[binary visions]

Hey monkeys -

I need something free that will allow scheduling of synchronization of folders to a remote FTP server.

I've got several thousand files that I want the program to be able to automatically sync with an FTP server during night/work times.

Suggestions?

 

[Arkayne]

Do you want the files on the ftp site to be exactly the same? I've only experience with Retrospect which puts all of the files in its own proprietary single file format. Backing up to multiple kinds of media (including ftp) and restoring is a snap.

However, it's an older program so I bet other people on here could recommend something modern.

Also, what operating system?

 

[H8R]

Syncback freeware:

http://www.2brightsparks.com/assets/software/SyncBack_Setup.zip

Tutorial:

http://lifehacker.com/software/geek-to-live/geek-to-live-automatically-back-up-your-hard-drive-147855.php

 

[sanjuro]

This kind of crude, but you could use Expect.

You could also use Secure Shell FTP. I haven't done this in a while, but if you do the keys right, you could move files without login info. That would speed up the process.

 

[binary visions]

Arkayne; I want the files to be exactly as they are on the drive, because I want to be able to browse them remotely. Running Vista.

sanjuro; I really don't want to do it manually via secure FTP. Expect has some automated tasks but it doesn't really handle any scheduling or verification of copy. If I change a file in a directory, I want the program to note that and make the appropriate copy to the server.

H8R - will check it out, thanks.

 

[sanjuro]

Veritas Netbackup

 

[H8R]

Hey monkeys -

I need something free that will allow scheduling of synchronization of folders to a remote FTP server.

I've got several thousand files that I want the program to be able to automatically sync with an FTP server during night/work times.

Suggestions?

Veritas Netbackup

Veritas NetBackup Starter Pack 6.5 Windows Server License
5 Clients $3,995.00
20 Clients $11,995.00

 

[BigMike]

norton ghost will do it, but it's not free. Worth the money though! (or the torrent seach)

 

[binary visions]

Well, Syncback sorta does it. It does what I'm looking for, but these files/directories are huge and will take more than one backup session to sync. I really want something that will actually automatically stop the transfers during specified periods and resume again later.

Sorta like how some of the Bittorrent clients will allow you to specify periods where you want it to throttle back bandwidth or stop alltogether.

BigMike; will Ghost handle that? In reality I'd pay for a really good solution since it's backing up critical files, I was just hoping there was something free.

 

[Toshi]

rsync

 

[H8R]

I really want something that will actually automatically stop the transfers during specified periods and resume again later.

Sorta like how some of the Bittorrent clients will allow you to specify periods where you want it to throttle back bandwidth or stop alltogether.

Damn you're fussy about software.

 

[binary visions]

Damn you're fussy about software.

Yep.

It's for my photos, and I want them regularly sync'd with a remote server. I do enough processing and enough shooting that the directory structure changes frequently and while I have tons of downstream bandwidth, upstream is limited - it puts the hurt on my connection.

Just looking for a way to avoid manual uploads every time I process an image or copy new files over.

Toshi - rsync can be scheduled (like Syncback can), but that's the extent of it. It'll trigger the task, but won't actually turn off the sync if it runs past the intended window.

There has to be a utility for this; it's practically the most common system administration task in the world, and most sys admins don't want network bandwidth being sucked dry during normal hours.

 

[syadasti]

There has to be a utility for this; it's practically the most common system administration task in the world, and most sys admins don't want network bandwidth being sucked dry during normal hours.

Get a hardware or software router with traffic shaping:huh: Make rule to limit that traffic type/port from whatever IP its on.

There are some free linux distros to do this with - just need some old hardware.

 

[H8R]

Open source?

http://www.educ.umu.se/~cobian/cobianbackup.htm#Bfeatures

 

[binary visions]

Buy a hardware or software router with traffic shaping:huh: Make rule to limit that traffic type/port from whatever IP its on.

Yep, I know I could do that, but none of the firmwares I've seen will shape based on time of day. They'll turn things off based on time of day, just haven't seen a "limit transfers to <x> Kb/s during this time."

 

[syadasti]

Yep, I know I could do that, but none of the firmwares I've seen will shape based on time of day. They'll turn things off based on time of day, just haven't seen a "limit transfers to <x> Kb/s during this time."

Well if its a cheap consumer box... Are you doing this at work or home?

Usually even the cheap soho stuff now lets you make multiple rules - just make a rule for peak and non-peak.

Free stuff [well some of them] if you have an extra PC...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Linux_router_or_firewall_distributions

 

[H8R]

Yep, I know I could do that, but none of the firmwares I've seen will shape based on time of day. They'll turn things off based on time of day, just haven't seen a "limit transfers to <x> Kb/s during this time."

Wouldn't you want it running in the background and set it to throttle when you're system is active and go full speed when it's idle?

Like, set it to application priority instead of a certain time?

 

[syadasti]

Wouldn't you want it running in the background and set it to throttle when you're system is active and go full speed when it's idle?

Like, set it to application priority instead of a certain time?

He talking about a router. You can get dedicated proprietary boxes or use an old PC with various software solutions.

You could just use the ftp app as normal and it would be throttled by the router. Just like some of the ISPs do to bitorrent etc.

ISP that are too cheap to grow to keep up the quality of service though obviously certain types of traffic do incur excessive and make things bad for everyone else if you are sharing your connection with others in your node.

 

[syadasti]

Maybe these with your program of choice

http://www.netlimiter.com/

http://monkey.org/~marius/pages/?page=trickle

 

[sanjuro]

Originally Posted by http://www.symantec.com/business/products/purchasing.jsp?pcid=2244&pvid=2_1
Veritas NetBackup Starter Pack 6.5 Windows Server License
5 Clients $3,995.00
20 Clients $11,995.00

I can give you level 1 support for 2,000 credits a hour.

 

[Quo Fan]

If I were to set this up, what would my network diagram look like? Would the limiter go between the modem and the router?

 

[syadasti]

If I were to set this up, what would my network diagram look like? Would the limiter go between the modem and the router?

If you are going with a software or hardware router you could take your present router and reconfigure it into a passive switch/access point behind the new hardware/software router setup. That is sorta what I did with my crappy FiOS router - its behind my high-end consumer router with most of the features turned off on the FiOS router and it just does the guide/on demand TV functions via its coax port to the STBs and you can use all the other ports other than the WAN port(which isn't in use) as a switch.

Those software apps from my last post run direct on the workstation and don't require any changes to your network, only the workstation.

 

[binary visions]

Welp, no dice with Ghost.

I may give Netlimiter a try, seems like it would solve the problem even if it's not as clean as an all-in-one package (which I insist must exist somewhere).

Thanks for the suggestions, all.