RSYNC USAGE

Introduction

Rsync is an open-source application that provides fast incremental or mirror backup by leveraging built-in data deduplication algorithms. It is included in almost all Linux distributions.

Features

• Can update whole directory trees and filesystems
• Optionally preserves symbolic links, hard links, file ownership, permissions, devices and times
• Requires no special privileges to install
• Internal pipelining reduces latency for multiple files
• Can use rsh, ssh or direct sockets as the transport
• Supports anonymous rsync which is ideal for mirroring

Basic Use

rsync -option source/ destination/

Samples

rsync -avh /home/user/data/ /mnt/backup

Copy /home/user/data/ (as source directory) to /mnt/backup (as destination directory), using the options -avh.

Rsync Server Setup

Rsync can be used not only for local backups, but also to transfer data between different OSes (e.g. Windows, macOS, Linux, etc.). It can push data to a remote host (for backup) or pull from a remote host (for restore). However, an rsync daemon needs to be set up on one side.

1. Set up Rsync Daemon on OpenWRT (Typical)

Install Rsync Daemon:

opkg update && opkg install rsyncd 

Two files are required:

For the rsyncd config file:

cat >> /etc/rsyncd.conf << EOF  
# /etc/rsyncd.conf
# Minimal configuration for rsync daemon  
  
# Next line required for init script  
pid file = /var/run/rsyncd.pid  
log file = /var/log/rsyncd.log  
use chroot = no  
uid = nobody  
gid = nogroup  
read only = no  
  
[Tools]  
        path = /mnt/Tools  
        comment = Shared Tools Folder over Rsync  
        read only = no  
        auth users = user01  
        secrets file = /etc/rsyncd.secrets  
  
  
[Media]  
        path = /mnt/Media  
        comment = Shared Media Folder over Rsync  
        read only = no  
        auth users = user02  
        secrets file = /etc/rsyncd.secrets
EOF

Two directory folders named Tools and Media are set up for sharing, and the users user01 and user02 are specified for each share.

For the rsyncd authentication password:

cat >> /etc/rsyncd.secrets << EOF 
user01:P@ssw0rd01  
user02:P@ssw0rd02  
EOF

This defines two users and their passwords.

(OPTIONAL) Generating a Random Password with ‘OpenSSL’

To generate a pseudo-random password, we can use the OpenSSL via syntax:

$  openssl rand -base64 30

-base64 option is used for encoding the output with length 30 characters.

Assign permissions to the password file:

chmod 600 /etc/rsyncd.secrets

This avoids the error "@ERROR: auth failed on module" for security.

Restart the rsyncd service:

/etc/init.d/rsyncd restart 

Or reboot.

2. Set up Rsync Daemon on OMV (OpenMediaVault)

To enable the Rsync Daemon Server:

Add a share folder named “Media”

Create an account for authorization

3. Set up Rsync Daemon on DSM (Synology)

Enable rsync service

Go to Control Panel > File Services > rsync, and tick Enable rsync service.

Enabling rsync Accounts

1. Go to Control Panel > File Services > rsync, and tick Enable rsync account.
2. Click Edit rsync Account > Add to configure users

Assign user "rsync" to directory and privileges

Rsync Client Setup

Rsync is not only useful for local backups, but it can also be used to transfer data between different OS such as Windows, macOS, and Linux. You can use PUSH (backup to remote) or PULL (backup to local), but a server daemon is required.

1. Set up Rsync client on OpenWRT (Typical)

To install the rsync service:

opkg update && opkg install rsync

To backup using interactive mode:

rsync -avz /mnt/Tools/ [email protected]::Tools/
## You will be prompted to insert an authorization password for the user named user01
P@ssw0rd01

Alternatively, create a Rsync password file to store each user’s password to avoid having to insert the password each time:

echo "P@ssw0rd01" >> /etc/rsync.passwd 

The file stored password is “P@ssw0rd01”.

You can create other password files as you have more than one user. For example, /etc/rsync.passwd2, and assign the file 600 permission:

chmod 600 /etc/rsync.passwd

To upload local data to a remote server, use the following syntax:

rsync -avz /mnt/Tools/ [email protected]::Tools/ --password-file=/etc/rsync.passwd

To download files from remote to local:

rsync -avz [email protected]::Media/ /mnt/Media/ --password-file=/etc/rsync.passwd

2. Set up Rsync client on OMV (OpenMediaVault)

In this screenshot, the remote folder’s data (Media) is being downloaded to the local harddisk.

3. Set up Rsync client on Windows

Install Rsync client software like a Linux through Chocolatey:

choco install rsync -y

Use the following syntax to transfer files:

rsync.exe -avhz --progress --update --chmod=ugo=rwX /cygdrive/c/tools /cygdrive/d/Other/
## "/cygdrive/c" indicates Driver "C:\" in Windows

Schedule a shell script to run using a CRON job on Linux

Create a shell script:

cat >> /root/rsync_bak.sh << EOF
#!/bin/bash

# Variables
OPTS="-avzP --delete"
LOG_DIR="/media/Tools/Tutorial/typecho/DNMP/logs"
BASE_DIR="/media/Tools/Tutorial/typecho/DNMP"
REMOTE_DIR="/Apps/DNMP"
HOST="REMOTE_SERVER_IP"
USER="opc"

# Log files
APPS_LOG="--log-file=${LOG_DIR}/Apps_$(date +'%Y-%m-%d-%H-%M-%S').txt"

# Rsync commands
rsync $OPTS $APPS_LOG -e ssh ${USER}@${HOST}:${REMOTE_DIR}/apps ${BASE_DIR}

# Delete log files older than 30 days
find ${LOG_DIR}/*.txt -mtime +30 -exec rm {} \;
EOF

Assign execute permission to the shell script:

chmod +x /root/rsync_bak.sh

Edit the crontab file to schedule the job:

crontab -e

Add the following syntax to the end of the file:

0 1 * * * sh /root/rsync_bak.sh 2>&1
## This will start the job at 1:00 a.m. every day.

3. Others

Create a copy of the directory structure from the 2023-2024/ directory in the 2024-2025 directory

rsync -a --include '*/' --exclude '*' 2023-2024/ 2024-2025

Conclusion

Rsync is a useful backup tool that provides fast incremental file transfer and supports various types of operating systems.

Finally, I strongly recommend using the ‘-e ssh’ option to transfer data with public key, as it provides better security through an encrypted tunnel.

Reference

• rsync (samba.org)
• Rsync | DSM - Synology Knowledge Center
• RSync — openmediavault 6.x.y documentation
• Linux 使用 rsync 遠端檔案同步與備份工具教學與範例
• rsyncd in openWRT | #Villa’s syslog (villasyslog.net)

Related

• RSYNC USAGE
• Synchronization Solution on Windows (RSYNC)