Linux Format forums

neilj · Posted: Fri Mar 09, 2012 2:36 am Post subject: Synchronising various systems

I have a website design company and a few years back the office was destroyed by a tornado. The various staff members started working from home, storing data on their local machines and on the Internet.

I have a desktop that I do most of my development and a laptop that I use when I am out of the office.

I would like to have a way to keep all these synchronised. That would mean the laptop synced with the desktop and the desktop with the Internet.

I have tried Unison but I think it has to be the most unfriendly piece of software I have ever used. I just cannot get i to work for me.

Any ideas would be appreciated

reklan · Posted: Fri Mar 09, 2012 9:42 am Post subject:

Have you thought of using something like Dropbox..

This way you can sync all your machines with each other and sync to the net.

You can also share with your staff on dropbox and control what folder they can access and sync with.

I can't remember if you get 2gig or 5gig free storage..

but you can get client for Linux, Windows, Macs and mobile..

I've been using it for a few years now..
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nelz · Posted: Fri Mar 09, 2012 10:13 am Post subject:

I find Unison to be quite friendly but it is not the tool for this job. Unison is designed for keeping two computers in sync. It soulds like you need a revision control system like Subversion or Git that allows several people to work on the same documents and keep all their changes in sync.
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guy · Posted: Fri Mar 09, 2012 4:53 pm Post subject:

I'd suggest it depends on your data strategy.

How secure vs. accessible does it all need to be, how fine-grained the access controls? How resilient against personal, local or widespread disaster does it need to be?

Do you want to rely on each individual to maintain their own files and backups with peer-to-peer sync'ing, or do you want a central and corporately-managed resource? If you go for central, which functions need to be centralised and which can be farmed out, do you want it in the cloud or on your own hardware?

That should give you a pretty tight spec for an appropriate solution.
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wyliecoyoteuk · Posted: Fri Mar 09, 2012 8:22 pm Post subject:

You don't say what version of linux you use, but something like CouchDB or Ubuntu One might work.
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bobthebob1234 · Posted: Fri Mar 09, 2012 11:35 pm Post subject:

+1 Ubuntu One!!!!!!
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neilj · Posted: Tue Mar 13, 2012 6:09 am Post subject: Synchronising various systems

wyliecoyoteuk · Posted: Tue Mar 13, 2012 9:45 am Post subject:

Ubuntu one works well.
With that, you nominate a folder for sync, and it is synced with the cloud, and on all nominated machines, very easy.
The first 5Gb is free, and it also works with Android.
https://one.ubuntu.com/services/free/
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neilj · Posted: Tue Mar 13, 2012 12:30 pm Post subject:

wyliecoyoteuk · Posted: Tue Mar 13, 2012 1:14 pm Post subject:

It should do, it is apparently based on a python script.
I would look to see if there is a package for it.
There is a windows client, android and ios apps.
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neilj · Posted: Tue Mar 13, 2012 7:32 pm Post subject:

wyliecoyoteuk · Posted: Tue Mar 13, 2012 8:39 pm Post subject:

thenudehamster · Posted: Thu Mar 15, 2012 3:02 pm Post subject:

It would be surprising if Ubuntu One didn't support Linux as it's maintained by the producers of one of the most popular flavours of Linux - Ubuntu.

Take a look at www.ubuntuone.com where you'll find all the information (and downloads) you need. I'm not that familiar with cloud computing, but basically it matters not which OS you use, the client does all the work - much like email.
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