Migrating from mirror to rsync

Important: This document describes migration to the new procedure of mirroring with the EMIS rsync server. It is intended for those administrators who have been using the old, FTP-based procedure and want to change to the new procedure. For information on how to set up an EMIS mirror site from scratch using the new procedure, please refer to the Document Creating EMIS Mirror Sites with rsync.

Technical preparations and software requirements

Install the rsync software following the included instructions. This is easy. If you already have rsync installed, make sure that you use version 2.4.6 or higher. This can be checked by entering the command
rsync --version
on the machine designated for mirroring.
If you want the mirror to be accessible via rsync, you must furthermore configure an rsync server, see the rsyncd.conf documentation for details.
Notify the master site adminstration to allow access to the rsync server. You must include the name and IP address of the machine on which you intend to run the rsync program.

Updating your system to run with rsync

To prepare the system, do a preliminary mirror run with the rsync program as follows:
```
rsync -Cvvraz --size-only --stats --partial \
       ftp.emis.de::EMIS_mirror <your local EMIS root directory>
```
This will adjust the timestamps to be identical with the EMIS server. In the older, FTP-based system, timestamps were only reflecting the output of the FTP protocol, not the exact UNIX time.
It is important to do this at least once before switching to automatic mirroring with rsync!

Adjust the crontab entry for mirroring; the old entry referring to the "mirror" program must be replaced with the entry
```
??minute?? ??hour?? * * *  \
             rsync -Craz --stats --partial \
	     ftp.emis.de::EMIS_mirror <your local EMIS root directory> 
       
```
This should be one line.
This will update your mirror every day at the given time and send you a mail about what happened. Please agree about the time with the maintainer of the master site.

That's it

Now check and double check the configuration. Look at the mirroring process for some days. Check all links. If you think that everything runs O.K. notify the master site.

Page created 13 Jun 2001. Last updated 09 Sep 2003.

Aleksandar Perovic