I have no idea what to call this. Here's what I'd like to do.

I'd like to have a directory synced across multiple machines (similar to a private version of dropbox.) However I don't want these files in the cloud, and I'd like to use the bittorrent protocol (we have 7 physical locations) instead of direct file transfers.

Of course it needs to be automated in some manner (CRON/etc.) All nodes in the network are running Ubuntu server.

The idea is to put our larger video files on the bittorrent cloud so our users can download them quickly without us spending a fortune on remote storage. We currently produce around 50GB of data per week that we need backed up on these nodes.

10/14/2010 12:06:24 AM

I'm not sure what is required to run your own tracker, but I imagine that's all you need. Just make it a private tracker, allow your own machines, and use a script to push (or pull) a new torrent file every so often to update the database.

10/14/2010 12:30:11 AM

bit torrent is probably the worst possible way to do this. Dropbox and live mesh both do device- to device syncs and in network syncs when possible. They will only sync a folder to their own clouds if you specify that option on the folder.

10/14/2010 12:35:46 AM

Go download windows live essential. Install the sync applidatiopn on each computer and your done

10/14/2010 4:12:27 AM

windows live essential on ubuntu eh?

this works very well with bittorrent, I have set it up for my company's global distribution for disk images. it works even better if you have a wan accelerating appliance in each location as once the data becomes serialized for bittorrent you get a lot of nice repeated chunks that don't need to make the full WAN trip.

Linux works very well for super seeds. All you need is either the stock client (btlaunchmanycurses.py) or rtorrent. you create a "polled directory" in the config and write your cron job to create the torrents and put the .torrent file in the hot directory or each of your 7 nodes (scp or rsync). Within 1 min (the default poll time) the machine will be be seeding/downloading the torrent.

You will also need to implement a tracker. I used an open source one and then edited for extra security so only specific client software and users could use it. Since your deployment is so small, you could probably create a static list of peers and then you wouldn't even need a tracker.

10/14/2010 9:10:12 AM

Noen doesn't read threads when he's whoring.

10/14/2010 9:16:23 AM

^^

holy crap. rTorrent runs on WDTV boxes; and you just FTP the torrent file into the thing and let it chug along. I'm hoping a simple script could just tag all the boxes generated from a poll of the master box.

If this works you saved me a TON of work and cash - we have like 5 of those WD boxes floating around that will soon be freed as we transition to a centralized video room.

10/14/2010 10:07:39 AM

http://fak3r.com/2009/09/14/howto-build-your-own-open-source-dropbox-clone/

10/14/2010 12:47:49 PM

Ahh sorry guys I missed the Linux bit

10/14/2010 1:05:53 PM