rsync vs nfs4

DaggyStyle · Watchman Joined: 22 Mar 2006 Posts: 5941

Greetings,

I have a folder on server 1 which I want to backup on server 2, server 1 has it exported via nfsv4
I've found old disscussions regarding the issue stating that for file transfer,. rsync is better than nfs.
I wonder if it is still the case nowadays and when using nfsv4

can anyone comment on this?
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alamahant · Advocate Joined: 23 Mar 2019 Posts: 3949

Nfs is not used for backing up folders -- just for sharing folders over a network which then a client would mount and use as if they were local to that machine.
What you CAN do is mount the nfs folder and then just copy it to some other directory,tar it or whatever you like.
OR
Just use rsync over ssh:

C5ace · Posted: Sun Jun 09, 2019 11:56 am Post subject:

I use both.

Desktop-1 user "A" and a number of laptops users "B", "C" , etc. connect with NFS to folder-1/user "A", "B", etc on server-1.

Folder-1 and subfolders on server-1 are backed up daily to /home/backup on desktop-1 using rsnapshot (rsync).
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DaggyStyle · Watchman Joined: 22 Mar 2006 Posts: 5941

thanks, I'll try using nfsv4.
_________________
Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity and I'm not sure about the former - Albert Einstein

mike155 · Posted: Sun Jun 09, 2019 11:04 pm Post subject:

DaggyStyle,

rsync can be much faster, especially if you have many small files:

On my NFS server:

Code:

cd /tmp
time cp -a /usr/portage .
4.3 seconds # first run
2.4 seconds # second run, it's faster because data is in cache
On my NFS client (/usr/portage is mounted from NFS server, GigabitEthernet link):

Code:

cd /tmp
time cp -a /usr/portage .
191 seconds # first run
188 seconds # second run, no difference
On my NFS client (connected to NFS server via GigabitEthernet link):

Code:

cd /tmp
time rsync -a <user>@<IP address of NFS server>:/usr/portage .
2,8 seconds # first run
2,7 seconds # second run, no difference

3 seconds instead of 190 seconds... That's much better, isn't it?