© Copyright Robert Vasvari, 1993-2008.

The top section is the most important, here you can set the source and destination folders for the this sync definition. Either one can a local or a remote folder, the only limitation is that they both cannot be remote. If you click the remote browse button, it will bring up the Login Panel:

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The Character encoding must be set BEFORE you start browsing! For instance if the remote system uses SHIFT JIS your files will not show up unless you have the encoding set correctly. This setting can be changed later on the Options Panel.

Once you have set the Source and Destination folders, you have a sync...Let's move on to various options you can set that greatly effect how your sync will run.

Sync Modes

It is extremely important for the user to fully understand how the different modes work, to make sure whatever happens is exactly what the user expects. Different modes are optimal for different sync situations, so please read carefully and select the right one for each sync definition.

• Auto Mode

  For most LTL or LTR sync ops this is the best and least time-consuming option. During the first run, the Phase 1 (Source Database) sync operations is run to create the Source Database. Then, a Phase 2 sync is run to establish a synchronized target folder. Subsequently, only a Phase 1 sync is run to detect changes. Use this mode if you are sure the target folder is not changed by somebody else, and you have tested the fact that changed files are actually uploaded without errors. This mode is recommended for most website maintenance and backup operations. Auto mode is always a one pass operation.

• Source Database Only

  Same as the Auto Mode, but only Phase 1 sync is performed, period. This mode is good for testing the sync setup. This mode is always a one pass operation.

• Source-Destination Comparison Only

  In this mode only Phase 2 sync is performed, comparing the source and target files. This very useful for LTL sync if the folders are big.

• Source Database then Source-Destination Comparison

  This is the recommended mode if the folders are not too big, so it is not too expensive to run both phases. This the most accurate way to sync, using the advantages of both phases.

• Mirror Mode

  In this mode, Phase 1 then Phase 2 sync is performed, then spurious files in the target folder will be deleted to make the target folder look exactly like the source. This means that if delete a file in the source folder, it will also be deleted in the target. Also, files in the target that are newer (this should not normally occur) will also be overwritten. By default this options is off, meaning that you are in the archive mode, deleted files are left in the target, only modified files are overwritten. BE VERY CAREFUL WITH THIS OPTION! Since it deletes files, it is generally not recommended, only after careful evaluation of whether or not it is necessary.

OPTIONS:

• Character Encoding Access to hosts with Non ASCII character sets (SHIFT JIS, etc..): In order to ensure that AASync will work properly with files whose names contain non-ascii characters, be sure to set the character set of the host properly in the Site Preferences for that host. What encoding to use? Ask the system administrator of the site...
• Logging:
  • No Logging - with this setting, AASync will not save any logs of the sync it performs. If you do not really care what AASync does in the background use this setting.
  • Sync events only This is the default setting. AASync will log sync events, such as new files changed files, deleted files etc. Will not show actual commands, returns or other debug info. Ths is the best setting if you want to be able to look back later when a particular file has appeared, changed, etc...
  • Sync events + Commands - All sync events are logged (see above) plus all commands and returns. This setting should be used to diagnose problems. It will generate huge logs and slow down the sync process, so use with care. Once problems are resolved, one of the above settings should be used.
• Verify File Contents AASync uses checksums to verify that the copy of the file in the destination folder, is REALLY the same as the one in the source. There is only one way to do this: checksumming. Checksums are a great tool to detect even the slightest changes to a file. Of course there is no free lunch, there is a price for this, since in order to compute a checksum, the program has to chew through the entire file. If the file is large, this can tke a while. Normally, other metadata, such as modification date and file size are good enough to detect changes. The Automatic setting is good in most cases, turn checksums to Always ON if you think your file modifications are not detected, or turn it Always OFF if it takes too much time. Some experimenting is desired...
  
• One Pass Only By default sync operation will keep going as long as there are changes detected. So if there are changes, the sync engine will take two complete passes using one the sync modes described above. In the first pass changes are detected and flushed, in the normal case the second pass should find no more changes and the sync will report a success. This does not always work so well, especially if one make a synced backup of a large home directory while logged on. In this case some files always keep changing during the sync, so potentially the sync would never finish. For these cases this option can be turned on, causing the sync engine to quit after the first pass, whether there are changes or not. If the sync is scheduled, or the mode is set to Phase 1 only, then this setting is ignored and only a single pass is performed.

Global Firewall Options:

In this panel the user can enter the proxy/fiewall scheme information. There are many firewall schemes out there AASync tries to support the most used ones. Currently, SOCKS (4 and 5) and the common FTP Firewall Toolkit schemes are supported. Please be sure to follow your system adminstrator's guidance in how to fill out the fields on this tab. The proxy information may be sparse depending on your site's particular setup, the only field that is mandatory is the proxy server, as it is required for all firewall schemes. NOTE: these settings are global, they will effect all FTP sites you connect to! Also, FTP-SSL sites do not use the firewall settings!

FTP Data Security:
If checked, AASync will try FTP with SSL if the server supports it. If not the FTP connections will fall back to insecure mode. In secure mode (SSL/TLS) the data flow
in both direction is encrypted, providing a strong measure of security, so this is recommended, even though it incurs some processing overhead. This option default to OFF.

Success Or Failure.. Be sure not to change the source folder during the backup, or the sync may report a failure. In many cases permission problems will cause the sync to fail, especially in Local-to-Remote sync ops. Make sure the source of the sync is writable!