Howto – Install Apt-Cacher-Server

Abstract:

Suppose that you are on a network, a lot of Linux machines are installed, each with their own distribution version and set of packages.  It happens frequently that  packages are needed on the network.   It’s a security risk to let old, unpatched operating systems connect to the internet.  Therefore we can set up an apt-cacher server.

Server Installation:

NOTE: this caching server was implemented on a debian 9.3 Operating system.

Install apt-cacher and apache2 webserver:

$ apt-get install apt-cacher apache2 

Enable apt-cacher:

Edit /etc/default/apt-cacher and change autostart to 1 

Note: You may have problems doing this on a machine with apache already installed.

Restart apache:

$ sudo systemctl restart apache2 

Server Configuration:

Edit /etc/apt-cacher/apt-cacher.conf and uncomment the following line:

# allowed_hosts = * Or set allowed_hosts to something appropriate. 

Apt Cacher now uses IPv6 addressing so you may find you need something like: allowed_hosts=::ffff:192.168.0.1/24, for example, if you want to restrict hosts to a common home subnet.

Change the admin_email email address to something meaningful.

If you want to cache multiple distributions, uncomment the line and set distinct_namespaces value to 1:

 distinct_namespaces = 1 

By default apt-cacher may have problems with upgrades of ubuntu from one version to another when running do-release-upgrade -d 

This can be fixed by uncommenting the line beginning with installer_files_regexp and modifying it from:

installer_files_regexp = ^(?:vmlinuz|linux|initrd\.gz|changelog|NEWS.Debian|UBUNTU_RELEASE_NAMES\.tar\.gz(?:\.gpg)?|(?:Devel|EOL)?ReleaseAnnouncement(?:\.html)?|meta-release(?:-lts)?(?:-(?:development|proposed))?)$ 

to:

installer_files_regexp = ^(?:vmlinuz|linux|initrd\.gz|changelog|NEWS.Debian|[a-z]+\.tar\.gz(?:\.gpg)?|UBUNTU_RELEASE_NAMES\.tar\.gz(?:\.gpg)?|(?:Devel|EOL)?ReleaseAnnouncement(?:\.html)?|meta-release(?:-lts)?(?:-(?:development|proposed))?)$ 

Restart apt-cacher: 

$ sudo systemctl restart apt-cacher 

Client Configuration:

To configure a client to utilize the apt cacher, edit below file:

$ sudo nano /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/01proxy 

And populate it with the below line:

Acquire::http::Proxy "http://<IP address or hostname of the apt-cacher server>:3142";