet connection:
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Connection
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Threads
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Dial-Up/ISDN
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1
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Cable/SL/T1
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3
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less than 100 Mbps
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6
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100+ Mbps
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10-20
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To the right is the list of available ISOs. You can get the ISO using
the LoDN client by clicking on the ISO link. If you
would prefer to
download the exNode (.xnd) file so that you can use your LoRS tools,
then click on (xnd) next to the ISO link.
Contact:
LoCI interest
mailing list or send us an email at 
- for
usage of and problems related to the tools
Feedback - tell the shops what you think about Logistical Networking:
Mandrake
Red
Hat
Slackware
Debian
FreeBSD
Yellow
Dog
Fedora
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FreeBSD
5.3-RELEASE-i386-bootonly.iso
(xnd)
5.3-RELEASE-i386-disc1.iso
(xnd)
5.3-RELEASE-i386-disc2.iso
(xnd)
Debian
debian-update-3.0r1-i386.iso
(xnd)
sarge-i386-1.iso
(xnd)
sarge-i386-2.iso
(xnd)
sarge-i386-3.iso
(xnd)
Gentoo LiveCD
install-x86-minimal-2004.3.iso
(xnd)
install-x86-universal-2004.3.iso
(xnd)
Mandrake
Mandrakelinux-10.1-Community-Download-CD1.i586.iso
(xnd)
Mandrakelinux-10.1-Community-Download-CD2.i586.iso
(xnd)
Mandrakelinux-10.1-Community-Download-CD3.i586.iso
(xnd)
Redhat
Available soon!
Slackware
slackware-9.1-install-d1.iso
(xnd)
Yellowdog
Available soon!
Fedora
FC2-i386-rescuecd.iso
(xnd)
Knoppix
KNOPPIX_V3.6-2004-08-16-EN.iso
(xnd)
Morphix
MorphixCombined-LightGUI-0.4-1.iso
(xnd)
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The LoRS tools give ANYONE (Internet2
connected or
not) read/write access to the unused storage space on the L-Bone (Go
to the L-Bone listing to check available locations and
storage). The L-Bone (more)
is a collection of IBP (more)
depots spread across the globe. The distribution of Linux using this
infrastructure is to us an experiment, and to you, the chance to get
your ISO in about 5-10 minutes. Our intention is to upload multiple
copies of the ISOs into the L-Bone using the lors_upload tool. These
copies will be geographically dispersed and broken in to smaller
pieces. Once the copies are uploaded, the tool generates the exNode (more)
pseudo-file. These exNodes will be available from this page for
download with names like [distribution_name].iso.xnd. Once you have the
tools installed, run lors_download using the exNode as an argument.
Click here to see what an exNode looks like.
After installing these tools, you can upload your own files to
the L-Bone and then send the exNode to others who would be interested
in having a copy of the file. During the upload process you can
determine how long your uploads reside in the L-Bone and even which
depots to use based on locality/proximity (like ZIP codes). Click here
for the L-Bone
location API. The depots
themselves also determine how long an allocation is allowed to exist.
After the allocation time (user or depot determined) expires, the data
is erased from the L-Bone.
Many people, including researchers in physics and
bio-informatics, are already putting this storage space to good use by
making large datasets easily available for their research communities.
Others are using it to provide streaming video and audio. What do you
plan to do with it? Tell us about it by joining the LoCI interest
mailing list or send us an email at
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Installation Instructions
The LoRS
Manual (v 0.82) includes detailed instructions for tool
installation and usage. Download
source package for unix systems and install the LoRS tools (anywhere)
with the following commands:
./configure --prefix=
make
make install
./lors_setup.sh
- Download the desired exNode and save locally
- Run the download tool using the exNode
Example: /install/path/bin/lors_download -f -C 10 -t 10 -b 512K
Distro-v#-CD1.iso.xnd
Download
Installer
for Windows (2000,XP)
Download
DMG for MacOSX
(requires the full install of Tcl/Tk
AquaBI)
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In Depth
In addition to the LoRS tools,
there are three other components to
this service, the L-Bone, IBP servers, and the exNode.
Internet Backplane Protocol
(IBP) : IBP is the key enabling technology for Logistical
Networking, providing a low level mechanism for managing remote storage
as a network resource. Modeled on IP datagram service, it is designed
to make it possible to infuse the network with storage resources that
can be shared, scaled up, and exposed for external scheduling just as
IP datagram service is. In order to maximize scalable sharability, it
provides a primitive abstraction of network storage that implements
only the most common functions necessary to make a storage resource
usable, while keeping its semantics as weak as possible. IBP
allocations are lightweight, and their normal mode is time limited so
that policies set on the "depots" can enforce predictable time
multiplexing of the resource (disk, RAM, etc.) to increase its
sharability.
Logistical
Backbone (L-Bone) : The L-Bone is an experimental deployment
of IBP depots (currently 30+ TB) in the wide area network that provides
a
distributed runtime service allowing clients to perform IBP depot
discovery. IBP depots register themselves with the L-Bone, and clients
may then query the L-Bone for depots that have various characteristics,
including minimum storage capacity and duration requirements, and basic
proximity requirements. Once the client has a list of IBP depots, it
may then request that the L-Bone use the Network Weather Service (NWS)
to order those depots according to bandwidth predictions using live
networking data.
exNode :
Logistical Networking is built on "end-to-end" design principles, which
means that storage services with strong properties reliability, fast
access, unbounded allocation, unbounded duration, etc.must be created
in higher layers that aggregate more primitive IBP byte-arrays beneath
them. To apply the principle of aggregation to exposed storage
services, however, it is necessary to maintain state that represents
such an aggregation of storage allocations , e.g. distribution or
replication across multiple depots. Following the example of the Unix
inode, a single, generalized data structure called an external node, or
exNode, has been implemented to aggregate byte arrays in IBP depots to
form a pseudo-file. To maximize application independence and
interoperability, exNodes encode their resource information (e.g. IBP
capabilities, URLs, etc.) and associated metadata in XML. This
information is gathered by the LoRS tools and written to the
pseudo-file, or exNode. This file contains all the information
necessary for accessing the user's data stored in the L-Bone.
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