Introduction

When you are running a few Ubuntu servers you may want to think about setting up an APT caching server.  Installs and upgrades will go quicker.  You might save some bandwidth on your internet connection

Setting Up The Base Server (Optional

For a dedicated server start with the base server setup:

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NOTE: You can choose an existing server to use.  I chose to have a dedicated server.

Install Software

Install apt-cacher-ng
> sudo apt install apt-cacher-ng

Configure and Test the server

Apt-cacher-ng has a web interface.  To test it visit http://<your-ip-address>:3142/acng-report.html

Create /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/00aptproxy with the following
> sudo nano -w /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/00aptproxy

Acquire::http::Proxy "http://<your-ip-address>:3142";

Do a software update to test it out.
> sudo apt update
> sudo apt dist-upgrade

Now reload the server web page.  It should now show that some items have been downloaded.

Configuring Clients

On each client create /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/00aptproxy with the following
> sudo nano -w /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/00aptproxy

Acquire::http::Proxy "http://<your-ip-address>:3142";

Do a software update to test it out.
> sudo apt update
> sudo apt dist-upgrade

Conclusion

Its a nice and easy setup.  The cache will work for several distros.