Mirror pools

The Tails downloads are served using a HTTP mirror pool.

  1. Mirror pools
  2. HTTP pool

HTTP pool

The HTTP pool is a web service that redirects clients to the nearest mirror based on their IP geolocation data:

  • IP geolocation data is automatically and periodically updated from MaxMind's GeoLite2 databases.

  • Downloads are served under the download.tails.net domain (see mirror statistics).

  • Mirrorbits performs the actual redirections according to its own internal score system, which is based on mirrors' weights and IP geolocation data (Autonomous Systems, countries and calculated distances).

  • The list of mirrors is maintained by Sysadmins via Puppet (see code and example data)