# BTSync - Bittorrent Sync file replication Mega Thread



## drmike (Sep 24, 2014)

Appears that a bunch of us are experimenting with file replication solutions lately or maybe have such running for a bit.

This is for BTSync / Bittorrent Sync.

Some questions:

1. Anyone successfully running BTSync on a LAN/WAN on all internal IP arrangement?   Does it work with such or does it need to speak to the public internet all the time?

2.  Who has a successful and straightforward install process for BTSync on Debian / related systems?


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## rmlhhd (Sep 24, 2014)

Works great on Debian and Ubuntu


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## mikeyur (Sep 24, 2014)

I've successfully installed it a few times using the yeasoft repository: http://www.yeasoft.com/site/projects:btsync-deb:btsync-server

I setup a default instance and go through the guided install. Easy enough.


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## splitice (Sep 24, 2014)

Install is simple. Server deployment in our case is done via shell script. Currently not using a repository.

To install:


Optional: Create user for btync to run as (or group and add your own user to it etc)
Copy btsync to directory
chmod +x btsync
copy confifguration file in
Add init.d script
update-rc.d [init script] defaults
Optional: Change client name in configuration file (can be automated with sed)
Run
Nothing too complex is required. Its basically a single binary service with a configuration file.

Note you have to run the same version on all servers. Be sure to disable the update prompts on windows as they will get annoying.


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## drmike (Sep 24, 2014)

mikeyur said:


> I've successfully installed it a few times using the yeasoft repository: http://www.yeasoft.com/site/projects:btsync-deb:btsync-server
> 
> I setup a default instance and go through the guided install. Easy enough.


Alright, now we are cooking with fuel....   repository about to be added and some testing in a bit   THANK YOU!


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## HalfEatenPie (Sep 24, 2014)

Just for clarification purposes.

Btsync is basically a Dropbox alternative that uses the bittorrent protocol right?

How is it for large files?  And for files that are constantly being changed from many locations?


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## splitice (Sep 24, 2014)

Large files - no problem. Its bittorent so its chunked.

Constantly changing is problematic, seems to use timestamps to resolve conflicts. If time is out of sync at any node seems to cause major issues.


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## sv01 (Sep 24, 2014)

for large files no problem, but for files that are constantly change, btsync will complain (I test on file log, that change every few second)

btw now I'm moving to Syncthing


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## drmike (Sep 25, 2014)

Well Syncthing *looks* nice, but they are shipping updates darn near daily.

Android version installed and nothing configged and it's taking a chunk of battery. Meh.  Android the OS that will bring back the backphone battery 

@sv01

"but for files that are constantly change, btsync will complain (I test on file log, that change every few second)"

So, what does BTSync do with these?  What breaks and if the updates were less frequent, do you think btsync would catch up?


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## sv01 (Sep 25, 2014)

drmike said:


> Well Syncthing *looks* nice, but they are shipping updates darn near daily.
> 
> Android version installed and nothing configged and it's taking a chunk of battery. Meh.  Android the OS that will bring back the backphone battery
> 
> ...


I never use Synthing android app before and that port unofficially. 

If your file changes not as fast as file log nothing wrong there, both BTSync and Syncting can't sync these file correctly. I test against file log because I want to know how they handle file that changes really fast  but both of them failed.

For my multimedia, backup and configuration files both working just fine. Nothing to complain.


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## drmike (Sep 25, 2014)

Well I just got daring and spun up a new remote VPS to fuss with Syncthing.... It's damn nifty once you figure out the plumbing.  It's a bit slow getting started and figuring out what to config and where.

Web interface on it too [built in]  pops open on localhost which is dumb on remote servers and lacks any username/password by default and one must manually go find such and be diligent.   Both items need addressed by development.

A proper repository version would be nice too [for Debian of course]....

Their peer discovery is nice, albeit it slow.  Placing in this case the remote IP for the VPS in the config is much faster on initiating communications and getting files moving.

I am going to commit a portion of the next week to getting comfortable with Syncthing.


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## AThomasHowe (Sep 25, 2014)

BTSync is good for small amounts of files. I tried experimenting with it for no-headaches backups but it got pretty resource heavy scanning through 20 or 30k small files. I use pretty low end boxes though.

I'm just back to using rsync.


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## splitice (Sep 25, 2014)

Unfortunately I concur, we ended up syncing archives. Wasn't a big issue in the end since those archives became our packages and in the end it was cleaner for it.

Plus permissions can be preserved


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## mojeda (Sep 25, 2014)

I used btsync with over 6GBs of media files, audio, video, PDF, etc and it worked pretty good.

One of the things I like was that servers would sync from each other and not just one server.


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## drmike (Sep 25, 2014)

Does BTSync offer remote file view/preview without downloading the whole data set?

"... but it got pretty resource heavy scanning through 20 or 30k small files."

That's not a ton of files.  Those were spread out and not a single directory worth, right?


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## JahAGR (Sep 25, 2014)

AThomasHowe said:


> BTSync is good for small amounts of files. I tried experimenting with it for no-headaches backups but it got pretty resource heavy scanning through 20 or 30k small files. I use pretty low end boxes though.
> 
> I'm just back to using rsync.


This is pretty much my experience. I threw about 2TB of files at it (idk how many individual files offhand) and it was slow to churn through all of them but the transfer speeds were good. I also went back to rsync


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## johnlth93 (Sep 26, 2014)

LAN network works just fine, tried it between my laptop and my phone


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## stim (Sep 26, 2014)

I've been using BTsync with success for over a year, syncing data across 3 servers and my LAN. It has worked like a champ.


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## drmike (Sep 26, 2014)

stim said:


> I've been using BTsync with success for over a year, syncing data across 3 servers and my LAN. It has worked like a champ.


Good endorsement!

Rough estimate on total chunk of disk shared?


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## incloudibly (Oct 14, 2014)

HalfEatenPie said:


> Btsync is basically a Dropbox alternative that uses the bittorrent protocol right?


Yes, except for you are free to choose where to store your files at and no third party has access to this data.


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