Incomplete sync

[David]

I am using rsync to try and keep the development environment on 4 machines 
consistant. 

I am using Rsync version 2.6.4 under Debian Sarge

I am trying to sync between real servers and vmware ones so the time stamps 
could be an issue but I have set the vmware machines to update time via ntp 
on a regular basis and made the --modify-window=2010 so I thought I should be 
fine.

The problems I have encountered are:

1)	If I do a full sync with deletions rsync wants to delete a huge number of 
entries in the dev directory that by rights it should not touch. The date and 
time stamp are identical between the 2 systems the file sizes are identical. 
The permissions are the same but it still leave some dev entries intact and 
then deletes the rest.

2)	The same problem as number 1 in that files that are on both the source and 
destination exist but rsync deletes a whole pile of files particularly alot 
of stuff from /etc/logwatch or /etc/webmin. There are many other instances of 
this.

3) If I am trying to keep the /etc/directories in sync, rsync does weird 
things with the passwd, group and assosiated shadow files (eg copies the 
passwd firle but won't copy the shadow file). In order to make it work I have 
to exclude these files but i really want these synced as part of what is 
happening is users are being set up and I don't want to have to manually 
create these on each machine

3)	I have excluded things like /proc /sys and various encryption keys from 
various locations but I seem to have to exclude alot more to make it even 
half way workable. Is there some issue with tryign to keep 2 running machines 
in sync this way? 

An example of the rsync command I am executing is:
rsync --verbose --progress --stats --compress --archive --sparse --devices 
--delete-after --update --delay-updates --partial --ipv4 --modify-window=2010 
--exclude-from=/root/scripts/rsync/exclusions 
--include-from=/root/scripts/rsync/inclusions --delete --backup 
--backup-dir=/mnt/data/backup/rsync --partial-dir=.rsync-partial 
--temp-dir=/mnt/data/rsync/tmp --bwlimit=35 --dry-run --one-file-system 
192.168.159.4::root /

I would like to know if I am doing something wrong here or it if 

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Best Regards
-
David