[mythtv-users] OT: rsync, or is there a better option?

Stephen Tait tait at digitallaw.co.uk
Fri Dec 3 21:23:10 UTC 2004


At 19:58 03/12/2004, you wrote:
>James Pifer wrote:
>
>>Since my myth box has crashed a few times, including power loss and hard
>>lockups, I want to backup my recordings, videos, etc so I don't lose
>>anything the next time. So I picked up a couple large hard drives and
>>have another linux box (FC3) ready to be a network storage device. I
>>already backup important files, such as mysql dump, so I'm just talking
>>the large video files here.
>>What's the best way to get all my recordings, videos, mucis, etc sent
>>over to this box every so often, maybe once a day. I'm thinking copy
>>anything new or changed, and remove anything deleted from the source.
>>Changes would only be made on the storage system, either adding or
>>removing files.
>>Would rsync be the best way to accomplish this or is there a better
>>option?
>>
>>Thanks,
>>James
>>
>>
>>
>>------------------------------------------------------------------------
>Seems like if you have a LOT of movies and you record a lot every day, you 
>will be transfering a ton of data.  You may want to set up a Firewire 
>network or actually just set up an external drive to back up to.  Sending 
>that much data over the network could take forever.  I've never set up the 
>firewire network, but my system has the eth# device.
>
>Just my 2 cents.
>
>Matt

The initial transfer would indeed take forever, but remember after that 
you'll only be transferring the daily delta of new or altered files (the 
primary advantage of using rsync raher than tar or cp). Shifting 20GB a 
night is easily within the grasp of a 100Mb network, so long as it runs 
through a switch. My windows box is hampered by a software firewall (Kerio) 
that thrashes the CPU and limits network throughput, but even that manages 
6MB/s - so it takes about an hour to transfer 20GB. Rsync will also allow 
you to keep temporary backups in case you accidentally hose a file.

That said, the two applications listed above look like they'd be able to 
accomplish the same thing (and indeed might even use the rsync algorithm 
themselves), and look very funky indeed. But rsync is small and easy to 
shell script - just be sure to add trailing slashes to your directories! 



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