What is the best package configuration for hosting package repositories for a Linux distro.

Like with anything Linux, there isn't really a "best" solution, but more of a "what works best for you". You first have to decide what distribution your package repository will be running on. I'm not an expert in all things Linux, however, I would assume that it wouldn't matter too much if you are running your instance on Debian and serving pacman (Arch Linux) packages.

Once you've got that settled, you will want to run through the setup and secure documentation to ensure your server is up to date with the latest upstream packages, security updates, and you've taken steps to secure it from the wider internet.

You can then begin the process of uploading your packages to your server and sharing them as you see fit. This article titled Creating and hosting your own deb packages and apt repo lays out pretty thoroughly how to go about this using deb packages and the apt package manager. It even gives instructions on creating GPG and PGP key pairs.

Additionally, this guide titled How to Create a Private Python Package Repository has some additional information you may find useful on creating a different kind of private package repo.