What Is Preferred Method For Seeding A Folder? Direct Copy Or Local Lan Sync?

[demani]

I have about 2TB of various data that I want to sync between 5 servers (well, RW between 4 and RO to a 5th). I have two options before moving the drives out to the sites:

 

1) just prep a folder by copying the already being synced folder over to the drive, then setting up a sync on site on the remote server with the drive attached, using the Key and pointing it to the local folder with the data already in it. Will there be issues with the hidden files that were copied over causing any conflicts?

 

2) Use a local machine as a Sync Peer, and once the sync is up to date over the LAN, move that drive (but not the client) over to the other servers and set up the jobs using the Key and pointing it to the now-local folder. Will this have an issue as a result of the Peer change?

 

If I decide to change a Peer to a Read-Only peer do I just do that by installing the RO key in place of the RW key? And the same for the reverse (I might set up everything as RO and make sure everything is syncing in one direction, then reset the Keys to RW once I'm sure everything is getting updated properly).

[RomanZ]

@demani

You can do any. Direct copy and add should also work find - Sync won't re-transfer files. Though, you can't change the folder from RW to RO, so add it as RO from beginning.

[demani]

Okay- sounds good. One follow up on the RO: if I pull the RW synced folder from the list, then add the RO key to the offsite unit and point it to the local copy it had already (when it was RW) will that work OK? Or do I need to set up a RO link right off the bat? 

[RomanZ]

@demani

It would be okay, though it will take some time to index all the files and make sure they are the same as on RW peers.