Program to synchronise multiple sites

arseagon

Hi all, I have 3 locations with broadband connection, 1 head office and 2 regional offices all running an Epos system. What i need is a program of some sort of proogram that can synchronise the regional offices with the data held on the main server. In my opinion, this should be done by the Epos software itself but it doesn't so I have to find some work around. currently this is being done by ftp which fails more often than it succeeds.

Basically the remote sites have files that need to be transferred to the main server in head office and vice versa. after the files have been transferred an executable runs at each site to integrate the new data with the current data. After that control files need to be sent from site to site to let each other know that the transfer succeeded.

Does anyone know of any software, open source or not that would be capable of something like this? I really don't feel like having to write codee to try do it myself as my coding skills are very rusty indeed.

Karoma

Aye. rsync over SSH shuould do.

oscarBravo

rsync ftw, but markdunne doesn't say whether the EPOS systems run on Windows or a real OS. rsync can be done on Windows, but it's harder work.

arseagon

It's windows unfortunately. I've had a look at rsync and it looks bloodey complicated. any help would be appreciated.

misterq

how about running ftp servers on them.
I've used this fella for a number of years on a remote server:
http://www.pablosoftwaresolutions.com/html/quick__n_easy_ftp_server.html

I have it configured to only allow access to specific IP addresses which makes it fairly secure in combination with usernames and passwords.
Quick and easy to set up.

Not as secure as Rsync though.

So you could have a batch script to ftp the files at given intervals and have another one running on to integrate the files at say given interval + 2mins.

arseagon

It's scripted over ftp at the moment but it's not the most reliable. And there's a site to site VPN to keep security up.

The real need is something that can transfer files and then execute programs to operate on those files once they're transferred.

Red Alert

just out of interest what EPOS is it? Sounds like either Meridian or HB-GPOS?

arseagon

It's neither of those. It's written by an irish company. Brilliant for what the shops need it for but can be a bit of a nightmare to administrate.

Red Alert

I've tried rsync on windows to synchronize a music collection, and it doesn't seem very robust at all. Not anything wrong with rsync, but it forces you to twist into a Unix way of thinking.

A possibility is to set up a WebDAV server. Possibly install Apache on the windows or a separate linux (or OpenBSD) box, and SSL secure it. Then have a batch script that does the copy, and runs the integration on the system.

That would also allow the VPN to be dispensed with if you're looking for that.

oscarBravo

Red Alert wrote:

...it forces you to twist into a Unix way of thinking.

You say that like it's a bad thing.

Red Alert

/cygdrive/c isn't very useful to the plebs who haven't seen the light

oscarBravo

You say that like it's a bad thing.

Capt'n Midnight

Red Alert wrote:

/cygdrive/c isn't very useful to the plebs who haven't seen the light

Start
Run
C:/

IIRC there is a reg setting to allow you to / for folders on the command prompt too.

OK these aren't open source unless you count the batch file you call to use them
robocopy is a microsoft freebie
xcopy /c /s /h /d I've used often - but won't remove files