On 12/7/05, Denis Croombs <denis at croombs.org> wrote: > On 12/6/05, Jonathan Darton <jdarton at ibigroup.com> wrote: > >> >I want to build 2 servers (both running samba) to provide file > >> >storage to 2 offices (approx 100 miles apart, linked via DSL) but all > >> >data writen to 1 server must also be saved to the other server. > >> >Both servers would also allow users to access the data via a VPN thus > >> >allowing 1 office with a failed server to access the other server via > >> >the vpn and still see the data from both offices. > >> >I currently have 1 server working but we want to add the second > >> >office to the system. (Currently 1 office has 10 users and the second > >> >office has 1 user connected via VPN ) but the second office will have > >> >20 within 12 > >> months > >> >and the first will have 35 soon )) > >> > >> >Has anyone done anything like this ? > >> > >> I am currently synchronizing multiple office locations using a program > >> called unison. Unison (http://www.cis.upenn.edu/~bcpierce/unison/) is > >> a very well written program that can perform 2 way file > >> synchronization. There are many configurable options with unison and I > recommend that you check it out. > >> In each office I have a PII350 128RAM Fedora or CentOS server running > >> unison and the files are accessed via samba. I also configure samba to > >> hide (veto) all of the temporary files used during synchronization. > >> For redundancy I place a slave server with each master server that > >> backs up all the user data / file system using rsync. This way if one > >> of my $5 PII servers catches fire I can automatically switch over with no > downtime for the users. > >> > >> The only downfall I have encountered is with Autocad files not > >> properly reading the synchronized .dwl lock file and more than one > >> user working on the same file. As a work around for this I have > >> configured Unison to keep a backup of the last 20 versions of a file. > >> This way I can always hit my backups to retreive lost data. As a side > >> note, if anyone knows a work around for the stubborn autocad dwl lock > file let me know :))! > >> > >> In any case my implementation has allowed me to synchronize file > >> systems between 4 offices (3 in Canada, 1 in USA), using recycled > >> hardware that was otherwise going to be donated/trashed. > >> > >> Let me know if you have any further questions. > > > >I'm about to do a Unison setup on two CentOS servers, so I'm thrilled to > see this response. I also work with Architects >>sometimes, so I'm > interested to hear about the dwl lock file issue. > > > >My one compound question: how are you invoking Unison? In batch mode, with > cron? How often? Wat other options did you > >consider before settling on the scheme you use? > > I see the project is no longer supported, do you have rpms for it ? > > Thanks It's not that it's no longer supported, really, just that the project that initiated it is not an officially-funded academic project. It has actually been updated since the termination of the project, it looks like. I haven't installed it on CentOS yet but I got FC4 rpms from fedora extras (I just typed 'yum install unison' and it worked). I think it's in pretty common usage in RHEL too, so it can't be too hard to find for CentOS, right? (But let us know what you turn up :-)).