I have searched and found info on configuring UnRaid as an Rsync server, but I'd like to configure UnRaid as an Rsync CLIENT to pull backup data from a network machine configured as an Rsync server.  I currently do this with Infrant NAS's and it works great.  I've got the server side figured out, but on the client side the Infrant NAS provides a UI to cofigure the client side.  I've searched the forums and WIKI and can't find a single clue about configuring Unraid as an Rsync client.  From what I can tell, Unraid has the capability built in with the current release and I imagine I'd have to configure a cron job to run against a config file, but that is as far as my imagination has taken me.  I'd very much appreciate some help from anyone with more knowledge than I.

I'm on my own with this one, huh?

I'm on my own with this one, huh?

 

Patience, young jedi.  It can take a while for corner-case questions to be answered.  There are a handful of us active members that answer the most obvious stuff, but your's is not obvious (to me, at least).

 

 

Bill

Ok,  I'll be patient.  In the mean-time I am still trying myself to find the answer, but shell script syntax and rSync are foreign to me and I will reallly appreciate any help at all.  I've been reading a lot of example shell scripts on the web that use rSync, but it's difficult for me to sift through all the SSH stuff (which I don't care about at this point) and all the rotateing & incremental backup code.  For my first implementation I just want to pull a backup of a single subdirectory off of a windows machine running cygwin and an rSync server (all that stuff I've got figured out already.  I just can't figure out the rSync client side stuff yet.

Well, I'm making a little progress.  I made a shell script that seems to run fine if I place it in one of the /etc/cron.* folders.  It looks something like this:

 

#!/bin/bash

#

# Title: *_blacky_rsync.sh

#

# Summary:

# The purpose of this script is to 'PULL' a backup off of a remote rsync server to a local destination on the client.

#

 

# rsync source

sSrc="blacky::fs1"

 

# rsync destination

sDest="/mnt/user/backup/fs1"

 

# rsync parameters

sParms="-amv --delete"

# -a archive mode; same as -rlptgoD (no -H preserve hard links)

# -rlptgoD

# -r recurss into directories

# -l copy symlinks as symlinks

# -p preserve permissions

# -t preserve times

# -g preserve group

# -o preserve owner (super-user only)

# -D same as --devices --specials

# --devices preserve device files (super-user only)

# --specials preserve special files

# -m prune empty directory chains from the file-list

# --delete delete files that don't exist on the sending side

 

# Here's the magic:

rsync $sParms $sSrc $sDest

 

# My job here is done:

exit

 

The issue I'm trying to figure out right now is how to configure the 'destination' as a User Share.  Right now I have my destination configured as "/mnt/user/backup/fs1".  "backup" is a User Share that spans disk2, disk3, disk4, & disk7 with a Split Level of 3.  When I run the script, files do copy over from my rsync server to my unRaid box.  That is a good sign of progress.  However, they are only being copied onto disk2.  When disk 2 fills up rsync starts throwing 'disk full' errors and craps out on me without copying anything onto disk3, disk4, or disk7.  I'm trying to work this bug out before trying anything else. 

 

MORE PROGRESS!!

 

Everything seems to work as advertised now (more testing required).  The backup seems to span all four (disk2, disk3, disk4, & disks) drives now.

 

Recap:

 

I want to backup to a subdirectory called "fs1" on a User Share called "backup".  What I did was to add the directory tree "\backup\fs1" to each of the four drives in the User Share before running rsync.  This seemed to do the trick. 

 

On my first attempt (see previous post) I had thought that unRaid would automatically add these directories, as needed, to each of the drives.  unRaid did fine adding the directories to the first of the four drives, but once that first drive was full unRaid didn't know enough to move to the next drive if the required path didn't already exist.

 

By adding the directory tree (\backup\fs1) to each of the four drives in the User Share ahead of time, unRaid seems to function properly allocating (High-Water) all the files across all four drives while also respecting the Split-Level setting (3) of the User Share.

 

CURRENT ISSUE:

When I run TOP, I've noticed that unRaid uses very little of the available system memory during normal use.  While rsync is running almost all the system memory is used.  That's fine, I suppose.  However, when the rsync job is finished the memory is not released.  Is there some unix command I can run to clean up the system memory?  I'm thinking that rsync is leaving some junk behind, but I'm not smart enough (yet) to know how to fix this.

Can someone please help me find where rsync keeps its logs on the unraid server?  I can't figure out why rsync is failing to delete files from the backup when they've been deleted from the source. 

Is it possible to upgrade the rsync version to 2.6.9??  Has anyone done this on their unraid??