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• Running
  
  • To ensure that the command line interface is selected, at least one command line option must be included when executing the Sync Tool on the command line. To see the help text, simply include a "--help" parameter. Running with no parameters will start the Sync Tool in GUI mode.
• Jump Start
  • The Jump Start option available in the SyncTool is designed to streamline the transfer of new file sets to DuraCloud. This is accomplished by removing the checks that the SyncTool traditionally performs before uploading a file. These checks normally try to determine if a file already exists in DuraCloud. With the Jump Start option enabled, the SyncTool assumes that all files are new and need to be moved to DuraCloud. This is option is ideal for the initial data transfer into DuraCloud, when all selected data needs to be transferred. The Jump Start option should be turned off when running the SyncTool over a data set that is already in DuraCloud (in order to discover and transfer any new files), so that unnecessary content transfers can be avoided.
• Restarting
  
  • You can perform a restart of the Sync Tool by using the -g command line option to point to the Sync Tool configuration file, which is written into the work directory (named synctool.config)
  • If you would like the Sync Tool to perform a clean start rather than a restart (i.e. you would like it to compare all files in the content directories to DuraCloud) you will need to either point it to a new work directory, or clear out the existing work directory.
  • The Sync Tool will perform a clean start (not a restart) if the list of content directories is not the same as the previous run. This is to ensure that all files in all content directories are processed properly.
• Getting a clean start
  
  • If you specifically do not want to restart from a previous run, and would like to ensure that the sync tool considers every file in all directories specified, you can use the -l (or --clean-start) command line option to indicate this desire.
  • A clean start will also occur by default whenever the host, destination space, destination store, or the list of content directories changes from one run of the tool to the next.
• Collisions
  
  • The Sync Tool allows you to sync multiple local directories into a single space within DuraCloud. Because of this, there is the possibility of file naming collisions, where two local files resolve to the same DuraCloud ID. If this happens, one file will be overwritten by the other. There are a few ways to ensure that this does not occur:
    
    • Ensure that the top level files and directories within the set of content directories do not have overlapping names.
    • Sync only a single directory to a space. You can run multiple copies of the Sync Tool, each over a single local directory, syncing to its own DuraCloud space.
• Work Directory default
  
  • As of DuraCloud version 2.3.0, the work directory parameter is not required. If not specified, the work directory will be named "duracloud-sync-work", and will be placed under the user's home directory
• Work Directory - these files and directories can be found in the work directory (specified using the -w command line parameter)
  
  • Config Files
    
    • When the Sync Tool starts up, it writes the list of parameters and values provided by the user on startup to a file called synctool.config in the work directory. This file can be used to restart the Sync Tool, using the -g parameter to point to the file's location. You can also restart the Sync Tool by indicating the same set of options as used originally. The -g parameter is for convenience only and is not required in any circumstance. Note that this file is overwritten each time the Sync Tool is run with a different set of parameters, so you may choose to copy the file elsewhere (or give it a new name) if you would like to keep a copy of a particular configuration set.
    • You may also see a file named synctool.config.bak in the work directory which is used to compare against the current config in order to determine if a restart is possible. In order for a restart to occur, the list of content directories (-c parameter) must be the same as the previous execution of the tool, and there must be at least one changed list backup (see below.)
  • Changed List Directory
    
    • While the Sync Tool is running it is constantly updating the list of files which have been changed (when starting the first time, this includes all files in the directories that need to be synced). In order to allow the Sync Tool to restart after it has been stopped, this list of files is continually backed up into the changedList directory. There is no reason to edit these files, but you may choose to delete the changedList directory along with the config files mentioned above to ensure that the Sync Tool does not attempt to perform a restart.
  • Logs Directory
    
    • Information about what the Sync Tool is doing while it is running can be found in the sync-tool.log file. It is a good idea to monitor this file for errors and warnings as this information is not printed to the console.
    • The duracloud.log file is useful for application debugging when the information in the sync-tool.log file is insufficient to understand a problem.
• Time Stamps
  
  • As of DuraCloud version 2.3.0, the Sync Tool will collect time stamp information for each transferred file from the file system and store this information as properties on the content item in DuraCloud
  • Note that the time stamps collected may vary somewhat based on the operating system and file system on which the content is stored
• Destination Prefix

  • Table of Contents

    Using the prefix option, the content IDs that are created for the files being moved to DuraCloud by the SyncTool can be made to begin with a consistent text value. There are several reasons this might be useful, such as to include the name of a top-level directory in the path, or to be able to run the Sync from a new sub-directory, but still maintain the full path included on all existing stored content. Suppose the path to a local file (found within the watch directory) is "dir1/file.txt" and you would like the resulting content stored in DuraCloud to be 'a/b/c/dir1/file.txt. To achieve that result, the destination prefix of "a/b/c/" would need to be set.

    Warning

    Adding or changing a prefix for content that has already been transferred to DuraCloud will result in those files being duplicated in DuraCloud storage. Removing the duplicate files can be done by using the "sync deletes" option, but this will cause all content in the destination space which does not include the prefix to be deleted (along with any content that is not found in the local watch directories.) Be cautious when using this feature if you have already uploaded content to your DuraCloud space.

    Info

    If you use a prefix to include a file path (such as a top level directory name), remember to include the "/" character at the end of your prefix. For example, using the prefix "dir1/" with file "file.txt", your final content ID will be "dir1/file.txt". If you were to forget the slash, your prefix would be "dir1", which would lead to a content ID of "dir1file.txt", which is likely not what you want.

• Optimizing Transfer Rate

  • You can potentially increase the transfer rate of your content by increasing the thread count. The thread count can be set using the -t option. To help you determine the optimal thread count in order to maximize throughput, we've added a new diagnostic tool. Please see DuraCloud SyncOptimize Tool for more information.

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