Alma Linux Download Cacher R2 usage information

Use the CentOS Download Cacher R2 to download and cache Alma Linux patches in air-gapped environments. This tool supports the Patches for Alma Linux 9 sites.

You can run the CentOS Download Cacher R2 on a Windows system or a Linux system. For information about requirements, see BigFix 11.0 - System Requirements.

The latest CentOS Download Cacher R2 is available from the BigFix Support site:

For Windows systems, download the tool at https://software.bigfix.com/download/bes/util/CentOSR2DownloadCacher.exe.
For Linux systems, download the tool at https://software.bigfix.com/download/bes/util/CentOSR2DownloadCacher-linux.tar.gz. This tool is supported on x86-64 (64-bit) systems.
Note: To use the tool successfully, ensure to install the following packages and their dependencies:
- GLIBC version 2.2.5 or later
- GLIBC version 2.3 or later
- GNU/Linux kernel version 2.6.31 or later

For illustration purposes, this section indicates the steps to run the CentOS Download Cacher R2 in Windows. However, the parameters and subcommands to run the CentOS Download Cacher R2 are the same for both Windows and Linux systems.

You can run the tool CentOSR2DownloadCacher.exe to perform additional operations. To run this tool from the command prompt, use the following command:

CentOSR2DownloadCacher.exe [-h] [parameters...] {subcommand} [subparameters...]

where:

-h: Specifies the help message of a command instead of running the command.

parameters

Specifies the optional parameters to be used to configure the download cacher.

--proxyServer

Specifies the URL of the proxy server to use. It must be a well-formed URL that contains a protocol and a host name. The URL is usually the IP address or DNS name of your proxy server and its port, which is separated by a colon. For example: http://192.168.100.10:8080.

--proxyUser

Specifies the proxy user name if your proxy server requires authentication.

--proxyPass

Specifies the proxy password if your proxy server requires authentication.

Only basic authentication is supported.

--download_dir

Specifies the directory where the repository metadata files are cached.

If this parameter is not defined, the files are downloaded to the directory that is relative to the download cacher executable directory.

You can configure the CentOS Download Cacher R2 to use the cached files by setting localCache in the plugin.ini file.

--sha1_download_dir

Specifies the directory where the packages are cached with a sha1 filename into a single flat directory. The cacher downloads all packages from all repositories (keys) as files in the specified directory.

Only the packages are stored in the sha1_download_dir. Each repository metadata is stored in the download_dir, and the Alma Linux Repository directory structure is maintained.

Space-saving benchmarks are established with the use of the --sha1_download_dir through the check-storagereq subcommand. Using --sha1_download_dir have shown significant decrease in storage size, download size, and time when caching multiple repositories of the same Alma Linux version. This is because many packages are duplicated among repositories with the same Alma Linux version (for example, almalinux-9-x64). Space is not saved if you only cache a single repository for each Alma Linux version (for example, almalinux-9-x64).

Note: When using this parameter, consider the cache limit of the BigFix server's sha1 file folder.

--redownload

Specifies the flag to re-download and overwrite existing RPM files that are in the download directory.

If this parameter is not defined, RPM files are not re-downloaded. However, metadata are, by default, downloaded and overwritten.

--verifyExistingPkgChecksum

Specifies the flag to enforce a checksum check for existing RPM files when trying to download packages using the "buildRepo", "downloadPkg", or "downloadbypatchid" subcommands.

Note: The checksum is set to 'off' by default.

--loglevel

Specifies the log level. You can choose among DEBUG', 'INFO', 'WARNING', or 'ERROR'. By default, the value is set to 'INFO'.

INFO: Contains general information outlining the progress and successful downloads, with minimal tracing information.

WARNING: Contains information about failed downloads, and reasons for failure.

ERROR: Contains errors related to the execution of the download plug-in, which might indicate an impending fatal error.

DEBUG: Contains fine-grained information used for troubleshooting issues. This is the most verbose level available.

--help

Specifies the full description and help of a command instead of running the command.

subcommand subparameter

Specifies the subcommand and subparameters to be used to run the download cacher.

Note: The subcommand and subparameter names are case-sensitive.

The subparameter varies for each subcommand as follows:

check-baserepos: Checks if the BigFix supported Alma Linux base repositories can be accessed. The results are displayed in the command prompt and in the <cacher directory>\logs\CentOSR2DownloadCacher.log file.

check-allrepos: Checks if the BigFix supported Alma Linux base repositories and sub-repositories can be accessed. The results are displayed in the command prompt and in the <cacher directory>\logs\CentOSR2DownloadCacher.log file.
check-storagereq: Checks the storage space requirement when using the builRepo command with and without the --sha1_download_dir option. The results are displayed in the command prompt and in the <cacher directory>\logs\CentOSR2DownloadCacher.log file.

showKeys

Outputs the list of OS keys for the supported repositories in the <cacher directory>\logs\CentOSR2DownloadCacher.log file. An OS key indicates the Alma Linux operating system version and architecture of a single Alma Linux repository.

The syntax to run this subcommand is:

CentOSR2DownloadCacher.exe --download_dir <download_dir> 
[parameters] showKeys

For example,

CentOSR2DownloadCacher.exe --download_dir
                                        C:\downloads showKeys

buildRepo

Builds a local mirrored repository and downloads all the relevant files based on the specified OS key.

The syntax to run this subcommand is:

CentOSR2DownloadCacher.exe --download_dir <download_dir> 
--sha1_download_dir <sha1_download_dir> [parameters] 
buildRepo --key <OS_key1,OS_key2,…>

For example,

CentOSR2DownloadCacher.exe --download_dir
                                        C:\downloads --sha1_download_dir C:\sha1_downloads buildRepo
                                        --key almalinux-9-x64

where:

--key OS_key1,OS_key2,…

Specifies the Alma Linux operating system version and architecture. Entries must be separated by a comma and must not include spaces. It must use the following format:

<product>-<version_number>-<architecture>

For example,

--key
                                                almalinux-9-x64

downloadMetadataOnly

Downloads the metadata of the specified OS keys.

The syntax to run this subcommand is:

CentOSR2DownloadCacher.exe --download_dir <download_dir> 
[parameters] downloadMetadataOnly --key <OS_key1,OS_key2,…>

For example:

CentOSR2DownloadCacher.exe --download_dir C:\downloads downloadMetadataOnly 
--key almalinux-9-x64

where:

--key OS_key1,OS_key2,…

Specifies the Alma Linux operating system version and architecture. Entries must be separated by a comma and must not include spaces. It must use the following format:

<product>-<version_number>-<architecture>

For example,

--key
                                                almalinux-9-x64

downloadPkg

Downloads the listed RPM files for the specified OS key.

Note: If the package that you are downloading has dependencies, it is suggested that that buildrepo be used instead to avoid dependency issues

The syntax to run this subcommand is:

CentOSR2DownloadCacher.exe --download_dir <download_dir> 
[parameters] downloadPkg --key <OS_key1,OS_key2…> 
--pkg <pkg1,pkg2,…>

For example:

CentOSR2DownloadCacher.exe --download_dir C:\temp --redownload downloadPkg
--key almalinux-9-x64 --pkg -pkg pki-symkey-11.0.6-2.el9_0.x86_64.rpm

where:

--key OS_key1,OS_key2,…

Specifies the Alma Linux operating system version and architecture. Entries must be separated by a comma and must not include spaces. It must use the following format:

<product>-<version_number>-<architecture>

For example,

--key -pkg
                                                  pki-symkey-11.0.6-2.el9_0.x86_64.rpm

--pkg pkg1,pkg2,…

Indicates the package name.

Each entry must be separated by a comma and must not include spaces. For example,

--pkg
                                                  pki-symkey-11.0.6-2.el9_0.x86_64.rpm,glibc-langpack-wae-2.34-125.el9_5.3.alma.1.x86_64.rpm