[OSM-talk] Geofabrik Download Server Update

Frederik Ramm frederik at remote.org
Tue Apr 12 10:17:37 BST 2011


Hi,

    for a few years now, the Geofabrik download server 
(download.geofabrik.de) has been serving various, daily updated, 
regional OSM extracts, in XML and shape file form, and for the last half 
year also in PBF form.

After a few hiccups in the past weeks, I have moved the server to new 
infrastructure with more of everything so that you shouldn't see any 
more "503 service unavailable" messages (except when you're really 
trying very hard to abuse the machine).

Before, the .pbf and .bz2 and .shp files were all created on a machine 
in the Geofabrik office and uploaded to the download server for 
distribution, and with the office only having 10 MBit upstream 
connectivity, there was a limit to how much could be transferred every 
night. I'm now slowly changing to a setup where the .bz2 and perhaps 
eventually even the .shp files will be created directly on the download 
server, giving me more room to create additional extracts (think US 
states) and upload them in the time we've saved.

Together with the added disk space on the download server this means 
that I can continue supporting the bz2 format indefinitely, although I 
expect it gradually to fall behind in currency (currently, the bz2 will 
show up a few hours after the .pbf; in the future this might increase to 
half a day or so). The .pbf format is definietly the preferred format.

I would like to thank GWDG who are hosting a mirror for the Europe and 
Germany extract, by far the most popular files on the download server. 
The server will redirect you to their mirror if and only if it is clear 
from the log files that the mirror has the complete latest version of a 
file. (This is new, too - before, it was possible that the server would 
redirect you to a stale copy on the mirror.)

You're welcome to continue using the server - but even though all is new 
and shiny now, please act responsibly and download only what you need. 
Hoarding doesn't make sense - who wants yesterday's geodata anyway?

Bye
Frederik



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