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:
[insert page=’howto-ubuntu-20-04-lts-base-server-setup’ display=’excerpt’]
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.