Rsync error: some files/attrs were not transferred

rsyncubuntu-11.04

Using rsync(ubuntu) and a DeltaCopy server on W2K3 to back up some of the data on the file server before I migrate from W2K3 to Ubuntu server. After it completed I ran a dry run just in case something had been missed or changed … I got the following:

sudo rsync -az -n 198.3.9.25::Music /mnt/raid/music  
[sudo] password for daniel:
file has vanished: "?????\#267????" (in Music)
file has vanished: "????????" (in Music)
...
rsync error: some files/attrs were not transferred (see previous errors) (code 23) at main.c(1526) [generator=3.0.7]

I just want to make sure I'm reading it right, that somehow there are files on the receiving end that aren't on the sending?

Best Answer

Those are due to filesystem incompatibilities. DeltaCopy (compiled with cygwin) is having trouble mapping some foreign language or reserved charaters in a few of your music files between the NTFS and EXT4. Turn up the verbose level with -v and you'll probably spot them. Then just rename them in windows to take out the problematic chars.

Related Solutions

Rsync Retry – How to Repeatedly Call Rsync Until Success

If you are syncing everything in one sync, call rsync in a loop until rsync gives you a successful return code.

Something like:

RC=1 
while [[ $RC -ne 0 ]]
do
   rsync -a .....   
   RC=$?
done

This will loop, calling rsync, until it gives a return code of 0. You may want to add a sleep in there to keep from DOSing your server.

Ubuntu – How to prevent vanishing error when using rsync with an nfs mount

As far as I know, the "file-has-vanished" condition is not a fatal error condition for rsync, and the process should continue just fine. Are you saying that rsync is halting upon reporting the "vanished file" messages?

If you are backing up a live filesystem, it is always possible to get the "vanished" message from rsync. Between the time that rsync adds a file to its transfer list and the time that rsync actually gets around to reading it, a file can "vanish" for any number of legitimate reasons (e.g. a temporary lock file was removed, or a file was renamed). Note that some applications work around limitations in NFS file locking by creating and removing hidden lock files, and it's possible that rsync may be seeing some of those.

I would suggest to keep your source filesystem as quiescent as possible while it is being backed up. Ideally, no one other than the backup process should be accessing it, but I realize that that may not be feasible. If your source filesystem is on an LVM logical volume, then you could consider creating a read-only snapshot to use as your backup source.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Rsync Retry – How to Repeatedly Call Rsync Until Success

Ubuntu – How to prevent vanishing error when using rsync with an nfs mount

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