Cluster synchronization with Csync^2^
=====================================
ifdef::env-github,env-browser[:outfilesuffix: .adoc]

Developed and maintained by https://linbit.com[LINBIT]. +
Original author: Clifford Wolf for LINBIT; see also <<../AUTHORS#,AUTHORS>>.

[[introduction]]
Introduction
------------

http://github.com/LINBIT/csync2/[Csync^2^]
is a tool for asynchronous file synchronization in
clusters. Asynchronous file synchronization is good for files which are
seldom modified - such as configuration files or application images -
but it is not adequate for some other types of data.

For instance a database with continuous write accesses should be synced
synchronously in order to ensure the data integrity. But that does not
automatically mean that synchronous synchronization is better; it simply
is different and there are many cases where asynchronous synchronization
is favored over synchronous synchronization. Some pros of asynchronous
synchronization are:

* Most asynchronous synchronization tools (including Csync^2^) are
implemented as single-shot commands which need to be executed each time
in order to run one synchronization cycle. Therefore it is possible to
test changes on one host before deploying them on the others (and also
return to the old state if the changes turn out to be bogus).

* The synchronization algorithms are much simpler and thus less
error-prone.

* Asynchronous synchronization tools can be (and usually are)
implemented as normal user mode programs. Synchronous synchronization
tools need to be implemented as operating system extensions. Therefore
asynchronous tools are easier to deploy and more portable.

* It is much easier to build systems which allow setups with many
hosts and complex replication rules.

But most asynchronous synchronization tools are pretty primitive and do
not even cover a small portion of the issues found in real world
environments.

I have developed Csync^2^ because I found none of the existing tools for
asynchronous synchronization satisfying. The development of Csync^2^ has
been sponsored by https://linbit.com[LINBIT], the company which
also sponsors the synchronous block device synchronization toolchain
DRBD.

Note: I will simply use the term _synchronization_ instead of the
semi-oxymoron _asynchronous synchronization_ in the rest of this paper.

[[csync2-features]]
Csync^2^ features
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Most synchronization tools are very simple wrappers for remote-copy
tools such as rsync or scp. These solutions work well in most cases but
still leave a big gap for more sophisticated tools such as Csync^2^. The
most important features of Csync^2^ are described in the following
sections.

[[confl_detect]]
Conflict detection
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Most of the trivial synchronization tools just copy the newer file over
the older one. This can be a very dangerous behavior if the same file
has been changed on more than one host. Csync^2^ detects such a
situation as a conflict and will not synchronize the file. Those
conflicts then need to be resolved manually by the cluster
administrator.

It is not considered as a conflict by Csync^2^ when the same change has
been performed on two hosts (e.g. because it has already been
synchronized with another tool).

It is also possible to let Csync^2^ resolve conflicts automatically for
some or all files using one of the pre-defined auto-resolve methods. The
available methods are: none (the default behavior), first (the host on
which Csync^2^ is executed first wins), younger and older (the younger
or older file wins), bigger and smaller (the bigger or smaller file
wins), left and right (the host on the left side or the right side in
the host list wins).

The younger, older, bigger and smaller methods let the remote side win
the conflict if the file has been removed on the local side.

[[replicating-file-removals]]
Replicating file removals
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Many synchronization tools can not synchronize file removals because
they can not distinguish between the file being removed on one host and
being created on the other one. So instead of removing the file on the
second host they recreate it on the first one.

Csync^2^ detects file removals as such and can synchronize them
correctly.

[[complex-setups]]
Complex setups
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Many synchronization tools are strictly designed for two-host-setups.
This is an inadequate restriction and so Csync^2^ can handle any number
of hosts.

Csync^2^ can even handle complex setups where e.g. all hosts in a
cluster share the /etc/hosts file, but one /etc/passwd file is only
shared among the members of a small sub-group of hosts and another
/etc/passwd file is shared among the other hosts in the cluster.

[[reacting-to-updates]]
Reacting to updates
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

In many cases it is not enough to simply synchronize a file between
cluster nodes. It also is important to tell the applications using the
synchronized file that the underlying file has been changed, e.g. by
restarting the application.

Csync^2^ can be configured to execute arbitrary commands when files
matching an arbitrary set of shell patterns are synchronized.

[[the-csync2-algorithm]]
The Csync^2^ algorithm
----------------------

Many other synchronization tools compare the hosts, try to figure out
which host is the most up-to-date one and then synchronize the state
from this host to all other hosts. This algorithm can not detect
conflicts, can not distinguish between file removals and file creations
and therfore it is not used in Csync^2^.

Csync^2^ creates a little database with filesystem metadata on each
host. This database (/var/lib/csync2/_hostname_.db) contains a list of
the local files under the control of Csync^2^. The database also
contains information such as the file modification timestamps and file
sizes.

This database is used by Csync^2^ to detect changes by comparison with
the local filesystem. The synchronization itself is then performed using
the Csync^2^ protocol (TCP port 30865).

Note that this approach implies that Csync^2^ can only push changes from
the machine on which the changes has been performed to the other
machines in the cluster. Running Csync^2^ on any other machine in the
cluster can not detect and so can not synchronize the changes.

http://librsync.sourceforge.net/[Librsync] is used for bandwidth-saving file
synchronization and SSL is used for encrypting the network traffic. The
http://www.sqlite.org/[sqlite library] (version 3) is used for managing the
Csync^2^ database files.  Authentication is performed using auto-generated
pre-shared-keys in combination with the peer IP address and the peer SSL
certificate.

[[setting-up-csync2]]
Setting up Csync^2^
-------------------

[[building-csync2-from-source]]
Building Csync^2^ from source
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Simply download and extract the latest Csync^2^ source tar.gz from
http://github.com/LINBIT/csync2/releases/,
or use a git clone/checkout, and run the usual
`./configure - make - make install` trio.

Csync^2^ has a few prerequisites in addition to a C compiler, the
standard system libraries and headers and the usual gnu toolchain (make,
etc):

* You need librsync, libsqlite (version 2) and gnutls installed
(including development headers).

* Bison and flex are needed to build the configuration file parser.

[[csync2-in-linux-distributions]]
Csync^2^ in Linux distributions
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As of November 2011, all major linux distributions have some Csync^2^
1.34 package available, but to upgrade to an up-to-date Csync^2^
version, you probably need to wait a bit or build the package from
source.

The Csync^2^ source package contains an RPM .spec file as well as a
debian/ directory. So it is possible to use rpmbuild or debuild to build
Csync^2^.

[[post-installation]]
Post installation
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Next you need to create an SSL certificate for the local Csync^2^
server. Simply running make cert in the Csync^2^ source directory will
create and install a self-signed SSL certificate for you. Alternatively,
if you have no source around, run the following commands:

....
openssl genrsa \
    -out /etc/csync2_ssl_key.pem 1024
openssl req -new \
    -key /etc/csync2_ssl_key.pem \
    -out /etc/csync2_ssl_cert.csr
openssl x509 -req -days 600 \
    -in /etc/csync2_ssl_cert.csr \
    -signkey /etc/csync2_ssl_key.pem \
    -out /etc/csync2_ssl_cert.pem
....

You have to do that on each host you’re running csync2 on. When servers
are talking with each other for the first time, they add each other to
the database.

We recommend to add the Csync^2^ TCP port 30865 to the /etc/services file,
so you can use `csync2` as named port. You can use csync2 with systemd socket units,
as standalone server, or via `inetd` or `xinetd`. Templates for systemd and
xinetd are included [see also <<csync2-quickstart#>>].
If you use inetd, it needs to be told about Csync^2^ by adding

....
csync2 stream tcp nowait root \
        /usr/local/sbin/csync2 csync2 -i
....

to /etc/inetd.conf.


[[configuration-file]]
Configuration File
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A simple Csync^2^ configuration file. The configuration
filename is /etc/csync2.cfg when no -C _configname_ option has been
passed and /etc/csync2__configname_.cfg with a -C _configname_ option.

....
group mygroup                           # A synchronization group (see 3.4.1)
{
        host host1 host2 (host3);       # host list (see 3.4.2)
        host host4@host4-eth2;

        key /etc/csync2.key_mygroup;    # pre-shared-key (see 3.4.3)

        include /etc/apache;            # include/exclude patterns (see 3.4.4)
        include %homedir%/bob;
        exclude %homedir%/bob/temp;
        exclude *~ .*;

        action                          # an action section (see 3.4.5)
        {
                pattern /etc/apache/httpd.conf;
                pattern /etc/apache/sites-available/*;
                exec "/usr/sbin/apache2ctl graceful";
                logfile "/var/log/csync2_action.log";
                do-local;
                # do-local-only;
        }

        backup-directory /var/backups/csync2;
        backup-generations 3;           # backup old files (see 3.4.11)

        auto none;                      # auto resolving mode (see 3.4.6)
}

prefix homedir                          # a prefix declaration (see 3.4.7)
{
        on host[12]: /export/users;
        on *:        /home;
}
....

[[synchronization-groups]]
Synchronization Groups
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

In the example configuration file you will find the declaration of a
synchronization group called mygroup. A Csync^2^ setup can have any
number of synchronization groups. Each group has its own list of member
hosts and include/exclude rules.

Csync^2^ automatically ignores all groups which do not contain the local
hostname in the host list. This way you can use one big Csync^2^
configuration file for the entire cluster.

[[host-lists]]
Host Lists
^^^^^^^^^^

Host lists are specified using the host keyword. You can eighter specify
the hosts in a whitespace seperated list or use an extra host statement
for each host.

The hostnames used here must be the local hostnames of the cluster
nodes. That means you must use exactly the same string as printed out by
the hostname command. Otherwise csync2 would be unable to associate the
hostnames in the configuration file with the cluster nodes.

The -N _hostname_ command line option can be used to set the local
hostname used by Csync^2^ to a different value than the one provided by
the hostname command. This may be e.g. useful for environments where the
local hostnames are automatically set by a DHCP server and because of
that change often.

Sometimes it is desired that a host is receiving Csync^2^ connections on
an IP address which is not the IP address its DNS entry resolves to,
e.g. when a crossover cable is used to directly connect the hosts or an
extra synchronization network should be used. In this cases the syntax
@_interfacename_ has to be used for the host records (see host4 in the
example config file).

Sometimes a host shall only receive updates from other hosts in the
synchronization group but shall not be allowed to send updates to the
other hosts. Such hosts (so-called _slave hosts_) must be specified in
brackets, such as host3 in the example config file.

[[pre-shared-keys]]
Pre-Shared-Keys
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Authentication is performed using the IP addresses and pre-shared-keys
in Csync^2^. Each synchronization group in the config file must have
exactly one key record specifying the file containing the pre-shared-key
for this group. It is recommended to use a separate key for each
synchronization group and only place a key file on those hosts which
actually are members in the corresponding synchronization group.

The key files can be generated with csync2 -k _filename_.

[[includeexclude-patterns]]
Include/Exclude Patterns
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

The include and exclude patterns are used to specify which files should
be synced in the synchronization group.

There are two kinds of patterns: pathname patterns which start with a
slash character (or a prefix such as the %homedir% in the example;
prefixes are explained in a later section) and basename patterns which
do not.

The last matching pattern for each of both categories is chosen. If both
categories match, the file will be synchronized.

The pathname patterns are matched against the beginning of the filename.
So they must either match the full absolute filename or must match a
directory in the path to the file. The file will not be synchronized if
no matching include or exclude pathname pattern is found (i.e. the
default pathname pattern is an exclude pattern).

The basename patterns are matched against the base filename without the
path. So they can e.g. be used to include or exclude files by their
filename extensions. The default basename pattern is an include pattern.

In our example config file that means that all files from /etc/apache
and %homedir%/bob are synced, except the dot files, files with a tilde
character at the end of the filename, and files from %homedir%/bob/temp.

[[actions]]
Actions
^^^^^^^

Each synchronization group may have any number of action sections. These
action sections are used to specify shell commands which should be
executed after a file is synchronized that matches any of the specified
patterns.

The exec statement is used to specify the command which should be
executed. Note that if multiple files matching the pattern are synced in
one run, this command will only be executed once. The special token %%
in the command string is substituted with the list of files which
triggered the command execution.

The output of the command is appended to the specified logfile, or to
/dev/null if the logfile statement is omitted.

Usually the action is only triggered on the targed hosts, not on the
host on which the file modification has been detected in the first
place. The do-local statement can be used to change this behavior and
let Csync^2^ also execute the command on the host from which the
modification originated. You can use do-local-only to execute the action
only on this machine.

[[conflict-auto-resolving]]
Conflict Auto-resolving
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

The auto statement is used to specify the conflict auto-resolving
mechanism for this synchronization group. The default value is auto
none.

See section [confl_detect] for a list of possible values for this
setting.

[[prefix-declarations]]
Prefix Declarations
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Prefixes (such as the %homedir% prefix in the example configuration
file) can be used to synchronize directories which are named differently
on the cluster nodes. In the example configuration file the directory
for the user home directories is /export/users on the hosts host1 and
host2 and /home on the other hosts.

The prefix value must be an absolute path name and must not contain any
wildcard characters.

[[the-nossl-statement]]
The nossl statement
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Usually all Csync^2^ network communication is encrypted using SSL. This
can be changed with the nossl statement. This statement may only occur
in the root context (not in a group or prefix section) and has two
parameters. The first one is a shell pattern matching the source DNS
name for the TCP connection and the second one is a shell pattern
matching the destination DNS name.

So if e.g. a secure synchronization network is used between some hosts
and all the interface DNS names end with -sync, a simple

....
nossl *-sync *-sync;
....

will disable the encryption overhead on the synchronization network. All
other traffic will stay SSL encrypted.

[[the-config-statement]]
The config statement
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

The config statement is nothing more then an include statement and can
be used to include other config files. This can be used to modularize
the configuration file.

[[the-ignore-statement]]
The ignore statement
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

The ignore statement can be used to tell Csync^2^ to not check and not
sync the file user-id, the file group-id and/or the file permissions.
The statement is only valid in the root context and accepts the
parameters uid, gid and mod to turn off handling of user-ids, group-ids
and file permissions.

[[the-tempdir-statement]]
The tempdir statement
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Preferably don’t use this setting.

The tempdir statement specifies the directory to be used for temporary
files while receiving data through librsync.

Csync^2^ will try to create temporary files in tempdir if specified, in
the same directory as the currently processed file, in the directory
given by the TMPDIR environment variable, the system default P_tmpdir,
or /tmp, in that order.

This implies that if you specify a tempdir which is not on the same file
system as the processed files, it will be impossible to rename the
patched files in place, and Csync^2^ will fall back to truncate and
copy. Which can in various failure scenarios result in corrupted
(partially transfered, truncated) files on the destination.

[[the-lock-timeout-statement]]
The lock-timeout statement
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

The lock-timeout statement specifies the seconds to wait wor a database
lock before giving up. Default is 12 seconds. The amount will be
slightly randomized with a jitter of up to 6 seconds based on the
respective process id.

[[backing-up]]
Backing up
^^^^^^^^^^

Csync^2^ can back up the files it modifies. This may be useful for
scenarios where one is afraid of accidentally syncing files in the wrong
direction.

The backup-directory statement is used to tell Csync^2^ in which
directory it should create the backup files and the backup-generations
statement is used to tell Csync^2^ how many old versions of the files
should be kept in the backup directory.

The files in the backup directory are named like the file they back up,
with all slashes substituted by underscores and a generation counter
appended. Note that only the file content, not the metadata such as
ownership and permissions are backed up.

Per default Csync^2^ does not back up the files it modifies. The default
value for backup-generations is 3.

[[activating-the-logout-check]]
Activating the Logout Check
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Csync^2^ sources contain a little script called csync2_locheck.sh

....
csync2 -cr /
if csync2 -M; then
        echo "!!"
        echo "!! There are unsynced changes! Type 'yes' if you still want to"
        echo "!! exit (or press crtl-c) and anything else if you want to start"
        echo "!! a new login shell instead."
        echo "!!"
        if read -p "Do you really want to logout? " in &&
           [ ".$in" != ".yes" ]; then
                exec bash --login
        fi
fi
....

If you copy that script into your ~/.bash_logout script (or include it
using the source shell command), the shell will not let you log out if
there are any unsynced changes.

[[database-schema]]
Database Schema
---------------

....
CREATE TABLE file (
        filename, checktxt,
        UNIQUE ( filename ) ON CONFLICT REPLACE
);

CREATE TABLE dirty (
        filename, force, myname, peername,
        UNIQUE ( filename, peername ) ON CONFLICT IGNORE
);

CREATE TABLE hint (
        filename, recursive,
        UNIQUE ( filename, recursive ) ON CONFLICT IGNORE
);

CREATE TABLE action (
        filename, command, logfile,
        UNIQUE ( filename, command ) ON CONFLICT IGNORE
);

CREATE TABLE x509_cert (
        peername, certdata,
        UNIQUE ( peername ) ON CONFLICT IGNORE
);
....

This shows the Csync^2^ database schema. The database can be
accessed using the sqlite command line shell. All string values are URL
encoded in the database.

The file table contains a list of all local files under Csync^2^
control, the checktxt attribute contains a special string with
information about file type, size, modification time and more. It looks
like this:

....
v1:mtime=1103471832:mode=33152:
uid=1001:gid=111:type=reg:size=301
....

This checktxt attribute is used to check if a file has been changed on
the local host.

If a local change has been detected, the entry in the file table is
updated and entries in the dirty table are created for all peer hosts
which should be updated. This way the information that a host should be
updated does not get lost, even if the host in question is unreachable
right now. The force attribute is set to 0 by default and to 1 when the
cluster administrator marks one side as the right one in a
synchronization conflict.

The hint table is usually not used. In large setups this table can be
filled by a daemon listening on the inotify API. It is possible to tell
Csync^2^ to not check all files it is responsible for but only those
which have entries in the hint table. However, the Linux syscall API is
so fast that this only makes sense for really huge setups.

The action table is used for scheduling actions. Usually this table is
empty after Csync^2^ has been terminated. However, it is possible that
Csync^2^ gets interrupted in the middle of the synchronization process.
In this case the records in the action table are processed when Csync^2^
is executed the next time.

The x509_cert table is used to cache the SSL cetrificates used by the
other hosts in the csync2 cluster (like the SSH known_hosts file).

[[running-csync2]]
Running Csync^2^
----------------

Simply calling csync2 without any additional arguments prints out a help
message (see below). A more detailed description of the most important
usage scenarios is given in the next sections.

....
csync2 2.0 - cluster synchronization tool, 2nd generation
Copyright (C) 2004 - 2018 LINBIT Information Technologies GmbH
        https://www.linbit.com

Version: 2.0

This program is free software under the terms of the GNU GPL.

Usage: ./csync2 [-v..] [-C config-name] \
                [-D database-dir] [-N hostname] [-p port] ..

With file parameters:
        -h [-r] file..          Add (recursive) hints for check to db
        -c [-r] file..          Check files and maybe add to dirty db
        -u [-d] [-r] file..     Updates files if listed in dirty db
        -o [-r] file..          Create list of files in compare-mode
        -f [-r] file..          Force files to win next conflict resolution
        -m file..               Mark files in database as dirty

Simple mode:
        -x [-d] [[-r] file..]   Run checks for all given files and update
                                remote hosts.

Without file parameters:
        -c      Check all hints in db and eventually mark files as dirty
        -u [-d] Update (transfer dirty files to peers and mark as clear)

        -H      List all pending hints from status db
        -L      List all file-entries from status db
        -M      List all dirty files from status db

        -S myname peername      List file-entries from status db for this
                                synchronization pair.

        -T                      Test if everything is in sync with all peers.

        -T filename             Test if this file is in sync with all peers.

        -T myname peername      Test if this synchronization pair is in sync.

        -T myname peer file     Test only this file in this sync pair.

        -TT     As -T, but print the unified diffs.

        -i      Run in inetd server mode.
        -ii     Run in stand-alone server mode.
        -iii    Run in stand-alone server mode (one connect only).

        -l      Send some messages to syslog instead of stderr to not clobber
                the protocol in case stdout and stderr point to the same fd.
                Default for inetd mode.

        -R      Remove files from database which do not match config entries.

Exit codes:
        The modes -H, -L, -M and -S return 2 if the requested db is empty.
        The mode -T returns 2 if both hosts are in sync.
        Otherwise, only exit codes 0 (no errors)
        and 1 (some unspecified errrors) are expected.
....

....
Modifiers:
        -r      Recursive operation over subdirectories
        -d      Dry-run on all remote update operations

        -B      Do not block everything into big SQL transactions. This
                slows down csync2 but allows multiple csync2 processes to
                access the database at the same time. Use e.g. when slow
                lines are used or huge files are transferred.

        -A      Open database in asynchronous mode. This will cause data
                corruption if the operating system crashes or the computer
                loses power.

        -N address      When running in stand-alone mode with -ii bind to a
                specific interface. You can pass either a hostname or ip
                address. If used, this value must match exactly the host
                value in each csync2.cfg file.

        -I      Init-run. Use with care and read the documentation first!
                You usually do not need this option unless you are
                initializing groups with really large file lists.

        -X      Also add removals to dirty db when doing a -TI run.
        -U      Don't mark all other peers as dirty when doing a -TI run.

        -G Group1,Group2,Group3,...
                Only use these groups from config-file.

        -P peer1,peer1,...
                Only update these peers (still mark all as dirty).
                Only show files for these peers in -o (compare) mode.

        -F      Add new entries to dirty database with force flag set.

        -t      Print timestamps to debug output (e.g. for profiling).

        -s filename
                Print timestamps also to this file.

        -W fd   Write a list of directories in which relevant files can be
                found to the specified file descriptor (when doing a -c run).
                The directory names in this output are zero-terminated.

Database switches:
        -D database-dir or url
                default: /var/lib/csync2
                Absolute path: use sqlite database in that directory
            URLs:
                sqlite:///some/path[/database.db3]
                sqlite3:///some/path[/database.db3]
                sqlite2:///some/path[/database.db]
                mysql://[<user>:<password>@]<hostname>/[database]
                pgsql://[<user>:<password>@]<hostname>/[database]
        If database is not given, it defaults to csync2_<qualified hostname>.
        Note that for non-sqlite backends, the database name is "cleaned",
        characters outside of [0-9][a-z][A-Z] will be replaced with _.

Creating key file:
        csync2 -k filename

Environment variables:
        CSYNC2_SYSTEM_DIR
                Directory containing csync2.cfg and other csync2 system files.
                Defaults to /etc.

Csync2 will refuse to do anything if this file is found:
$CSYNC2_SYSTEM_DIR/csync2.lock
....

[[just-synchronizing-the-files]]
Just synchronizing the files
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The command csync2 -x (or csync2 -xv) checks for local changes and tries
to synchronize them to the other hosts. The option -d (dry-run) can be
used to do everything but the actual synchronization.

When you start Csync^2^ the first time it compares its empty database
with the filesystem and sees that all files just have been created. It
then will try to synchronize the files. If the file is not present on
the remote hosts it will simply be copied to the other host. There also
is no problem if the file is already present on the remote host and has
the same content. But if the file already exists on the remote host and
has a different content, you have your first conflict.

[[resolving-a-conflict]]
Resolving a conflict
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When two or more hosts in a Csync^2^ synchronization group have detected
changes for the same file we run into a conflict: Csync^2^ can not know
which version is the right one (unless an auto-resolving method has been
specified in the configuration file). The cluster administrator needs to
tell Csync^2^ which version is the correct one. This can be done using
Csync^2^ -f, e.g.:

....
# csync2 -x
While syncing file /etc/hosts:
ERROR from peer apollo:
    File is also marked dirty here!
Finished with 1 errors.

# csync2 -f /etc/hosts
# csync2 -xv
Connecting to host apollo (PLAIN) ...
Updating /etc/hosts on apollo ...
Finished with 0 errors.
....

[[checking-without-syncing]]
Checking without syncing
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It is also possible to just check the local filesystem without doing any
connections to remote hosts: csync2 -cr / (the -r modifier tells
Csync^2^ to do a recursive check).

csync2 -c without any additional parameters checks all files listed in
the hints table.

The command csync2 -M can be used to print the list of files marked
dirty and therfore scheduled for synchronization.

[[comparing-the-hosts]]
Comparing the hosts
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The csync2 -T command can be used to compare the local database with the
database of the remote hosts. Note that this command compares the
databases and not the filesystems - so make sure that the databases are
up-to-date on all hosts before running csync2 -T and run csync2 -cr / if
you are unsure.

The output of csync2 -T is a table with 4 columns:

* The type of the found difference: X means that the file exists on
both hosts but is different, L that the file is only present on the
local host and R that the file is only present on the remote host.

* The local interface DNS name (usually just the local hostname).

* The remote interface DNS name (usually just the remote hostname).

* The filename.

The csync2 -TT _filename_ command can be used for displaying unified
diffs between a local file and the remote hosts.

[[bootstrapping-large-setups]]
Bootstrapping large setups
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The -I option is a nice tool for bootstrapping larger Csync^2^
installations on slower networks. In such scenarios one usually wants to
initially replicate the data using a more efficient way and then use
Csync^2^ to synchronize the changes on a regular basis.

The problem here is that when you start Csync^2^ the first time it
detects a lot of newly created files and wants to synchronize them, just
to find out that they are already in sync with the peers.

The -I option modifies the behavior of -c so it only updates the file
table but does not create entries in the dirty table. So you can simply
use csync2 -cIr / to initially create the Csync^2^ database on the
cluster nodes when you know for sure that the hosts are already in sync.

The -I option may also be used with -T to add the detected differences
to the dirty table and so induce Csync^2^ to synchronize the local
status of the files in question to the remote host.

Usually -TI does only schedule local files which do exist to the dirty
database. That means that it does not induce Csync^2^ to remove a file
on a remote host if it does not exist on the local host. That behavior
can be changed using the -X option.

The files scheduled to be synced by -TI are usually scheduled to be
synced to all peers, not just the one peer which has been used in the
-TI run. This behavior can be changed using the -U option.

[[cleaning-up-the-database]]
Cleaning up the database
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It can happen that old data is left over in the Csync^2^ database after
a configuration change (e.g. files and hosts which are not referred
anymore by the configuration file). Running csync2 -R cleans up such old
entries in the Csync^2^ database.

[[multiple-configurations]]
Multiple Configurations
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sometimes a higher abstracion level than simply having different
synchronization groups is needed. For such cases it is possible to use
multiple configuration files (and databases) side by side.

The additional configurations must have a unique name. The configuration
file is then named /etc/csync2__myname_.cfg and the database is named
/var/lib/csync2/_hostname___myname_.db. Accordingly Csync^2^ must be
called with the -C _myname_ option.

But there is no need for multiple Csync^2^ daemons. The Csync^2^
protocol allows the client to tell the server which configuration should
be used for the current TCP connection.

[[performance]]
Performance
-----------

In most cases Csync^2^ is used for syncing just some (up to a few
hundred) system configuration files. In these cases all Csync^2^ calls
are processed in less than one second, even on slow hardware. So a
performance analysis is not interesting for these cases but only for
setups where a huge amount of files is synced, e.g. when syncing entire
application images with Csync^2^.

A well-founded performance analysis which would allow meaningful
comparisons with other synchronization tools would be beyond the scope
of this paper. So here are just some quick and dirty numbers from a
production 2-node cluster (2.40GHz dual-Xeon, 7200 RPM ATA HD, 1 GB
Ram). The machines had an average load of 0.3 (web and mail) during my
tests..

I have about 128.000 files (1.7 GB) of Linux kernel sources and object
files on an ext3 filesystem under Csync^2^ control on the machines.

Checking for changes (csync2 -cr /) took 13.7 seconds wall clock time,
9.1 seconds in user mode and 4.1 seconds in kernel mode. The remaining
0.5 seconds were spent in other processes.

Recreating the local database without adding the files to dirty table
(csync2 -cIr after removing the database file) took 28.5 seconds (18.6
sec user mode and 2.6 sec kernel mode).

Comparing the Csync^2^ databases of both hosts (csync2 -T) took 3
seconds wall clock time.

Running csync2 -u after adding all 128.000 files took 10 minutes wall
clock time. That means that Csync^2^ tried to sync all 128.000 files and
then recognized that the remote side had already the most up-to-date
version of the file after comparing the checksums.

All numbers are the average values of 10 iterations.

[[security-notes]]
Security Notes
--------------

As statet earlier, authentication is performed using the peer IP address
and a pre-shared-key. The traffic is SSL encrypted and the SSL
certificate of the peer is checked when there has been already an SSL
connection to that peer in the past (i.e. the peer certificate is
already cached in the database).

All DNS names used in the Csync^2^ configuration file (the host records)
should be resolvable via the /etc/hosts file to guard against DNS
spoofing attacks.

Depending on the list of files being managed by Csync^2^, an intruder on
one of the cluster nodes can also modify the files under Csync^2^
control on the other cluster nodes and so might also gain access on
them. However, an intruder can not modify any other files on the other
hosts because Csync^2^ checks on the receiving side if all updates are
OK according to the configuration file.

For sure, an intruder would be able to work around this security checks
when Csync^2^ is also used to sync the Csync^2^ configuration files.

Csync^2^ only syncs the standard UNIX permissions (uid, gid and file
mode). ACLs, Linux ext2fs/ext3fs attributes and other extended
filesystem permissions are neither synced nor flushed (e.g. if they are
set automatically when the file is created).

On cygwin, due to unresolved permission inheritance problems, no
rename() is attempted, but existing files are always truncated and then
copied into from the temporary files. Suggestions for how to resolve
that are most welcome.

[[alternatives]]
Alternatives
------------

Csync^2^ is not the only file synchronization tool. Some of the other
free software file synchronization tools are:

[[rsync]]
Rsync
~~~~~

http://samba.anu.edu.au/rsync/[Rsync] is a tool for fast incremental file
transfers, but is not a synchronization tool in the context of this paper.
Actually Csync^2^ is using the rsync algorithm for file transfers. A variety of
synchronization tools have been written on top of rsync. Most of them are tiny
shell scripts.

[[unison]]
Unison
~~~~~~

http://www.cis.upenn.edu/~bcpierce/unison/[Unison] is using an algorithm
similar to the one used by Csync^2^, but is limited to two-host setups. Its
focus is on interactive syncs (there even are graphical user interfaces) and it
is targeting on syncing home directories between a laptop and a workstation.
Unison is pretty intuitive to use, among other things because of its
limitations.

[[version-control-systems]]
Version Control Systems
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Version control systems such as http://subversion.tigris.org/[Subversion] can
also be used to synchronize configuration files or application images. The
advantage of version control systems is that they can do three way merges and
preserve the entire history of a repository. The disadvantage is that they are
much slower and require more disk space than plain synchronization tools.

