Jason Helfman

doc@experts-exchange.com

2009 Jason Helfman $FreeBSD$ &tm-attrib.freebsd; &tm-attrib.general; &tm-attrib.intel; &tm-attrib.amd; This article describes building an internal &fbus.ap;. The freebsd-update-server software is written by &a.cperciva;, current Security Officer of &os;. For users who think it is convenient to update their systems against an official update server, building an own &fbus.ap; may help to extend its functionality by supporting manually-tweaked &os; releases or by providing a local mirror. Experienced users or administrators are often responsible for several machines, or environments. They understand the difficult demands and challenges of maintaining such an infrastructure. Running a &fbus.ap; makes it easier to deploy security and software patches to selected test machines before rolling them out to production. It also means a number of systems can be updated from the local network rather than a much slower Internet connection. This article outlines the steps involved in creating an internal &fbus.ap;. To build an internal &fbus.ap; the following requirements should be met. A running &os; system. A user account with at least 4 GB of available space. This will allow for creation of updates for 7.1 and 7.2, but the exact space requirements may change from version to version. An &man.ssh.1; account on a remote machine to upload distributed updates. A web server, like Apache, with over half of the space required for the build. For instance, test builds for 7.1 and 7.2 total 4 GB, and the webserver space needed to distribute updates is 2.6 GB. Basic knowledge of shell scripting with Bourne shell, &man.sh.1;. Download the freebsd-update-server software. A tarball may be downloaded, or use &man.csup.1; and the projects-all collection. Update scripts/build.conf appropriately. It is sourced during all build operations. Here is the default build.conf, which should be modified. # $FreeBSD: projects/freebsd-update-server/scripts/build.conf,v 1.1 2006/08/31 07:48:40 cperciva Exp $ # Main configuration file for FreeBSD Update builds. The # release-specific configuration data is lower down in # the scripts tree. # Location from which to fetch releases export FTP=ftp://ftp2.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/releases # Host platform export HOSTPLATFORM=`uname -m` # Host name to use inside jails export BUILDHOSTNAME=${HOSTPLATFORM}-builder.daemonology.net # Location of SSH key export SSHKEY=/root/.ssh/id_dsa # SSH account into which files are uploaded MASTERACCT=builder@wadham.daemonology.net # Directory into which files are uploaded MASTERDIR=update-master.freebsd.org Parameters for consideration would be: FTP This is the location where ISO images are downloaded from (by the fetchiso() subroutine of scripts/build.subr). The location configured here is not limited to FTP URIs. Any URI scheme supported by the standard &man.fetch.1; utility should work fine. In our own setup the ISO images are on the same internal http server that will be serving the updates. Customizations to the fetchiso() code can be installed by copying the default build.subr script to the release- and architecture-specific area at scripts/RELEASE/ARCHITECTURE/build.subr and applying local edits. BUILDHOSTNAME The name of the build host. This information will be displayed on updated systems when issuing: &prompt.user; uname -v SSHKEY The SSH key for uploading files to the update server. A key pair can be created by typing ssh-keygen -t dsa. This parameter is optional; standard password authentication will be used as a fallback authentication method when SSHKEY is not defined. &man.ssh-keygen.1; has more detailed information about SSH and the appropriate steps for creating and using one. MASTERACCT Account that files are uploaded to on the update server. MASTERDIR Directory where files are uploaded to on the update server. The default build.conf file shipped with the freebsd-update-server sources are suitable for building &arch.i386; releases of &os;. As an example of building an update server for other architectures, configuration changes needed for &arch.amd64; will be presented in the following paragraphs. Create a build environment for &arch.amd64;: &prompt.user; mkdir -p /usr/local/freebsd-update-server/scripts/RELEASE-7.2/amd64 Install a build.conf file in the newly created build directory. The build configuration options for &os; 7.2-RELEASE on &arch.amd64; should be similar to: # SHA256 hash of RELEASE disc1.iso image. export RELH=1ea1f6f652d7c5f5eab7ef9f8edbed50cb664b08ed761850f95f48e86cc71ef5 # Components of the world, source, and kernels export WORLDPARTS="base catpages dict doc games info manpages proflibs lib32" export SOURCEPARTS="base bin contrib crypto etc games gnu include krb5 \ lib libexec release rescue sbin secure share sys tools \ ubin usbin cddl" export KERNELPARTS="generic" # EOL date export EOL=1275289200 To generate the "End of Life" number for build.conf, refer to the "Estimated EOL" posted on the &os; Security Website. The value of EOL can be derived from the date listed on the web site, using the &man.date.1; utility, e.g.: &prompt.user; date -j -f '%Y%m%d-%H%M%S' '20090401-000000' '+%s' The &man.sha256.1; hash key for the desired release, is published within the respective release announcement. The first step is to run scripts/make.sh. This will build some binaries, create directories, and generate an RSA signing key used for approving builds. In this step, a passphrase will have to be supplied for the final creation of the signing key. &prompt.root; sh scripts/make.sh cc -O2 -fno-strict-aliasing -pipe findstamps.c -o findstamps findstamps.c: In function 'usage': findstamps.c:45: warning: incompatible implicit declaration of built-in function 'exit' cc -O2 -fno-strict-aliasing -pipe unstamp.c -o unstamp install findstamps ../bin install unstamp ../bin rm -f findstamps unstamp Generating RSA private key, 4096 bit long modulus ................................................................................++ ...................++ e is 65537 (0x10001) Public key fingerprint: 27ef53e48dc869eea6c3136091cc6ab8589f967559824779e855d58a2294de9e Encrypting signing key for root enter aes-256-cbc encryption password: Verifying - enter aes-256-cbc encryption password: Keep a note of the generated key fingerprint. This value is entered into /etc/freebsd-update.conf for binary updates. At this point, everything is ready to stage a build. &prompt.root; cd /usr/local/freebsd-update-server &prompt.root; sh scripts/init.sh amd64 RELEASE-7.2 The output of the command, a sample of an initial build run is shown below. &prompt.root; sh scripts/init.sh amd64 7.2-RELEASE Mon Aug 24 16:04:36 PDT 2009 Starting fetch for FreeBSD/amd64 7.2-RELEASE /usr/local/freebsd-update-server/work/7.2-RELE100% of 588 MB 359 kBps 00m00s Mon Aug 24 16:32:38 PDT 2009 Verifying disc1 hash for FreeBSD/amd64 7.2-RELEASE Mon Aug 24 16:32:44 PDT 2009 Extracting components for FreeBSD/amd64 7.2-RELEASE Mon Aug 24 16:34:05 PDT 2009 Constructing world+src image for FreeBSD/amd64 7.2-RELEASE Mon Aug 24 16:35:57 PDT 2009 Extracting world+src for FreeBSD/amd64 7.2-RELEASE Mon Aug 24 23:36:24 UTC 2009 Building world for FreeBSD/amd64 7.2-RELEASE Tue Aug 25 00:31:29 UTC 2009 Distributing world for FreeBSD/amd64 7.2-RELEASE Tue Aug 25 00:32:36 UTC 2009 Building and distributing kernels for FreeBSD/amd64 7.2-RELEASE Tue Aug 25 00:44:44 UTC 2009 Constructing world components for FreeBSD/amd64 7.2-RELEASE Tue Aug 25 00:44:56 UTC 2009 Distributing source for FreeBSD/amd64 7.2-RELEASE Mon Aug 24 17:46:18 PDT 2009 Moving components into staging area for FreeBSD/amd64 7.2-RELEASE Mon Aug 24 17:46:33 PDT 2009 Identifying extra documentation for FreeBSD/amd64 7.2-RELEASE Mon Aug 24 17:47:13 PDT 2009 Extracting extra docs for FreeBSD/amd64 7.2-RELEASE Mon Aug 24 17:47:18 PDT 2009 Indexing release for FreeBSD/amd64 7.2-RELEASE Mon Aug 24 17:50:44 PDT 2009 Indexing world0 for FreeBSD/amd64 7.2-RELEASE Files built but not released: Files released but not built: Files which differ by more than contents: Files which differ between release and build: kernel|generic|/GENERIC/hptrr.ko kernel|generic|/GENERIC/kernel src|sys|/sys/conf/newvers.sh world|base|/boot/loader world|base|/boot/pxeboot world|base|/etc/mail/freebsd.cf world|base|/etc/mail/freebsd.submit.cf world|base|/etc/mail/sendmail.cf world|base|/etc/mail/submit.cf world|base|/lib/libcrypto.so.5 world|base|/usr/bin/ntpq world|base|/usr/lib/libalias.a world|base|/usr/lib/libalias_cuseeme.a world|base|/usr/lib/libalias_dummy.a world|base|/usr/lib/libalias_ftp.a ... Then the build of the world is performed again, with world patches. A more detailed explanation may be found in scripts/build.subr. In order for &os; Update Server to work properly, updates for both the current release and the release one wants to upgrade to need to be built. This is necessary for determining the differences of files between releases. For example, when upgrading a &os; system from version 7.1 to 7.2, updates will need to be built for 7.1-RELEASE as well as for 7.2-RELEASE. Mon Aug 24 17:54:07 PDT 2009 Extracting world+src for FreeBSD/amd64 7.2-RELEASE Wed Sep 29 00:54:34 UTC 2010 Building world for FreeBSD/amd64 7.2-RELEASE Wed Sep 29 01:49:42 UTC 2010 Distributing world for FreeBSD/amd64 7.2-RELEASE Wed Sep 29 01:50:50 UTC 2010 Building and distributing kernels for FreeBSD/amd64 7.2-RELEASE Wed Sep 29 02:02:56 UTC 2010 Constructing world components for FreeBSD/amd64 7.2-RELEASE Wed Sep 29 02:03:08 UTC 2010 Distributing source for FreeBSD/amd64 7.2-RELEASE Tue Sep 28 19:04:31 PDT 2010 Moving components into staging area for FreeBSD/amd64 7.2-RELEASE Mon Aug 24 19:04:46 PDT 2009 Extracting extra docs for FreeBSD/amd64 7.2-RELEASE Mon Aug 24 19:04:51 PDT 2009 Indexing world1 for FreeBSD/amd64 7.2-RELEASE Mon Aug 24 19:08:04 PDT 2009 Locating build stamps for FreeBSD/amd64 7.2-RELEASE Mon Aug 24 19:10:19 PDT 2009 Cleaning staging area for FreeBSD/amd64 7.2-RELEASE Mon Aug 24 19:10:19 PDT 2009 Preparing to copy files into staging area for FreeBSD/amd64 7.2-RELEASE Mon Aug 24 19:10:20 PDT 2009 Copying data files into staging area for FreeBSD/amd64 7.2-RELEASE Mon Aug 24 12:16:57 PDT 2009 Copying metadata files into staging area for FreeBSD/amd64 7.2-RELEASE Mon Aug 24 12:16:59 PDT 2009 Constructing metadata index and tag for FreeBSD/amd64 7.2-RELEASE Files found which include build stamps: kernel|generic|/GENERIC/hptrr.ko kernel|generic|/GENERIC/kernel world|base|/boot/loader world|base|/boot/pxeboot world|base|/etc/mail/freebsd.cf world|base|/etc/mail/freebsd.submit.cf world|base|/etc/mail/sendmail.cf world|base|/etc/mail/submit.cf world|base|/lib/libcrypto.so.5 world|base|/usr/bin/ntpq world|base|/usr/include/osreldate.h world|base|/usr/lib/libalias.a world|base|/usr/lib/libalias_cuseeme.a world|base|/usr/lib/libalias_dummy.a world|base|/usr/lib/libalias_ftp.a ... Finally the build completes. Values of build stamps, excluding library archive headers: v1.2 (Aug 25 2009 00:40:36) v1.2 (Aug 25 2009 00:38:22) @(#)FreeBSD 7.2-RELEASE #0: Tue Aug 25 00:38:29 UTC 2009 FreeBSD 7.2-RELEASE #0: Tue Aug 25 00:38:29 UTC 2009 root@server.myhost.com:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/GENERIC 7.2-RELEASE Mon Aug 24 23:55:25 UTC 2009 Mon Aug 24 23:55:25 UTC 2009 ##### built by root@server.myhost.com on Tue Aug 25 00:16:15 UTC 2009 ##### built by root@server.myhost.com on Tue Aug 25 00:16:15 UTC 2009 ##### built by root@server.myhost.com on Tue Aug 25 00:16:15 UTC 2009 ##### built by root@server.myhost.com on Tue Aug 25 00:16:15 UTC 2009 Mon Aug 24 23:46:47 UTC 2009 ntpq 4.2.4p5-a Mon Aug 24 23:55:53 UTC 2009 (1) * Copyright (c) 1992-2009 The FreeBSD Project. Mon Aug 24 23:46:47 UTC 2009 Mon Aug 24 23:55:40 UTC 2009 Aug 25 2009 ntpd 4.2.4p5-a Mon Aug 24 23:55:52 UTC 2009 (1) ntpdate 4.2.4p5-a Mon Aug 24 23:55:53 UTC 2009 (1) ntpdc 4.2.4p5-a Mon Aug 24 23:55:53 UTC 2009 (1) Tue Aug 25 00:21:21 UTC 2009 Tue Aug 25 00:21:21 UTC 2009 Tue Aug 25 00:21:21 UTC 2009 Mon Aug 24 23:46:47 UTC 2009 FreeBSD/amd64 7.2-RELEASE initialization build complete. Please review the list of build stamps printed above to confirm that they look sensible, then run # sh -e approve.sh amd64 7.2-RELEASE to sign the release. Approve the build if everything is correct. More information on determining this can be found in the distributed source file named USAGE. Execute scripts/approve.sh, as directed. This will sign the release, and move components into a staging area suitable for uploading. &prompt.root; cd /usr/local/freebsd-update-server &prompt.root; sh scripts/mountkey.sh &prompt.root; sh -e scripts/approve.sh amd64 7.2-RELEASE Wed Aug 26 12:50:06 PDT 2009 Signing build for FreeBSD/amd64 7.2-RELEASE Wed Aug 26 12:50:06 PDT 2009 Copying files to patch source directories for FreeBSD/amd64 7.2-RELEASE Wed Aug 26 12:50:06 PDT 2009 Copying files to upload staging area for FreeBSD/amd64 7.2-RELEASE Wed Aug 26 12:50:07 PDT 2009 Updating databases for FreeBSD/amd64 7.2-RELEASE Wed Aug 26 12:50:07 PDT 2009 Cleaning staging area for FreeBSD/amd64 7.2-RELEASE After completing the approval process, it may be followed by the upload. &prompt.root; cd /usr/local/freebsd-update-server &prompt.root; sh scripts/upload.sh amd64 RELEASE-7.2 The uploaded files will need to be in the document root of the webserver in order for updates to be distributed. For further explanation for Apache, please refer to the section about Configuration of Apache servers in the Handbook. Update the KeyPrint and ServerName values in the client's /etc/freebsd-update.conf, and perform updates as instructed in the &os; Update section of the Handbook. For reference, the entire run of init.sh is attached. Every time a security advisory is announced, a patch update can be built. For this example, 7.1-RELEASE will be used. A couple of assumptions are made for a different release build: Setup the correct directory structure for the initial build. Perform an initial build for 7.1-RELEASE. Create the patch directory of the respective release under /usr/local/freebsd-update-server/patches/. &prompt.user; mkdir -p /usr/local/freebsd-update-server/patches/RELEASE-7.1/ &prompt.user; cd /usr/local/freebsd-update-server/patches/RELEASE-7.1 As an example, take the patch for &man.named.8;. Read the advisory, and grab the necessary file from &os; Security Advisories. More information on interpreting the advisory, can be found in the Handbook. From the security brief, it can be seen that it is called SA-09:12.bind. After downloading the file, it is required to rename the file to an appropriate patch level. It is suggested to keep this inline with official &os; patch levels, but its name can be chosen freely. For this build, let us follow the currently established practice of &os; and call this p7. Rename the file: &prompt.user; mv bind.patch 7-SA-09:12.bind Or: &prompt.user; fetch -o 7-SA-09:12.bind http://security.FreeBSD.org/patches/SA-09:12/bind.patch When running a patch level build, it is assumed that previous patches are in place. When a patch build is run, it will run all patches less than or equal to the number specified. There can be custom patches added to any build. Use the number zero, or any other number. It is up to the administrator of the freebsd-update server to take appropriate measures to verify the authenticity of every patch. At this point, a diff is ready to be built. The software checks first to see if a scripts/init.sh has been run on the respective release prior to running the diff build. &prompt.root; cd /usr/local/freebsd-update-server &prompt.root; sh scripts/diff.sh amd64 RELEASE-7.1 7 What follows is sample of a differential build run. &prompt.root; sh -e scripts/diff.sh amd64 7.1-RELEASE 7 Wed Aug 26 10:09:59 PDT 2009 Extracting world+src for FreeBSD/amd64 7.1-RELEASE-p7 Wed Aug 26 17:10:25 UTC 2009 Building world for FreeBSD/amd64 7.1-RELEASE-p7 Wed Aug 26 18:05:11 UTC 2009 Distributing world for FreeBSD/amd64 7.1-RELEASE-p7 Wed Aug 26 18:06:16 UTC 2009 Building and distributing kernels for FreeBSD/amd64 7.1-RELEASE-p7 Wed Aug 26 18:17:50 UTC 2009 Constructing world components for FreeBSD/amd64 7.1-RELEASE-p7 Wed Aug 26 18:18:02 UTC 2009 Distributing source for FreeBSD/amd64 7.1-RELEASE-p7 Wed Aug 26 11:19:23 PDT 2009 Moving components into staging area for FreeBSD/amd64 7.1-RELEASE-p7 Wed Aug 26 11:19:37 PDT 2009 Extracting extra docs for FreeBSD/amd64 7.1-RELEASE-p7 Wed Aug 26 11:19:42 PDT 2009 Indexing world0 for FreeBSD/amd64 7.1-RELEASE-p7 Wed Aug 26 11:23:02 PDT 2009 Extracting world+src for FreeBSD/amd64 7.1-RELEASE-p7 Thu Sep 30 18:23:29 UTC 2010 Building world for FreeBSD/amd64 7.1-RELEASE-p7 Thu Sep 30 19:18:15 UTC 2010 Distributing world for FreeBSD/amd64 7.1-RELEASE-p7 Thu Sep 30 19:19:18 UTC 2010 Building and distributing kernels for FreeBSD/amd64 7.1-RELEASE-p7 Thu Sep 30 19:30:52 UTC 2010 Constructing world components for FreeBSD/amd64 7.1-RELEASE-p7 Thu Sep 30 19:31:03 UTC 2010 Distributing source for FreeBSD/amd64 7.1-RELEASE-p7 Thu Sep 30 12:32:25 PDT 2010 Moving components into staging area for FreeBSD/amd64 7.1-RELEASE-p7 Wed Aug 26 12:32:39 PDT 2009 Extracting extra docs for FreeBSD/amd64 7.1-RELEASE-p7 Wed Aug 26 12:32:43 PDT 2009 Indexing world1 for FreeBSD/amd64 7.1-RELEASE-p7 Wed Aug 26 12:35:54 PDT 2009 Locating build stamps for FreeBSD/amd64 7.1-RELEASE-p7 Wed Aug 26 12:36:58 PDT 2009 Reverting changes due to build stamps for FreeBSD/amd64 7.1-RELEASE-p7 Wed Aug 26 12:37:14 PDT 2009 Cleaning staging area for FreeBSD/amd64 7.1-RELEASE-p7 Wed Aug 26 12:37:14 PDT 2009 Preparing to copy files into staging area for FreeBSD/amd64 7.1-RELEASE-p7 Wed Aug 26 12:37:15 PDT 2009 Copying data files into staging area for FreeBSD/amd64 7.1-RELEASE-p7 Wed Aug 26 12:43:23 PDT 2009 Copying metadata files into staging area for FreeBSD/amd64 7.1-RELEASE-p7 Wed Aug 26 12:43:25 PDT 2009 Constructing metadata index and tag for FreeBSD/amd64 7.1-RELEASE-p7 ... Files found which include build stamps: kernel|generic|/GENERIC/hptrr.ko kernel|generic|/GENERIC/kernel world|base|/boot/loader world|base|/boot/pxeboot world|base|/etc/mail/freebsd.cf world|base|/etc/mail/freebsd.submit.cf world|base|/etc/mail/sendmail.cf world|base|/etc/mail/submit.cf world|base|/lib/libcrypto.so.5 world|base|/usr/bin/ntpq world|base|/usr/include/osreldate.h world|base|/usr/lib/libalias.a world|base|/usr/lib/libalias_cuseeme.a world|base|/usr/lib/libalias_dummy.a world|base|/usr/lib/libalias_ftp.a ... Values of build stamps, excluding library archive headers: v1.2 (Aug 26 2009 18:13:46) v1.2 (Aug 26 2009 18:11:44) @(#)FreeBSD 7.1-RELEASE-p7 #0: Wed Aug 26 18:11:50 UTC 2009 FreeBSD 7.1-RELEASE-p7 #0: Wed Aug 26 18:11:50 UTC 2009 root@server.myhost.com:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/GENERIC 7.1-RELEASE-p7 Wed Aug 26 17:29:15 UTC 2009 Wed Aug 26 17:29:15 UTC 2009 ##### built by root@server.myhost.com on Wed Aug 26 17:49:58 UTC 2009 ##### built by root@server.myhost.com on Wed Aug 26 17:49:58 UTC 2009 ##### built by root@server.myhost.com on Wed Aug 26 17:49:58 UTC 2009 ##### built by root@server.myhost.com on Wed Aug 26 17:49:58 UTC 2009 Wed Aug 26 17:20:39 UTC 2009 ntpq 4.2.4p5-a Wed Aug 26 17:29:42 UTC 2009 (1) * Copyright (c) 1992-2009 The FreeBSD Project. Wed Aug 26 17:20:39 UTC 2009 Wed Aug 26 17:29:30 UTC 2009 Aug 26 2009 ntpd 4.2.4p5-a Wed Aug 26 17:29:41 UTC 2009 (1) ntpdate 4.2.4p5-a Wed Aug 26 17:29:42 UTC 2009 (1) ntpdc 4.2.4p5-a Wed Aug 26 17:29:42 UTC 2009 (1) Wed Aug 26 17:55:02 UTC 2009 Wed Aug 26 17:55:02 UTC 2009 Wed Aug 26 17:55:02 UTC 2009 Wed Aug 26 17:20:39 UTC 2009 ... Updates are printed, and approval is requested. New updates: kernel|generic|/GENERIC/kernel.symbols|f|0|0|0555|0|7c8dc176763f96ced0a57fc04e7c1b8d793f27e006dd13e0b499e1474ac47e10| kernel|generic|/GENERIC/kernel|f|0|0|0555|0|33197e8cf15bbbac263d17f39c153c9d489348c2c534f7ca1120a1183dec67b1| kernel|generic|/|d|0|0|0755|0|| src|base|/|d|0|0|0755|0|| src|bin|/|d|0|0|0755|0|| src|cddl|/|d|0|0|0755|0|| src|contrib|/contrib/bind9/bin/named/update.c|f|0|10000|0644|0|4d434abf0983df9bc47435670d307fa882ef4b348ed8ca90928d250f42ea0757| src|contrib|/contrib/bind9/lib/dns/openssldsa_link.c|f|0|10000|0644|0|c6805c39f3da2a06dd3f163f26c314a4692d4cd9a2d929c0acc88d736324f550| src|contrib|/contrib/bind9/lib/dns/opensslrsa_link.c|f|0|10000|0644|0|fa0f7417ee9da42cc8d0fd96ad24e7a34125e05b5ae075bd6e3238f1c022a712| ... ... FreeBSD/amd64 7.1-RELEASE update build complete. Please review the list of build stamps printed above and the list of updated files to confirm that they look sensible, then run # sh -e approve.sh amd64 7.1-RELEASE to sign the build. Follow the same process as noted before for approving a build: &prompt.root; sh -e scripts/approve.sh amd64 7.1-RELEASE Wed Aug 26 12:50:06 PDT 2009 Signing build for FreeBSD/amd64 7.1-RELEASE Wed Aug 26 12:50:06 PDT 2009 Copying files to patch source directories for FreeBSD/amd64 7.1-RELEASE Wed Aug 26 12:50:06 PDT 2009 Copying files to upload staging area for FreeBSD/amd64 7.1-RELEASE Wed Aug 26 12:50:07 PDT 2009 Updating databases for FreeBSD/amd64 7.1-RELEASE Wed Aug 26 12:50:07 PDT 2009 Cleaning staging area for FreeBSD/amd64 7.1-RELEASE The FreeBSD/amd64 7.1-RELEASE update build has been signed and is ready to be uploaded. Remember to run # sh -e umountkey.sh to unmount the decrypted key once you have finished signing all the new builds. After approving the build, upload the software: &prompt.root; cd /usr/local/freebsd-update-server &prompt.root; sh scripts/upload.sh amd64 RELEASE-7.1 For reference, the entire run of diff.sh is attached. If a custom release is built by using the native make release procedure, the freebsd-update-server code will work from your release. As an example, a release without ports or documentation or with a custom kernel can be built. After removing functionality pertaining to the documentation subroutine and altering the buildworld() subroutine in scripts/build.subr, the freebsd-update-code will successfully build update code based on this release. Add make -j NUMBER to scripts/build.subr to speed up processing. Adding flags to anything in the script other than make buildworld and make obj may cause the build to become unreliable. Create a firewall rule to block outgoing RST packets. Due to a bug noted in a posting on the &a.stable; mailing list in April 2009, there may be time-outs and fail when updating a system. Create an appropriate DNS SRV record for the update server, and put others behind it with variable weights. This effectively creates update mirrors. _http._tcp.update.myserver.com. IN SRV 0 2 80 host1.myserver.com. SRV 0 1 80 host2.myserver.com. SRV 0 0 80 host3.myserver.com. Please read the source documentation. It contains valuable information that will allow you to utilize all features of the software.