How to keep the full path with rsync

I would use rsync as it means that if it is interrupted for any reason, then you can restart it easily with very little cost. And being rsync, it can even restart part way through a large file. As others mention, it can exclude files easily. The simplest way to preserve most things is to use the -a flag – ‘archive.’ So:

rsync -a source dest

Although UID/GID and symlinks are preserved by -a (see -lpgo), your question implies you might want a full copy of the filesystem information; and -a doesn't include hard-links, extended attributes, or ACLs (on Linux) or the above nor resource forks (on OS X.) Thus, for a robust copy of a filesystem, you'll need to include those flags:

rsync -aHAX source dest # Linux
rsync -aHE source dest  # OS X

The default cp will start again, though the -u flag will "copy only when the SOURCE file is newer than the destination file or when the destination file is missing". And the -a (archive) flag will be recursive, not recopy files if you have to restart and preserve permissions. So:

cp -au source dest

You are doing at least one thing wrong.

First of all you are using --fake-super on the wrong side of the connection. Let me quote the rsync man page.

The --fake-super option only affects the side where the option is used. To affect the remote side of a remote-shell connection, specify an rsync path:

rsync -av --rsync-path="rsync --fake-super" /src/ host:/dest/

What you are doing is running --fake-super on the side of the connection where you are already root anyway.

The part about "failed to write xattr user.rsync.%stat for" is because the file system used with --fake-super hasn't been mounted with the flag user_xattr. This mount option has to be in effect on the side of the connection where you are using --fake-super, which in your cause would be "remoteserver.com".

To summarize, these are the commands you should have been running:

# rsync -avz --rsync-path="rsync --fake-super" /var/www/myfolder backupuser@remoteserver.com:/home/backups
# rsync -avz --rsync-path="rsync --fake-super" backupuser@remoteserver.com:/home/backups/myfolder /tmp

...with the mount option user_xattr in effect on remoteserver.com