Frequently Asked Questions
Features:
What is the difference between the standard and geo-redundant product ?
Which should I choose ?
Is my traffic encrypted ?
Do you offer an encrypted filesystem ?
What transfer protocols do you support ?
Can I use (ftp/FUSE/sshfs/WinSCP/etc.) ?
Do you support subversion and remote repositories ?
Do you support postgres and MySQL databases ?
How will my rsync.net filesystem integrate into my existing backups ?
Is there a file size limit ?
Do you have multi-user access ?
What remote commands may I run over SSH / putty ?
Windows Integration:
Will your product integrate into all versions of Microsoft Windows ?
How does an rsync.net filesystem integrate into a Windows system ?
What is the rsync.net Windows Backup Agent ?
What other tools can I use on my Windows system with rsync.net ?
Can I back up multiple Windows systems to a single rsync.net account ?
Can I back up my Exchange Server and SQL Server to rsync.net ?
OSX Integration:
How does an rsync.net filesystem integrate into a Mac OSX system ?
What other tools can I use on my Mac OSX system with rsync.net ?
Can I back up multiple Mac OSX systems to a single rsync.net account ?
Will an rsync.net filesystem preserve OSX metadata ?
Facilities:
How do you secure your facilities ?
How is the filesystem fault tolerant ?
How well connected are your datacenters ?
What other security measures do you employ ?
Support, pricing and plans:
Can I change the size of my filesystem (increase/decrease my quota) ?
Will you provide me with installation and integration support ?
Will you support my use of X ?
Really ?!
Do you have discounts for large quantity orders ?
Do you have any other discounts available ?
Is it possible to have more than one geo-redundant location ?
Do you have a reseller program ? Can I label your product as my own ?
Regulatory Compliance, Legal:
What are your Terms of Service and Acceptable Use Policy ?
Are you HIPAA Compliant ?
Are you Sarbanes-Oxley Compliant ?
Features
What is the difference between the standard and geo-redundant product ?
Both products are identical in terms of your usage and interaction. The geo-redundant accounts are distinguished in that every night, automatically, their contents are replicated to one of our other sites around the world. No action is needed on your part, and no additional integration or maintenance is necessary - rsync.net is solely responsible for this secondary replication.
If you are backing up data that you are retaining yourself, at your own location, then a standard offsite filesystem is probably sufficient. rsync.net then becomes your backup, and the data exists at all times in two locations (your location, and your rsync.net filesystem).
However, if you do not maintain a copy of your data yourself, that is, if your rsync.net filesystem is the ONLY location that your data is stored, we suggest you purchase the geo-redundant product. Remember - if you maintain a copy, your rsync.net filesystem is your backup. If you do not maintain a copy, and you do not use the geo-redundant product, your data is NOT backed up. It exists in one location only (granted, a very secure and well maintained location, but still just one)
Yes. Although rsync.net supports the ftp and http (WebDAV) protocols (for legacy and embedded applications) we do not recommend them. Our standard network protocols are SSH and HTTPS (webDAVs), both of which are encrypted with the same level of security that is required for online banking and credit card processing.
Please contact us if you are not sure you are using our standard (encrypted) network transports.
Do you offer an encrypted filesystem ?
Yes. We support several offsite encrypted filesytems for Windows, Mac OSX and Unix. These encrypted filesystems are fully documented, and we provide full installation and integration support for them.
Note that by default, the files in your rsync.net filesystem are NOT encrypted, even if they are transferred over an encrypted link.
What transfer protocols do you support ?
We support plain old FTP and HTTP (WebDAV). We support the following applications over ssh: rsync, sftp, scp, unison, rdiff-backup, rdist, duplicity. We support HTTPS (WebDAVs).
Can I use (ftp/FUSE/sshfs/WinSCP/etc.) ?
Yes. We have opened our systems to the open-standards based protocols of FTP, SSH and WebDAV. Anything that operates properly over those channels is not only workable, but is encouraged and supported. We have tested sshfs, ftpfs, WinSCP, gftp, etc., and they behave as expected.
We encourage our users to develop whatever applications or programs they would like that take advantage of our systems and the open standards they employ.
Do you support subversion and remote repositories ?
Yes. The svnserve command is available for you to run, remotely, over SSH. This means that you can upload a repository with rsync or sftp and then access it remotely with any tool that supports the svn+ssh:// URL format.
Do you support postgres and MySQL databases ?
Yes. Because we allow the remote execution of the 'dd' command, over SSH, you can run database dumps across an encrypted channel to a dump file in your rsync.net filesystem:
pg_dump -U postgres db | ssh 1234@usw-s001.rsync.net "dd of=db_dump"
mysqldump -u mysql db | ssh 1234@usw-s001.rsync.net "dd of=db_dump"
Because you are using your own dump program, you need not worry about version incompatibilities between your client and our server.
How will my rsync.net filesystem integrate into my existing backups ?
Quite easily, in fact. Regardless of whether you use an enterprise backup system in a corporate setting, or a simple consumer application at home, it will be extremely simple to integrate your rsync.net offsite filesystem. Our open systems allow a seamless integration into the operating system of your choice, allowing you to target your rsync.net filesystem as a drive letter, as a mount point, as a URL ... as anything you'd like.
Further, we are intimately familiar with backup procedures and applications and will provide full support for whatever integration you require, including helping you write scripts and procedures.
No.
Do you have multi-user access ?
Yes. You may configure additional users, at no cost, that can log in and share your account. You may control access and file permissions with standard Unix tools like 'chmod' and 'chgrp'. OR, you may simply describe to us the permissions and access scheme you would like, and we will implement it for you.
If you are an existing customer, simply email support@rsync.net and request one or more "sub accounts" - we will provide them for you immediately.
What remote commands may I run over SSH / putty ?
You may run the checksum commands md5, sha1, sha256 and rmd160. You may run rsync, unison, rdiff-backup and rdist. Other remote commands include: dd, cp (GNU), ls, mkdir, pwd, chmod, chgrp, ln, mv, rm, rmdir, touch, tail, groups, id, passwd and quota.
Windows Integration
Will your product integrate into all versions of Microsoft Windows ?
Yes. An rsync.net offsite backup account, and the associated client programs, will run on any version of Microsoft Windows - including Windows 95, Windows NT, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, and Windows Vista.
How does an rsync.net filesystem integrate into a Windows system ?
The open standards that rsync.net filesystems are built upon makes them extremely flexible - there are literally thousands of tools and methods you can use to integrate the filesystem into your Windows system or network.
In general, a windows user will use one tool to maintain automatic, scheduled backups, and a second tool to browse and interact with the remote files. The first tool is almost always the rsync.net Windows Backup Agent (although we support many other backup tools, such as rsync.exe for Windows). The second tool can be any browser or client you are comfortable using. You can map the offsite filesystem as a drive letter, or browse with an ftp/sftp client, or connect in your web browser, etc.
What is the rsync.net Windows Backup Agent ?
rsync.net provides all customers with a powerful enterprise backup utility - the rsync.net Windows Backup Agent.
This tool allows you to create and maintain multiple backup profiles, supports open files (like exchange and SQL Server) and performs powerful encryption and compression functions.
In addition, you are able to maintain multiple versions of files and create exclusion lists for files you do not wish to include. Backups are done efficiently, with only the changes in your files being sent over the network.
What other tools can I use on my Windows system with rsync.net ?
CuteFTP, WinSCP, Webdrive, Netdrive, FTP.EXE and SFTP.EXE or SCP.EXE (from putty). The list is endless... We have built rsync.net on open standards and protocols, so whatever tool you find that runs over SSH, WebDAV, or FTP will work perfectly with our system.
Can I back up multiple Windows systems to a single rsync.net account ?
Yes. You can set up backups on one or more systems, all of which can store them in a single rsync.net account.
Most of the time a network of multiple Windows systems is first backed up, locally, to a central server (perhaps a file server or your Primary Domain Controller, etc.) then the rsync.net Backup Agent is run on just that single computer, backing up all of the data in one transaction.
You can, of course, simply install the rsync.net Backup Agent on all of your systems and have them individually backup their data - all to the same account. Or you can have some combination of clients and servers. It is completely up to you, and we are happy to help you implement a strategy that fits your needs.
Can I back up my Exchange Server and SQL Server to rsync.net ?
Yes. The rsync.net Backup Agent automatically detects open files and uses the built-in Windows snapshot functionality to safely back those files up.
OSX Integration
How does an rsync.net filesystem integrate into a Mac OSX system ?
Integration for OSX systems is extremely fast and simple because OSX is built on an underlying Unix system. Therefore, implementation is as simple as adding a few rsync lines to your crontab or launchd. There is no need to install any software or make any configuration changes. Setting up powerful, efficient backups on your OSX system is literally a five-minute operation.
As for browsing and interacting with those backups once they are on our end, you can simply browse the offsite filesystem from the Finder, and interact with your offsite data just like you would on any local hard drive.
What other tools can I use on my Mac OSX system with rsync.net ?
Interarchy, Fetch, Fugu, RsyncX, Goliath ... there are literally thousands of FTP, SFTP and rsync clients for a Mac OSX system, not to mention the standard unix tools scp, sftp, rsync, etc., that come pre-installed in the Unix subsystem.
Can I back up multiple Mac OSX systems to a single rsync.net account ?
Yes. You can set up backups on one or more systems, all of which can store them in a single rsync.net account.
Most of the time a network of multiple Mac OSX systems is first backed up, locally, to a central server (perhaps a file server or departmental server) then rsync jobs are run from that central file server, backing up all of the data in one transaction.
You can, of course, simply run rsync jobs from each individual workstation. Or you can have some combination of clients and servers. It is completely up to you, and we are happy to help you implement a strategy that fits your needs.
Will an rsync.net filesystem preserve OSX metadata ?
Yes. The unison backup tool (free, open source) preserves all OSX filesystem metadata and is a backup protocol that we fully support.
Facilities
How do you secure your facilities ?
Our physical facilities are manned by live technicians 24 hours per day. Biometric access controls are employed at our locations, as well as video recording and strict entry/access logs.
How is the filesystem fault tolerant ?
All data is housed on hardware RAID arrays providing _at least_ RAID-6 protection. DO NOT trust your data to anyone running software raid, or anyone using RAID-5 (even if they utilize hot spares, etc.) All power is conditioned and backed by battery banks which are backed by diesel generators. Physical machines are connected to at least two distinct power circuits.
rsync.net performs quarterly audits of power load and equipment failover, and we are quite strict as to what constitutes "passing".
How well connected are your datacenters ?
Our primary US location is connected to a quintuple-homed network. All global locations are at least triple-homed.
rsync.net performs quarterly audits of network throughput and network latency.
What other security measures do you employ ?
We employ network Intrusion Detection Systems as well as IDS on each individual host.
Each users' individual filesystem is in a chroot that isolates it from the rest of the system.
Finally, user filesystems all live on data partitions that are mounted noexec / nosuid / nodev which provides an additional level of safety against sophisticated attacks.
Support, pricing and plans
Can I change the size of my filesystem (increase/decrease my quota) ?
Yes - we can increase or decrease the size of your account at any time - there are no fees or complications involved in doing so. There is also no downtime of any kind involved. Simply email support@rsync.net and indicate what new size you would like your filesystem to be.
Will you provide me with installation and integration support ?
Yes. We will help you, interactively, with a real person, through every step of integration. Although most integrations do not require much, if any, software installation, we will support that installation and that software.
Will you support my use of X ?
Yes. If you are using X with an rsync.net filesystem, we will support and troubleshoot your use of it, regardless of how complex or esoteric that usage or application is. All such support will be handled by a real live Unix engineer, and will never be dealt with by a ticket system, autoresponder, or first level / junior "technician".
Yes. We are not just providing offsite filesystems, we are providing complete, end to end, personal customer support.
Do you have discounts for large quantity orders ?
Yes. As of July 2006, our current discount schedule is as follows:
| 0-24 | GB | (no discount) |
| 25-49 | GB | 10% Off |
| 50-99 | GB | 20% Off |
| 100-199 | GB | 30% Off |
| 200-399 | GB | 40% Off |
| 400-999 | GB | 50% Off |
| 1+ | TB | 60% Off |
Do you have any other discounts available ?
Yes. Discounts exist for open source developers and educators/students - please contact us for more details.
Is it possible to have more than one geo-redundant location ?
Yes. Please contact us for more details.
Do you have a reseller program ? Can I label your product as my own ?
Yes. We have a very simple and straightforward reseller program that allows ISPs, VARs and consultants to implement and support our service for their clients.
Our reseller program allows you to immediately provide a state of the art, global storage network, fully rebranded as your own. You may repackage and resell it in any way you see fit.
Regulatory Compliance, Legal
What are your Terms of Service and Acceptable Use Policy ?
Our Terms of Service and Acceptable Use Policy are combined into one, easy to read document.
Yes. Please refer to our HIPAA compliance statement.
Are you Sarbanes-Oxley Compliant ?
Yes. Please refer to our Sarbanes-Oxley compliance statement.