ftp.halifax.RWTH-Aachen.DE

bandwidth usage graph

Mirrored Projects

Namedirectory/moduleSourceUpdate
AardDict aarddict (confidential) 12h
AlmaLinux almalinux rsync.repo.almalinux.org 3h
Alpine Linux alpine rsync.alpinelinux.org 4h
Arch Linux archlinux rsync.archlinux.org 1m
Arch Linux ARM archlinux-arm archlinuxarm.org push
Artix Linux artixlinux mirror1.artixlinux.org 6h
Athena OS athena hub.athenaos.org 1h
Athena OS Images athena-images hub.athenaos.org 1h
BackBox Linux backbox mirror.backbox.org 6h
BlackArch Linux blackarch blackarch.org 2h
Blender blender (confidential) 6h
CAINE caine archive.parrotsec.org 6h
CCC ccc koeln.ftp.media.ccc.de 12h
CentOS Stream centos-stream rsync.stream.centos.org 6h
CPAN cpan cpan-rsync.perl.org 1m
Cygwin cygwin cygwin.com 6h
Debian debian syncproxy2.eu.debian.org push
Debian CD debian-cd cdimage.debian.org push
Eclipse eclipse rsync2.osuosl.org 4h
ELReo elrepo mirrors.coreix.net 6h
Fedora fedora ftp.fau.de 2h
Fedora EPEL fedora-epel ftp.tu-chemnitz.de 2h
FreeBSD freebsd ftp-master.eu.freebsd.org 6h
Gentoo gentoo masterdistfiles-eu.gentoo.org 4h
Gentoo Portage gentoo-portage masterportage.gentoo.org 30m
GNU gnu mirror.netcologne.de 4h
Grml grml ftp-master.grml.org 4h
Hirens Boot CD hirensbootcd rsync.hirensbootcd.org 4h
Icinga icinga packages.icinga.com 4h
Jenkins CI jenkins archives.jenkins.io 1h
Kali Linux kali archive.kali.org push
Kali Linux Images kali-images archive.kali.org 6h
Knoppix knoppix ftp.knoppix.nl 6h
Knoppix DVD knoppix-dvd ftp.knoppix.nl 6h
LibreELEC libreelec releases.libreelec.tv 6h
Linux Mint linuxmint rsync-packages.linuxmint.com 6h
Manjaro Linux manjaro repo.manjaro.org 6h
MX Linux mxlinux rsync-mxlinux.org 6h
OpenBSD openbsd ftp.eu.openbsd.org 6h
openSUSE opensuse stage-main-repos.opensuse.org 6h
postmarketOS postmarketos mirror.postmarketos.org 6h
PackMan packman packman.links2linux.de 1h
Parrot Security OS parrotsec rsync.parrot.sh 1m
Qubes OS qubes ftp.qubes-os.org 6h
Raspberry Pi raspberrypi apt-repo.raspberrypi.org 6h
Raspbian raspbian archive.raspbian.org 6h
Rocky Linux rockylinux msync.rockylinux.org 4h
Schilytools schilytools fuz.su 6h
Slackware ARM slackwarearm - push
Tails tails rsync.tails.net 1h
Document Foundation tdf rsync-stage.documentfoundation.org push
TurnKey Linux turnkeylinux rsync.turnkeylinux.org 1h
Ubuntu ubuntu gb.rsync.archive.ubuntu.com push
Ubuntu Releases ubuntu-releases gb.rsync.releases.ubuntu.com push
VideoLAN videolan rsync.videolan.org 2h
XBMC xbmc rsync.xbmc.org push
Zorin OS zorinos mirror.zorinos.com 6h

This server offers HTTP(s), FTP, and RSYNC. It also runs

Project History

This project started as a hobby of students in the Halifax dormitory of RWTH Aachen University as early as 2006. Using spare and loaned hardware in combination with the generous Gigabit network link provided by the university's computing center, the first incarnation of 'ftp.halifax.RWTH-Aachen.DE' provided about a TByte of data, mostly Linux distributions. In addition to the obligatory HTTP and FTP services, the server offered RSYNC access. Furthermore, which was uncommon for FTP servers, several 'hot' files were seeded using BitTorrent. This way, the server managed to put out up to 1.7 GBit/sec after some new software release.

To combat stability issues, the team tried to get hold of better server hardware. Thanks to the university's computing center (providing housing, storage and network connectivity), Offensive Security for a RAM upgrade, and Fujitsu (providing the server hardware) the server offered more data with higher speeds from 2010 to 2015. At peak times up to 9.81 GBit/sec were served.

At the end of 2015, the RWTH Aachen University IT Center organized replacement hardware. With this hardware we can offer even more data, now at up to 20 GBit/sec.

At the end of 2023, Dell Technologies donated new hardware (as shown below). Thanks to this generous donation and continued support of the IT Center of RWTH Aachen University, we can now serve around 60 TBytes worth of data at up to 20 GBit/sec.


Hardware

  • Dell PowerEdge R760xd2 (2 RU)
  • 2x Intel Xeon Gold 5415+ (2x 8 Cores)
  • 256 GByte RAM (DDR5)
  • 76 TByte storage (gross, 19x 4 TByte)
  • 3x 800 GByte SSD (for caching)
  • 2x 10 GBit/sec network connectivity
  • 200 GBit/sec Internet backbone (RWTH Aachen University)

Software

This server runs Debian GNU/Linux with Nginx, vsftpd and Samba rsync servers. For mirror synchronization we use ftpsync from the Debian project. The Bitcoin client is bitcoind (Bitcoin Core). The nostr relay implementation is nostr-rs-relay. The data is organized with the help of ZFS.

Contact

The following former students of RWTH Aachen University administer this server:
Hendrik Fabelje, Dr. Carsten Otto
Feel free to contact us with questions or suggestions.

The team can be contacted at ftp@halifax.rwth-aachen.de (you're blocked? see below!)

Do you think you are blocked, i.e. unable to reach ftp.halifax.rwth-aachen.de?
Some "security" or "DDoS protection" appliances (for example "Arbor Prevail", "ATLAS", "Check Point", "Unifi") block our server, presumably because it also provides Tor relays. If you think you are blocked by us, please first check if you blocked yourself using one of those appliances.