3 Basic considerations for setting up News at your site

3.3 Choosing a News database configuration

If the machines on which you plan to install News are connected by high speed DECnet or TCP links, you can configure News to run in either of two ways: as a local reader/server, in which case News uses a database of items on a disk available to your node, or as a remote NNTP client, in which case News retrieves items as they are needed from another server, and does not maintain any local database. When functioning as a news reader/server, News can also operate in a hybrid configuration, in which items for some groups are maintained locally, while for others items are retrieved on demand and either discarded immediately or cached for a short time on the local node, in the expectation that other users will want to read them in the near future. Which configuration you choose will depend on the importance to you of the following factors (among others): These two configurations, as well as a mixed client/local configuration, are discussed in more detail below, and detailed instructions are given for setting up News in the configuration you choose. If you choose to run News as an NNTP client only, then you should follow the instructions in the section of this manual titled "Setting Up News As An NNTP Client Only". If you plan to have a local database, follow the instructions in the section of this manual titled "Setting Up News as a Local Reader/Server", even if you *also* plan to use News as an NNTP client some of the time. You're welcome to read the entire manual -- you'll find a fair amount of material duplicated between sections, but where there are differences, follow the descriptions in the section that applies to your configuration.

3.3.1 News reader/server using local database

In this configuration, News maintains a collection of text files for all items available to readers, as well as a set of index files used for tracking articles and providing ready access to summary information. Since everything News needs to act as a reader is located on your system, you have the maximum amount of control over the newsgroups you carry, the reliability and redundancy with which news is passed to your site, the retention time for items, and the access a given user is allowed to each group. In addition to receiving distributed newsgroups, you can maintain a collection of local groups which serve as in-house conferences, and you can set up gateways between newsgroups and mailing lists. Finally, your node may act as a server for remote clients, making your news items available to users lacking the capacity to maintain an independent database. The tradeoffs for this flexibility are increased complexity in configuring News, the need for sufficient disk space to store all available articles, and the overhead incurred in exchanging news with other sites, adding new items to the local database, and removing expired items. If you serve as a central computing or information resource for your site, need to maintain fine control over news access, or don't have a connection to another news server readily available, you should probably choose to set up a local database. On the other hand, if your CPU or disk capacity is limited, or you have relatively few users who need basic access to news, or you have access to a central news server, you may wish to run News in the simpler NNTP client configuration.

3.3.2 Diskless NNTP client

In this configuration, News acts as the user interface to a remote news server, from which it retrieves group and item statistics and individual articles as they are needed by an individual user. This is the simplest configuration to use -- you just define a few logical names which News uses to determine how to access the server and how to mark local postings, and go. However, you must depend on the news administrator for your server to maintain the newsgroups you want, and you have no control (other than by arrangement with this news administrator) over newsgroup configuration, access, or distribution. In addition, newsgroup moderators will be unable to exercise their roles via an NNTP client (except through some unpleasant workarounds). Finally, running as an NNTP client is somewhat slower than using a local database, with the magnitude of the change depending on number and size of newsgroups and network capacity and load.

3.3.3 Mixed client/local

This configuration combines many of the advantages of the previous two options, relying principally on a local database of newsitems, but allowing the local news administrator to designate specific newsgroups as served by a remote node. This can relieve a disk space crunch or offload processing overhead for large newsgroups to a host with more capacity, or it can allow hosts on a LAN to distribute the task of maintaining large newsgroups. As currently implemented, however, this option is efficient only if used for a few newsgroups per site. Further, while users on the local node can read served newsgroups, the local nntp server will not be able to send item text to its clients (though it will provide item count and header information, often causing confusion among users as they see 'phantom' newsgroups). For instance, if on node cicero the newsgroup comp.os.vms is set up as a remote newsgroup served by node scipio, users on cicero will have access to the group, but nntp clients on node pliny using cicero as a server will see only the item directory display, and will not be able to access the items themselves.

previous: 3.2 Deciding which newsgroups to carry
next: 4 Setting Up News As An NNTP Client Only
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