rsync is a tool that you can use to
copy files between your computer and a remote server.
rsync can also be used to
copy files directly between remote servers,
bypassing your computer entirely.
Tip
rsync is useful for copying files between
Cloud persistent storage file systems in different regions.
Note
rsync copies files using SSH. For this reason, to copy files between your
computer and a remote server, you need to be able to SSH into the remote
servers.
To use rsync to copy files between remote servers directly, you need to be
able to SSH into the remote servers using public key authentication with an
SSH agent.
Copy files between your computer and a remote server
To copy files from your computer to a remote server using rsync, run:
rsync -av --info=progress2 FILES USERNAME@SERVER-IP:REMOTE-PATH
Replace FILES with the files you want to copy to the remote server. Alternatively, you can specify a directory.
Replace USERNAME with your username on the remote server.
Replace SERVER-IP with the IP address of the remote server.
Replace REMOTE-PATH with the directory into which you want to copy files.
In the below example, rsync was used to copy the local directory
rsync_example_dir, containing a single empty file named EXAMPLE_FILE, into
the home directory of the user ubuntu on a remote server with the IP address
146.235.208.193.
$ rsync -a --progress rsync_example_dir [email protected]:~
sending incremental file list
rsync_example_dir/
rsync_example_dir/EXAMPLE_FILE
0 100% 0.00kB/s 0:00:00 (xfr#1, to-chk=0/2)
Copy files directly between remote servers
Note
To copy files directly between remote servers using rsync, you must use
public key (rather than password) authentication for SSH with an SSH agent.
You can add your private key to the SSH agent by running:
ssh-add SSH-PRIVATE-KEY
Replace SSH-PRIVATE-KEY with the path to your SSH private key, for
example, ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.
You can confirm your key was added to the SSH agent by running:
ssh-add -L
Your public key will be listed in the output.
To copy files directly between remote servers using rsync, first SSH into
the server you want to copy files from by running:
ssh -A USERNAME-1@SERVER-IP-1
Replace SERVER-IP-1 with the IP address of the server you want to copy files from, referred to below as Server 1.
Replace USERNAME-1 with your username on Server 1.
Tip
It’s recommended to run thersync command, below, in a tmux or screen
session. This way, you can log out of Server 1 and the rsync command will
continue to run.
Then, on Server 1, run:
rsync -av --info=progress2 FILES USERNAME-2@SERVER-IP-2:REMOTE-PATH
Replace SERVER-IP-2 with the IP address of the server you want to copy files to, referred to below as Server 2.
Replace FILES with the files (or directory) you want to copy to Server 2.
Replace USERNAME-2 with your username on Server 2.
Replace SERVER-IP-2 with the IP address of Server 2.
Replace REMOTE-PATH with the directory into which you want to copy files.