Ban a specific mirror in dnf

[Suvayu Ali]

Hi,

I would like to ban a particularly slow mirror[1].  It's the closest
mirror to my geographical location (one of only two mirrors in my
country, India).  Every time I see a bad download error message from
that mirror, everything subsequent to that speeds up and uses the full
capacity of my connection.  How can I achieve this?

Also, is there a way to report this?  Mirrormanager shouldn't even be
listing this mirror, it considerably degrades the user experience.

Thanks,

[1] Ironically it is hosted by the CS department at IIT Kanpur!

[Tony Nelson]

On 19-08-12 13:34:22, Suvayu Ali wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I would like to ban a particularly slow mirror[1].  It's the closest
> mirror to my geographical location (one of only two mirrors in my
> country, India).  Every time I see a bad download error message from
> that mirror, everything subsequent to that speeds up and uses the full
> capacity of my connection.  How can I achieve this?

...

Use the firewall and block that IP?

Edit the repo files to use a baseurl of your choice?  Start with the
example, and change it to your preferred mirror.  It can be a list of
urls separated by spaces or commas.

[Samuel Sieb]

On 8/12/19 10:34 AM, Suvayu Ali wrote:
> I would like to ban a particularly slow mirror[1].  It's the closest
> mirror to my geographical location (one of only two mirrors in my
> country, India).  Every time I see a bad download error message from
> that mirror, everything subsequent to that speeds up and uses the full
> capacity of my connection.  How can I achieve this?

You could add it to your /etc/hosts file like:
127.0.0.2   the.bad.domain

This will make the domain resolve to localhost which will either 
immediately fail if you aren't running a local web server or else it 
will get a 404 and try a different mirror.

[Tim]

On Mon, 2019-08-12 at 16:35 -0700, Samuel Sieb wrote:
> You could add it to your /etc/hosts file like:
> 127.0.0.2   the.bad.domain

This does seem like a roundabout solution to what has to be a common
problem (wanting to blackban specific repos).  For whatever reason
people have wanted to do that, it ought to be possible to directly do
it with the configuration for the software in question.

While some might argue it would best to have a bad repo removed from
the pool, it could be the case that the repo is fine, just that the
path between it and some users is a problem.

[Suvayu Ali]

Hi Tony

On Mon, Aug 12, 2019 at 11:07 PM Tony Nelson
 wrote:
> On 19-08-12 13:34:22, Suvayu Ali wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> > I would like to ban a particularly slow mirror[1].  It's the closest
> > mirror to my geographical location (one of only two mirrors in my
> > country, India).  Every time I see a bad download error message from
> > that mirror, everything subsequent to that speeds up and uses the full
> > capacity of my connection.  How can I achieve this?
>
> ...
>
> Use the firewall and block that IP?

I would like to avoid hard coded changes. What if tomorrow their IP
changes, given the nature of the problem, I would realise the issue
after trying to waste my time on "slow updates" all over again!
> Edit the repo files to use a baseurl of your choice?  Start with the
> example, and change it to your preferred mirror.  It can be a list of
> urls separated by spaces or commas.

This would work on my desktops, but not on my laptops.  I have several
machines to manage.  A uniform solution would be easier I think.

[Suvayu Ali]

Hi Samuel, and Tim,

On Tue, Aug 13, 2019 at 4:57 AM Tim via users
 wrote:
> On Mon, 2019-08-12 at 16:35 -0700, Samuel Sieb wrote:
> > You could add it to your /etc/hosts file like:
> > 127.0.0.2   the.bad.domain
>
> This does seem like a roundabout solution to what has to be a common
> problem (wanting to blackban specific repos).  For whatever reason
> people have wanted to do that, it ought to be possible to directly do
> it with the configuration for the software in question.
>
> While some might argue it would best to have a bad repo removed from
> the pool, it could be the case that the repo is fine, just that the
> path between it and some users is a problem.
>
> --
> [tim@localhost ~]$ uname -rsvp
> Linux 5.0.16-100.fc28.x86_64 #1 SMP Tue May 14 18:22:28 UTC 2019 x86_64
>
> Boilerplate:  All mail to my mailbox is automatically deleted.
> There is no point trying to privately email me, I only get to see
> the messages posted to the mailing list.
>
> Sorry, no viruses was included with this email, please read the rm
> and fdisc man files to learn how to seriously mangle your own system.

I have come across this workaround, but dislike it for exactly the
same reason as Tim.

Another "solution" floating around the web is use fastestmirror.
Those of us who have been a Fedora users know it all too well the
issues with fastestmirror.  That said, I believe it has a "exclude"
option, if I could use that, but not use fastestmirror, that could be
acceptable for the time being.  But I don't think that's possible.
Maybe I should just use Samuel's workaroound for now, and file an RFE
against dnf.