rsync problem and question about using rsync with Maildir

[Zachary Denison]

Hi,

I have a Maildir store (about 500 GB) on a linux
(redhat 8) server which I am trying to mirror to
another identical server.  I have 4 GB of ram on both
machines.  I am using rsync 2.5.5.  At present the
machines are on the same lan (100Mbit).

Everytime I run the rsync, it runs for a short amount
of time, (anywhere from 5-20 minutes) and then one of
the machines (either the source or the destination
machine) crashes and requires reboot.

The actual command I am using is:

/usr/bin/rsync -qaz --rsh=ssh --stats --progress
--rsync-path=/usr/bin/rsync --delete --force /users/
10.10.12.161:/users/

Examination of the systems "free" command during rsync
execution shows that the rsync rapidly consumes the
systems memory.

Is this an appropriate use for rsync?  My goal is to
be able to first synchronize the maildirs on a 100mb
lan.  Then ship the destination machine to a remote
location and then run periodic rsync backups over WAN
(each site has regular 1.5mb connection to internet)
to the remote destination server as a backup.  

Does this scenario sound feasible given that the users
directories will contain ONLY Maildirs.

Also since Maildirs contain a large number of files
does it make sense to tar and/or gzip each users
Maildir and rsync the tar files?

Also is rsync over ssh contributing to my problem,
does it make sense to run an rsync server instead?

Thank you very much in advance for any hints you can
give me.

Zach.


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