Something like Dropbox for local use with a NAS as storage server

Question

I am looking for a solution to sync folder pairs between a NAS and multiple local macs. Each of the macs could edit files and the other macs should then get synced automatically. Basically my own local version of Dropbox without using "cloud-storage".

I have looked into solutions using rsync. As I understand it rsync is not really capable of doing a bi-directional sync. I also do not want to necessarily invoke the sync process. I would prefer a daemon running in the background - waiting and checking for changes and then syncing them "live".

The program should also be flexible enough to recognize that it sometimes (in the case with laptops) can not reach the NAS. It should then just wait for the connection to be back again, without bugging me ever few minutes.

I have looked into synk, folderwatch, rsync, unison and a few others, but I haven't really found a solution. Either they need to be invoked or they are not really bi-directional.

Isn't there something like "offline folders" from microsoft for the mac?

Thanks

PS: just for clarification - I don't want to sync for backup purposes, instead I am wanting to sync so that all macs have a local copy of the most recent changes to files.

Solution 1

Look at http://owncloud.org - it's basically a open source dropbox solution.

Don't know what NAS you have but most NAS boxes run on linux and you should be able to get some directions at the owncloud forums.

Otherwise i think Unison or rsync would be the best non server solutions in your case.

This links to a blog post describing the very same problem(and an acceptable solution) but for ubuntu. http://www.cerebralmastication.com/2011/04/fast-two-way-sync-in-ubuntu/

Solution 2

I looked at this some time ago too.

First, I have tried Sparkleshare which is nice for small document-like repo, but has all not-fun features of git (whole history) and not handle big files well.

I end up with Unison which is very nice software, have bi-directional sync of directories (with backups if there are merge conflicts) - works perfectly for large data. Go for it.

EDIT:

Recently I found really good tool: syncthing (recently they changed name to pulse). Has client for most of the platforms and it's pretty flexible in configuration with nice web-gui.

There is also git-annex, I was using it for short time but I stopped as it's required xmpp account to pass messages (recently this was removed so it's not required anymore but I'm staying with syncthing now for a while).

Comments

[Admin]

I saw that question too. iFolder works using Apache apparently - I can't install/configure that on a NAS.

[Admin]

There is more than one answer provided there. But I see what you're saying, and the NAS requirement probably does warrant it being different enough. The problem is, it may be completely dependant on the NAS' capabilities then. Perhaps also provide your NAS model, specifications, etc.

[Admin]

It shouldn't really matter. The Syncing should be done with a network folder. No matter what software is being run on the NAS. The other reason why the other answers were not satisfactory is that they were no easy solutions for macs. I am slowly beginning to believe, that Dropbox is really the only way. I am just surprised, that no one has made a similar software for local scenarios.

[OakNinja]

Why the downvote?

[SPRBRN]

How about automatic syncing when a new file is added, or an existing file is updated or removed. Will a cronjob do the trick?