setting up rsync as a server

[jw schultz]

On Thu, Sep 18, 2003 at 11:06:44AM -0700, Cary_Anderson at dot.ca.gov wrote:
> 
> I currently am running rsync between two servers over ssh.  I am running
> these sync's every 10 min. via a cron job and everything seems to be
> running fine.  My question is will I get better performance if I set one of
> my servers up as a rsync server? 

That depends on the bottlenecks.  If you are CPU bound the
rsync deamon will perform marginally better.  That is
because ssh is encrypting the data.  Of course that means
that the data will travel in plaintext for anyone to snoop
so if your network is that secure (and switches don't make
it secure) you could use rsh and get the same speedup if
any.

> my servers up as a rsync server?  What are the advantages/disadvatages of
> setting up a rsync server.

Advantages:

	Better control over what may be read or written
	(security issue).

	Allows anonymous access for public servers.

	Can allow individual rsync accounts seperate from
	system accounts (security issue).

	No encryption burdening the CPU.
	
Disadvantages:

	Another daemon to make sure is running or launched
	by inetd.

	Yet another configuration file to write and keep up
	to date.

	Another set of passwords to track.

	Passwords stored in plaintext files (security issue).

	No encryption protecting a datastream that may
	contain confidential information (security issue).

Next time put your questions on seperate lines.

-- 
________________________________________________________________
	J.W. Schultz            Pegasystems Technologies
	email address:		jw at pegasys.ws

		Remember Cernan and Schmitt