Selective Backup Servers With Different .syncignore Files

[okibcn]

I would like to setup selective backup servers of a huge multimedia folder tree.

 

I have mixed videos and pictures in a folder tree. I would like to have a backup server only for video and other only for pictures.

 

The proposed setup is composed of 3 R/W nodes:

 

A. Main server: Including all the files

B. Video server: Filtering out the picture extensions and docs in .SyncIgnore file

C. Pictures server:  Filtering out the video extensions and docs in .SyncIgnore file

 

 

My questions:

 

1. Is it possible to have 3 nodes with different .SyncIgnore files?

 

2. Is there any side effect?

 

Thanks

[null null null null]

I think you are trying to do something like I did with my steam folder. In your case I think you will need to add the list of video formats to the picture folder's syncignore folder and and the picture formats to the video folder's syncignore folder. Try it with 2 test folders before you implement it on your main folder, as you can cause a big mess if applied incorrectly.

 

http://forum.bittorrent.com/topic/27900-syncignore-list-generator/

[RomanZ]

@okibcn

 

In general it is not recommended to have different .syncignore on different PCs. The main drawback you are going to get - all the peers will never show you "Synced". Video server will always want to upload videos on Pictures server (which does not accept videos) and vice versa. "All files" server will show that it wants to upload all videos to pics server and all pics to videos server.

[okibcn]

Thanks RomanZ,

 

Let me ask this question, is it possible to include this functionality in the protocol as a new feature? I mean, it would be easy for the peers to check whether the file matches also the syncignore file of the other peer when trying to upload/download.

 

In mi case the BT sync running in the video server would check the syncignore file of the picture server to check whether it can be considered already uploaded/discarded.

 

Obviously in the download direction the BT sync will never request a file that matches one of the rules in it's local syncignore file but it should also check whether a missing file in the other peer is because it has been deleted or, maybe, because it matches the other peer's sincignore file.

 

It could be a nice and easy addition to the official functionality of BTSync, or at least an option for each folder. Otherwise, if having different syncignore files is dangerous, for safety reasons, you should make syncignore file part of the synced list of files to ensure that all the peers have the same file for exclusions.

 

 

Regards

[null null null null]

@okibcn

 

In general it is not recommended to have different .syncignore on different PCs. The main drawback you are going to get - all the peers will never show you "Synced". Video server will always want to upload videos on Pictures server (which does not accept videos) and vice versa. "All files" server will show that it wants to upload all videos to pics server and all pics to videos server.

I agree that it is not the best practice to have different syncignore folders, however until btsync has a selective sync option there is not a lot of other options.  I have not had any problems with this method, however I did a lot of testing before I started using it on my main folders. I also have the data backed up daily to a non-sync folder in the event that the next update causes a problem. 

 

Btsync will want to sync the entire folder and you will end up with it thinking it is not fully synced. 

Thus if you absolutely need to do this, just go ahead, but remember the next update could break it so keep backups just in case.