Sync home folders between macs

[bdsteitz]

Hey guys,

I need some advice on syncing home folders between several macs. I have two MacBook Air's and a Mac Pro, all of which are used for scientific research. I need a way to sync home folders between the computers. I commonly work on the Mac Pro at work, but would like to access these files at home on one MacBook Air, or while I am traveling on a different MacBook Air. I have been using cloud services (Box and DropBox) for some time but due to recent privacy restrictions, this is no longer acceptable. What are some good options for this? I have seen some third party software for this purpose but am a little skeptical on the security aspect. I have also seen mention of automator scripts, but I'm not sure where to begin with them.

I tried BTSync in the past but the recent update has added too many restrictions for my needs and I cannot keep the home folders synced in the same locations on the different macs. For example, I would like to sync all of my documents in the home Documents folder without needing additional "sync" folders such as a synced documents folder inside of a different folder. Does this make sense? Any help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[chabig]

I have been using cloud services (Box and DropBox) for some time but due to recent privacy restrictions, this is no longer acceptable...

I think you were doing it right. It's too bad your IT department took that away. Can't you work around their crazy rules, such as using encrypted disk images on Dropbox?

 

[b0fh666]

what's the size of the data? if small enough rsync to/from a thumb drive might work.

 

[BrianBaughn]

To get a good response you might need to indicate more precisely what you need.

What folders really need to be synced? Your user folder has a lot of stuff in it.

How much data are you talking about...present and future?

By what privacy restrictions are you bound?

 

[bdsteitz]

I think you were doing it right. It's too bad your IT department took that away. Can't you work around their crazy rules, such as using encrypted disk images on Dropbox?

I cannot.

what's the size of the data? if small enough rsync to/from a thumb drive might work.

~300GB.

To get a good response you might need to indicate more precisely what you need.

What folders really need to be synced? Your user folder has a lot of stuff in it.

How much data are you talking about...present and future?

By what privacy restrictions are you bound?

I need my home documents, downloads and desktop folders to sync. I currently have ~300GB of data but that will grow as work progresses. I need the data to sync reasonably often so that I can access the changes from any of my devices.

As for privacy restrictions, I have HIPAA regulations and institutional policy that does not allow for this data to be placed on external storage and does not allow cloud storage.

 

[BrianBaughn]

Look into a LAN-only ownCloud solution.

You should probably have Filevault (the new version) and a firmware password enabled on all computers as well.

 

[old-wiz]

I cannot.


~300GB.



I need my home documents, downloads and desktop folders to sync. I currently have ~300GB of data but that will grow as work progresses. I need the data to sync reasonably often so that I can access the changes from any of my devices.

As for privacy restrictions, I have HIPAA regulations and institutional policy that does not allow for this data to be placed on external storage and does not allow cloud storage.

Be very very careful about trying to get around HIPAA restrictions - your company can get in serious legal trouble if you break the HIPAA rules. Messing with compay rules can also get you fired. If you IT department blocked things like dropbox, they had a good reason for it. Talk to IT to find out if what you want to do is approved or a way to get what you need. A company I know had a laptop stolen which contained unencrypted patient data and they got fined $ 1 MILLION.

 

[kohlson]

You may want to evaluate chronosync, and be careful about setting up rules.