If you only want to scale to serve more clients concurrently, use the pkg/depot service as described in How to Enable Users to Retrieve Packages Using an HTTP Interface. Use the instructions in this chapter if you want to configure additional capabilities such as caching, load balancing, multiple repositories under one domain, and secure access.
Running the package depot server behind an Apache web server instance provides a web server configuration that employs the best practices described in this chapter, including the following benefits:
Provides depot scalability without the need for manual web server configuration or reverse proxies.
Improves performance and availability. Increases transfer rates and decreases CPU load. Running the depot server behind a web proxy can improve the performance and availability of the repository by enabling load balancing over multiple depots and enabling content caching.
Allows hosting multiple repositories under one domain name. The pkg(7) depot server enables you to easily provide access to a repository in the local network or on the Internet. However, the depot server does not support serving multiple repositories under one domain name or sophisticated prefixes. To host multiple repositories under one domain name, run the depot server behind a web proxy.
Enables providing a secure depot server. Run the depot server behind a Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) protocol enabled Apache instance that supports client certificates.