RuckZuck Cache

Roger Zander

• 4 min read

Aug.2019: This content is obsolete and replaced by https://github.com/rzander/ruckzuck/wiki/RuckZuck-Proxy-Server

All the RuckZuck.tools (ruckzuck.exe, rzupdate.exe and the OneGet Provider) where designed to get the software binaries from the vendors web-site in the internet. This is fine for a single device at home, but if you have multiple devices, you may want to share the downloaded content to reduce network traffic...

Overview

RZCache is a Web-Service that works like a Proxy for all the RuckZuck-Tools, to have a single connection to the Internet.

Clients will find their RZCache Server via broadcast (UDP:5001) or they can be configured via Policy (registry) to connect a specific RZCache Server.
RZCache Servers can build a chain to follow the network topology.

Setup RZCache

The setup of an RZCache Server is very simple as the Service is "just" a Website and the cache is fully file based.

Requirements

  • Docker. The Service is currently only available as a Docker container
  • Container must be able to run an aspnetcore v2.0.0 Image which is based on Linux (Jessie)

Install

If you have Docker up and running, just pull the Image from hub.docker.com :
docker pull zanderr/ruckzuck

Configuration

Variables

If you are not familiar with configuring docker containers, you can install
Kitematic to have a simple UI for the configuration:


to configure the "localURL" variable by using the run command:
docker run -e "localURL=http://192.168.2.146:5000" zanderr/ruckzuck

  • localURL (required): specify the URL how clients can access the RZCache Service. Note: All File-Downloads will be redirected to this URL and no longer from the SW Vendor.
  • RZUser: RuckZuck User Account. If specified, you can authenticate all child tools with your account. Leave it empty if the client tools can have custom accounts or run anonymous.
  • RZPW: Password for the RuckZuck Account.
  • Parent Server: leave the default value if the RZCache Server is connected to the Internet or specify the URL of a parent RZCache Server.
  • CatalogTTL (hours): Specify how long (in hours) catalog-items are cached. Note: binaries for Software are not affected.

Ports

RZCache is a Web-Service that is running internally (in the Container) on port TCP:5000, but you can expose this port to any free port on your Host (e.g. Port 80). To allow Clients to find their RZCache Server automatically, the Port UDP:5001 must be published on UDP:5001.

Content Store

RZCache does store all the cached Content in "/app/wwwroot". You can mount a directory from your physical host on "/app/wwwroot" to store the cached content in the mounted Folder. This is helpful if you want to modify or preload some of the data or if you want the backup/restore the Cache.

Note: configuration changes may clean your conatiner. It's recommended to store all data on an external volume.

Script Example

# Pull the Image from hub.docker.com...
docker pull zanderr/ruckzuck

# start the Container, set the Varibale localURL, Expose the ports
# and redirect the Content to a local Folder (d:\rzcache)...
docker run --name RZCache -d -e "localURL=http://192.168.2.146:5000" -p 5000:5000/tcp -p 5001:5001/udp -v d:/rzcache:/app/wwwroot zanderr/ruckzuck

Testing

To check if the Web-Service is running, just browse the "localURL" and you will get the following message:
"RuckZuck-Proxy (c) 2017 by Roger Zander; Version: 1.0.0"

caching details

RZCache is a file based cache the files are stored within the container in the Folder "wwwroot"

once you start a fresh docker Image, there are no files stored. A Client must request Content before you will see some files...

  • rzcat.json : The RuckZuck Catalog, with all SW entries. RuckZuck.exe will Show all Items from this catalog.
  • Icons Folder: stores all the Icon used for RuckZuck.exe
  • rzsw Folder: contains a .json per {productname}{version}{vendor} with all the details for a product.
  • files Folder: stores the Software binaries in a subfolder for each {contentid}

Known Limitation/Issues with current Version (1.0.0)

  • First download from a Client will load the data from WWW and triggers a second download to the cache. The item is downloaded twice!
  • SoftwareUpdate detection traffic cannot be cached as it requires access to the RuckZuck.tools backend. The request will be forwarded from RZCache to the parent Server.

changes on clients

  • the latest Version of ruckzuck.exe and rzupdate.exe will automaticall discover the RZCache Server via UDP broadcast. To prevent this, create a registry key to specify the WebService:
#region WebService

#Create the key if missing 
If((Test-Path 'HKLM:\Software\Policies\RuckZuck') -eq $false ) { New-Item -Path 'HKLM:\Software\Policies\RuckZuck' -force -ea SilentlyContinue } 

#Enable Settings 
Set-ItemProperty -Path 'HKLM:\Software\Policies\RuckZuck' -Name 'WebService' -Value 'http://192.168.2.146:5000' -ea SilentlyContinue 

#endregion
  • RuckZuck Provider for OneGet: tbd.

What's next ?

This is the first release of RZCache. Please provide Feedback and Ideas on github.com/rzander/ruckzuck.

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