Using rsync to mirror directories where root owns file, using non-root user to initiate session

[PEOPLES, MICHAEL P]

Matthias,

It appears to be working.  Here is a sample command line, which I initiate from the source server:

   rsync -avPxHz --rsync-path='sudo /usr/bin/rsync' -e "ssh -i /home/rsyncusr/.ssh/id_rsa" /tmp/rsynctest/ rsyncusr at remoteserver.att.com:/tmp/rsynctest/

On the remote server, I had to add the following entry to sudoers:

   rsyncusr  ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD:/usr/bin/rsync

I added the "-i <path to private key>" to the "-e" option so that no password was necessary when logging into the remote server using the rsyncusr account.  This, of course, required setting this up in advance.

I removed the "--delete" option because I did not want to overwrite files.  

I removed the --numeric-ids because the UID of the users may not necessarily be the same.

This command line copies everything in the /tmp/rsynctest directory on the source server to the /tmp/rsynctest directory on the remote server, preserving all ownership and permissions.

Thank you very much for helping me out.

Michael Peoples (mp4783)
Senior Systems Manager
AT&T - ATTSI
Office/Cell:  614-886-0923
mpeoples at att.com

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-----Original Message-----
From: Matthias Schniedermeyer [mailto:ms at citd.de] 
Sent: Friday, June 22, 2012 4:51 AM
To: PEOPLES, MICHAEL P
Cc: rsync at lists.samba.org
Subject: Re: Using rsync to mirror directories where root owns file, using non-root user to initiate session

On 20.06.2012 22:26, PEOPLES, MICHAEL P wrote:
> I have spent a day researching and attempting to debug this issue.  I am hoping someone can tell me how (or disabuse me of the delusion that it's possible) to do the following:
...

If running a command as root via sudo is acceptable. I had the exact 
same problem 2 days ago. I had to backup a machine where i only got a 
user-login, with sudo privilege.

So after some googleing i tried (As root on the target machine, but 
you can also sudo that):
rsync -avPxHz  --delete --numeric-ids --rsync-path='sudo rsync' -e ssh user at remote:/ ./

and it worked, of course that only works if (remote) sudo doesn't ask 
for a password.



Bis denn

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