rsync server-client users

[Robert Brooks]

Subject: rsync client-server users


Are you using  rsync  in a client-server
configuration?

If you are, and if you have set up your
cron or anacron tables to run an rsync
client, does the client ever just hang?

I am running one rsync server and two
rsync clients, both clients are under
control of anacron.  And they both hang
on the rsync command, forever.

All three systems run Red Hat 7.1 and
rsync 2.4.6-2.  No data is ever sent
from the client.  In other words, it's
not a premature End-of-File condition.
And, after the hung tasks are killed,
I can run the scripts directly from root
without any error whatsoever.

And the failure isn't intermittent, it
happens every time the backup script is
run by anacron.  Yet the same script
always succeeds when run at the root console.

One at a time, I have added these options
to the rsync command:

  --stats
  --progress
  --timeout=60
  --blocking-io

Finally, I redirected the output of the
rsync command with

  > /tmp/rsync.txt

Nothing changed, no data was ever sent to
the rsync server.

Next, I took a snapshot of all the open files
just before the backup script was started, and
a snapshot of the open files during the 60-second
interval when the rsync command was timing out.
But, I can't tell from the differences between
the two snapshots what is going on for sure.

After not having any backup for any of my
computers, I was looking at rsync as a way
of providing automatic daily, weekly, monthly,
etc., backup.  But since it fails when running
under control of anacron, I'll have to keep
looking for some backup package that will
support automated, unattended operation.