How to Synchronize Files and Directories Using Rsync

Overview

Rsync is an open source utility for efficiently transferring and synchronizing files from one host to an another host. This tool is powerful because it can be a server and client. Rsync usually used to automate backup data from server to backup server.

The advantages of using rsync:

• Save Bandwidth and Supports Resume

• Flexibel

• Fast

• Easy Setup

Some Basic Options of Rsync Command:

Options	Function
-v, --verbose	increase verbosity
-a, --archive	archive mode
-r, --recursive	recurse into directories
-u, --update	skip files that are newer on the receiver
-e, --rsh=COMMAND	specify the remote shell to use
-z, --compress	compress file data during the transfer
-h, --human-readable	output numbers in a human-readable format

let's go ahead and follow the tutorial to gain experience on Rsync.

Prerequisites

This is the prerequisites before you start the tutorial.

• Create two host in local environment or you can use VPSServer.com[1]

In this tutorial used VPSServer.com[2] service to create two host using Ubuntu OS but you can also using this tutorial for other distro such as CentOS, Fedora, Debian, etc.

Install Rsync

Rsync installation is very easy just by following the command

for Debian / Ubuntu

root@host-ubuntu:~# apt-get install rsync

for Fedora / CentOS / Scientific

root@host-centos:~# yum install rsync

That's it. Now you have rsync in your server :)

Synchronize Files / Directories on Local Server

• create folder "primary" and files (file1, file2, file3) on the primary folder.

root@host01:~# mkdir primary
root@host01:~# touch primary/file{1..3}

• check the folder and files, then fill the files with text

  root@host01:~# ls primary/ root@host01:~# echo "im in file1" > primary/file1 && echo "im in file2" > primary/file2 && echo "im in file3" > primary/file3 root@host01:~# cat primary/file1 root@host01:~# cat primary/file2 root@host01:~# cat primary/file3

• Sync the primary folder from /root/primary/ to /tmp/secondary/

root@host01:~# rsync -avzh primary/ /tmp/secondary

• Check the synchronize files

  root@host01:~# ls /tmp/secondary/ root@host01:~# cat /tmp/secondary/file1 root@host01:~# cat /tmp/secondary/file2 root@host01:~# cat /tmp/secondary/file3

Synchronize Files / Directories from Local Server to a Remote Server

• Sync the primary folder in host01 to secondary folder in host02

root@host01:~# rsync -avz primary/ root@185.144.157.99:/tmp/secondary/

• Check the synchronize files

  root@host02:~# ls /tmp/secondary/ root@host02:~# cat /tmp/secondary/file1 root@host02:~# cat /tmp/secondary/file2 root@host02:~# cat /tmp/secondary/file3

Synchronize Files / Directories from a Remote Server to a Local Server over SSH

• Sync the secondary folder in host02 to primary folder in host01

root@host01:~# rsync -avzhe ssh root@185.144.157.99:/tmp/secondary/ /root/secondary/

• Check the synchronize files

  root@host01:~# ls /root/secondary/ root@host01:~# cat /root/secondary/file1 root@host01:~# cat /root/secondary/file2 root@host01:~# cat /root/secondary/file3

Synchronize Files / Directories from a Local Server to a Remote Server over SSH

• Sync the primary folder in host01 to secondary folder in host02 via SSH

root@host01:~# rsync -avzhe ssh primary/ root@185.144.157.99:/home/secondary

• Check the synchronize files

  root@host02:~# ls /home/secondary/ root@host02:~# cat /home/secondary/file1 root@host02:~# cat /home/secondary/file2 root@host02:~# cat /home/secondary/file3

Show Progress While Synchronize Files / Directories

• You can use --progress to show progress while synchronize files / directories from host01 to host02

root@host01:~# rsync -avzhe ssh --progress primary/ root@185.144.157.99:/root/secondary

Set Bandwidth Limit

• You can also set --bwlimit parameter with a kbps value while synchronize files / directories

root@host01:~# rsync --bwlimit=100 -avzhe ssh primary/ root@185.144.157.99:/opt/secondary

That's it. Installation and basic operation of Rsync. I hope you can understand rsync from this tutorial. If you encounter any bugs or documentation errors, please comments below :)