Introduction
This tutoral/HOWTO is designed to help you setup an rsync back/dropbox style synced folder on the Netgear stora. The aim of this is to have a synced folder that will automatically back up to a remote location. The main reason that I wanted to do this was so that I could have a folder of documents backed up to my VPS and synced to my work machine and laptops.

It is similar in style to the 'dropbox' service. It is largely based on this HOWTO. It just covers a number of points for installing on the Stora!
This guide assumes you have a fully working package management system as described here - Installing a package manager and also assumes that you have SSH fully working.

1. Generate your keys (don't enter a password - this enables you to have the syncing done without user intervention!) ssh-keygen -N -f ~/.ssh/id_dsa
2. Copy public key to server so you can login ssh-copy-id -i ~/.ssh/id_dsa.pub user@REMOTE_SERVER
3. Tidy up permissions ssh user@REMOTE_SERVER 'chmod 700 .ssh'
4. Check you can login without a password ssh user@REMOTE_SERVER

Software Install

1. Now prepare for the lsyncd build by installing the following packages by running the command sudo ipkg install <pkg name>
   1. gcc
   2. lua
   3. make
   4. pkgconfig
   5. rsync
2. Download and untar lsyncd from the lsyncd project
3. Configure the build by running ./configure --prefix=/opt/local --exec-prefix=/opt (this assumes your addition software is on /opt, otherwise tailor to your needs, but avoid the onboard flash!)
4. Modify the Makefile to set the following:
   1. LDFLAGS = -ldl
5. Assuming you got no errors from the configure do make all
6. Now do sudo -E make install (the -E just utilises the same environment settings of the current user as when doing sudo PATH seems to disappear and it won't be able to find the commands!)
7. Now run sudo ln -s /opt/lib/liblua.so /usr/lib/liblua.so so that lsyncd can locate the library
8. Now run lsyncd -help to see if all is well (you should get a list of options)!

Configuration

(Please refer to the lsync manual for comprehensive guidance)

1. Copy example/lrsyncssh.lua to a location of your choice (I created $HOME/sync_config)
2. Fill out the configuration file sync_conf.lua with the appropriate details (the file can be put anywhere):

sync{default.rsyncssh, source="/path/to/src", host="user@REMOTE_SERVER", targetdir="/path/to/dst", rsyncOps=""}

1. Run lsyncd in no daemon mode to check for errors:

lsyncd -nodaemon sync_conf.lua

1. Drop some files in the watched directory and make sure they get uploaded properly with no errors
2. Run lsyncd in daemon mode to have it watch the folder:

lsyncd sync_conf.lua

Reverse Sync

Adding the following crontab line is particularly useful if you want to have your laptop or other machines sync up, or at least have the Stora pull from the remote server.

* * * * * rsync -ltur user@REMOTE_SERVER:/path/to/src/ /path/to/dst >> /path/to/log/dir/rsync_pull.log

Final Comments

This setup can be replicated on your laptop and work machines to create the full dropbox like experience.

Share/Bookmark

Having just got a Netgear Stora I wanted to use it as my time machine backup (I have an old ibook G4 and 10.5 so some of this may or may not work for 10.6 - i haven't tried it!). It turns out this isn't a simple operation (despite ease of use supposedly being a big selling feature of the Stora...). Here are the steps I eventually worked my way through to get this working:

1. Enable unsupported time machine devices. In the Mac terminal type:
   defaults write com.apple.systempreferences TMShowUnsupportedNetworkVolumes 1
2. Enable "Computer Backups" on the Stora through the web interface - this is an option in preferences. Select a password and set the changes through "Submit"
3. Mount the share in finder by going to Finder -> Go -> Connect to Server. Use smb://ComputersBackup@Stora/ComputersBackup
4. Enter the password (username should be ComputersBackup)
5. Open up a terminal and create a "sparsebundle" image locally by following the steps below:
   1. In a local directory run:
      hdiutil create -library SPUD -size $SIZESPEC -fs HFS+ -type SPARSEBUNDLE $MACHINENAME_$MAC_ADDRESS.sparsebundle
      where $SIZESPEC is the size (in bytes, or suffixed with g or t for Gigabytes and Terabytes - note you can resize it later, but you can't make it bigger than the space on your HD. $MACHINENAME is the 'name' of your machine and $MAC_ADDRESS is the mac address (seen in Network Preferences) in the form aabbccddeeff (i.e. no colons!).
   2. Copy it to your network drive by typing
      cp -r $MACHINENAME_$MAC_ADDRESS.sparsebundle /Volumes/ComputersBackup\$/
      you can now delete the local .sparsebundle file
   3. Resize to the size of backup you want by running the following command on the network mount:
      hdiutil resize -size $SIZEg $MACHINENAME_$MAC_ADDRESS.sparsebundle
      where $SIZE is the size in GB (note the g after the size number
   4. Load up time machine and select the ComputersBackup mount for backup. It should now detect the image and start backing up to it, using only the size of image that you have created (e.g. 200GB, rather than filling the entire drive!)
6. Pat yourself on the back get a cup of tea which it backs up and wonder why it wasn't easier!

Share/Bookmark