Pulling application updates from closest server?
- by Mike Morris
Setup:
6 Major Sites with Server 2003/2008 DCs doing DHCP/AD Integrated DNS, each on their own subnet.
All connect back to datacenter through a 3 mbps WAN
ERP server running in the datacenter, accessed by clients at all sites
Currently, when we update the software, I manually push a copy of the updated client/config files down to each DC. I have a script that we run on each PC to update the clients. It determines what subnet the PC is on, and pulls the software from that DC.
It's messy, but it works.
The client has an autoupdate feature, but it'll only pull from the application server (which is housed in the datacenter, over the 3 meg link). It takes forever, since the updates are not "patches" but a full version of the client, even for minor upgrades (bad design).
After the most recent patch, you can configure the clients to pull from a different server. Unfortunately, it is the same for all clients.
Is there some kind of DNS magic I can use to pull from the local server? For instance, if I tell the clients their update server is ERPUPDATE, can I have their local DNS server return a different IP for ERPUPDATE than the other sites?
Example: Client 1 is at site A, client 2 is at site b. They each run the software and a version change is detected. As per the config files, the clients look to ERPUPDATE for their updated client.
Client 1 queries DNS for the IP of ERPUPDATE at its current location (site A)
DNS at site A returns 192.1.1.5
Client 1 pulls update from 192.1.1.5
Client 2 queries DNS for the IP of ERPUPDATE at its current location (site B)
DNS at site B returns 192.1.2.5
Client 2 pulls update from 192.1.2.5
Excuse the poor explanation, I worked 61 hours over the weekend and haven't completely rebounded. I'll be happy to clarify if needed!
