Configuring rsync and inotify-tools for Real-time Backup on CentOS 7

This document provides step‑by‑step instructions for setting up a real‑time backup solution using rsync and inotify-tools on CentOS 7.

1. Install rsync on the server – verify installation with rpm -qa rsync or install via yum install rsync. Create /etc/rsyncd.conf with appropriate parameters (uid, gid, ports, allowed hosts, etc.) and a password file /etc/rsyncd/rsync.password containing root:root@mzla2019. Secure the password file with chmod 600 /etc/rsyncd/rsync.password. Start the daemon using rsync --daemon and confirm it is listening with netstat -nltp | grep rsync.

2. Install rsync on the client – repeat the installation steps and create the same password file under /etc/rsyncd/ with matching credentials, then set chmod 600 rsync.password.

3. Install inotify-tools – download, extract, configure, compile and install:

wget http://cloud.github.com/downloads/rvoicilas/inotify-tools/inotify-tools-3.14.tar.gz

tar zxvf inotify-tools-3.14.tar.gz

cd inotify-tools-3.14

./configure --prefix=/usr/local/inotify

make

make install

4. Create the monitoring script ( inotify.sh) on the server:

#!/bin/bash

host=192.168.1.1

src=/server/backup/

des=inotify

password=/etc/rsyncd/rsync.password

user=root

inotify=/usr/local/inotify

${inotify}/bin/inotifywait -mrq --timefmt '%d/%m/%y %H:%M' --format '%T %w%f%e' -e modify,delete,create,attrib $src \

| while read files; do

rsync -avzP --delete --timeout=100 --password-file=${password} $src $user@$host::${des}

echo "${files} was rsynced" >>/tmp/rsync.log 2>&1

done

Make the script executable with chmod 764 inotify.sh and run it in the background ( sh inotify.sh &). Add it to /etc/rc.local for persistence.

5. Test the setup – on the client create test files ( touch {1..10}.txt) and verify they appear in the server’s /server/backup/ directory.