rsync working "backwards"?

[GlitchBoy]

I have a FreeNAS server that's I've been using for about a year and half. Recently I retired another PC so I made a second NAS (using NAS4Free) to act as a backup to the FreeNAS and want to use Rsync so the NAS4Free sever backs up the FreeNAS.

My understanding of Rsync is that I use Client on the primary NAS and Server on the backup NAS. However, when I set this up, the "flow" is backwards: The directory on the primary NAS (running rsync client) becomes a copy of the directory on the backup sever (running rsync server). Fortunately I tested on mocked-up directory instead of pointing it to important data since it proceeded to clean out the source directory to match the empty destination directory

Do I have something wrong or am I just not understanding Rsync?

Thanks in advance!

[davidb]

Hello!
With rsync configured with default settings, the source of your files is where the server daemon will be set up (your primary FreeNAS box in this case). You specify a "module" to share, and when the client reaches out (from your backup machine) to connect to the module, it then pulls from the rsync server to where you set up in the client.
The exception to this is if you select the "reverse direction" option, which will cause the client to push files to the server.
Personally, i don't like to push the rsync, so i set it up as described above.

Hope this clarifies rsync a little, feel free to ask anything you'd like more info about

[GlitchBoy]

Yes that does explain things. But to me it seems backwards from how I traditionally think of the client / server relationship. Is it just me or do you see why it seems that way to me?

[juddyjacob]

Yeah it got me too when I first set mine up. I later read that in Linux/Unix systems the client is pretty much what we traditionaly think of as the server, and vice versa the server generaly referred to the workstation itself. Seemed a little backwards to me at first but as the book explained the server is what generaly has the keyboard, mouse, monitor, yadda yadda. Not to say there are not tons of servers with these or KVM's but basically thats what they seemed to make sence of it. Weird!