What are my options to sync large files on my LAN?

[FMiguelez]

Hello.

I have a folder with VERY large files (old Gigastudio files and some .wav loops) that I'm using with Machfive 3 and Stylus RMX.

What I want is to have it available in my slave computers (iMac and MacMini with Lion Server).
Since I might make changes to the files in that folder in either computer, I'd like them to synchronize automatically (instead of remembering what the changes were on each and copying them to one another).

Using Dropbox for this is totally out of the question, of course. The last thing I want is to upload that to their servers constantly (besides, the folder is like 90 GBs, so no room there for me).

- Is there a way to sync them wirelessly inside my LAN WITHOUT having to sync them to some cloud service?
- I have Lion Server, so could I do it using that computer? Isn't that implied on its name?

If so, could you point me to the relevant concepts I should investigate?

So what I want is basically something like Dropbox, but without having to upload anything to a cloud service.

Thank you!

[cuttime]

I haven't used this, but I think it might do what you want:

http://www.econtechnologies.com/pages/c ... rview.html

[FMiguelez]

Thank you, CutTime.

That looks about right!
It seems to be a little over-the-top for what I need, but apparently I can test drive it before buying it, so I will definitely give it a try. What I can tell from your link is that I could easily sync my .gig folder to my Macs, just like I wanted

I still wonder if this is not something I could already do with Lion Server... Isn't that what servers do?
This is an area where I'm a neophyte, but I'm willing to learn it if it's already there with what I have.

[mikehalloran]

This is something that we were promised in Lion but I think Apple wants us to use iCloud. I'll ask my daughter's bf when I see him in a day or two, if there's another way. He tests things like this as part of his job.

[FMiguelez]

Yeah... I haven't found anything useful in Lion's documentation (that I know of).

It seems Apple REALLY wants us to use the damned cloud.
I mean, it's fine only for certain things, but not for such large files. Besides, my internet upload connection is like 10x slower than downloading, so uploading takes for ever. Using the cloud for this would be totally inefficient and annoying

I'll certainly appreciate it if you ask your daughter

Thanks!

[zaratero]

There is an opensource free option which works in windows as well:
http://www.cis.upenn.edu/~bcpierce/unison/
I haven tried it.

For smaller folders bear in mind that dropbox does LAN sync now, so while it does upload to the cloud, files are available through LAN to other computers faster.

[NazRat]

Something from the app store:

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/folderwa ... 4368?mt=12

Not quite sure how it would push back changes on the satellite boxes, but may be worth a look.

[mikehalloran]

I talked to future son-in-law this evening. He recommended hosting everything on the server. When I explained the issue to him, he said that the OS X server does not have the functionality but that there are a few utilities that do.

He was telling me that many Apple engineers, including himself prefer Google Disk to iCloud. Like iCloud, the first 5G is free. He tells me it is faster and not application specific like iCloud.

[zaratero]

sorry for the OT, but responding to Mike:

I am testing google drive for the last week and I am very impressed.
I have used Dropbox (never icloud) since it was beta, and have over 8 GBs of free storage there, but I am considering moving over to Drive.

I use google apps extensively and the integration to gmail alone is very sweet. The ability to add notes and visit revisions in a much fancier and handy way than dropbox is the big bonus for me. The inability to recover deleted files from the cloud in google drive the biggest Dropbox bonus. If it holds like this for a couple of months, with no errors ( Dropbox was not reliable for me at the beginning), I am sold.

[FutureLegends]

I know we used to do this in the graphics biz years ago... Not sure Gigabit ethernet is fast enough for audio though, but... If you have a server, couldn't you have the files stored on that and have the other computers access that drive through the LAN? Thus all computers would use the same files and there would be no need to sync.
Just a thought.

[mikehalloran]

I know we used to do this in the graphics biz years ago... Not sure Gigabit ethernet is fast enough for audio though, but... If you have a server, couldn't you have the files stored on that and have the other computers access that drive through the LAN? Thus all computers would use the same files and there would be no need to sync.
Just a thought.

Well it's faster than FW800. That's exactly what my daughter's bf suggested.

I've never explored distributed computing so I have no advice to give. That's why I asked around.

[FMiguelez]

Thank you all for your responses.

I will investigate them all to find out what's best for me.

That Chronosync thingie looks quite good. I've read a little about it, but it seems one needs to dedicate some time to understand it and use it properly.

One more item in my endless to-learn list...