This chapter describes how to prepare the central office servers to receive incremental file transfers from the Novell® NterpriseTM Branch OfficeTM appliance using rsync software. Rsync is an open source utility that provides fast incremental file transfer. Transferring files to the central office using rsync eliminates the need for local backups and increases your disaster preparedness because a copy of your data and user accounts exists in another location.
IMPORTANT: Files larger than 2 GB cannot be replicated using rsync. During a file transfer, these files will be skipped.
If the Nterprise Branch Office appliance ever experiences any problems, you can restore the appliance at the central office by creating a replacement appliance and shipping it to the branch office or at the branch office by restoring the appliance and transferring the data back to the appliance. See "Restoring the Appliance" in the Nterprise Branch Office Administration Guide.
This guide covers only some of the functionality available by using rsync software. For more information on rsync, see the rsync Web site.
WARNING: Rsync does not work with Macintosh files. These files cannot be replicated to the central office using rsync without significant data corruption because resource forks are not transferred properly.
If you have an established backup method such as tape backup already installed in your branch office setting, you do not need to complete the steps in this chapter. You can enable Branch Office to back up locally to the existing system without having to enable rsync. See "Configuring Backup" in the Nterprise Branch Office Administration Guide.
Before you set up the central office server, ensure that the server you will back up to meets the Central Office Prerequisites and has enough disk space to hold the data that you will back up.
WARNING: The server that you replicate files to must be located in a secure area and files should be replicated to a secure volume on the server where only the administrator has rights to view the files. Files replicated to a nonsecured server or a volume that all users have access to could potentially be compromised.