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This guide is a work in progress and generated by ai, dont have time for guides. so this works
Rsync Setup Guide
Status: Work in Progress
For the unRAID Rsync Ecosystem — common.sh · Master.conf · rsync.sh · daily_sync.sh
Overview
This guide walks through setting up the rsync ecosystem on both your primary and secondary unRAID 7.x servers. By the end you will have:
A Gitea repository cloned to both servers
SSH keys configured for server-to-server communication
Tailscale running on both servers for secure networking
Scripts scheduled and running via the User Scripts plugin
Automated daily sync of media shares and appdata profiles
Prerequisites
Both servers need the following before starting:
unRAID 7.x
User Scripts plugin installed via Community Applications
Tailscale plugin installed via Community Applications
Access to a Gitea instance (self-hosted or remote)
Terminal access to both servers (via unRAID UI → Tools → Terminal, or SSH)
Step 1 — Tailscale Setup
Tailscale provides the secure network tunnel between your two servers. The scripts resolve the remote server's IP via Tailscale at runtime. On Both Servers
Open Apps in the unRAID UI
Search for Tailscale and install the plugin
Once installed go to Settings → Tailscale
Click Connect and authenticate with your Tailscale account
Verify both servers appear in your Tailscale admin console
Verify Connectivity
Run this on the primary to confirm it can see the secondary: bash
tailscale ip -4 unRAID-Jayred365
You should get back a 100.x.x.x IP. If not, check that both machines are authenticated and connected in the Tailscale admin console.
Note: The hostnames used in Master.conf (HOST1 and HOST2) must match the Tailscale machine names exactly — these are case sensitive.
Step 2 — Generate SSH Keys
The scripts use SSH keys for two purposes:
Server-to-server rsync — primary authenticates to secondary (and vice versa)
Gitea access — both servers pull from the git repository
2a — Server-to-Server Keys
Run the following on each server to generate its rsync key. Replace the filename with the appropriate server name.
On Primary (unRAID-Gmer4Lfe): bash
ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -f /root/.ssh/Gmer4Lfe-rsync-key -C "gmer4lfe-rsync" -N ""
On Secondary (unRAID-Jayred365): bash
ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -f /root/.ssh/Jayred365-rsync-key -C "jayred365-rsync" -N ""
2b — Copy Public Keys to Each Server
The primary's public key must be authorised on the secondary, and vice versa.
Copy primary key → secondary: bash
Run on primary
cat /root/.ssh/Gmer4Lfe-rsync-key.pub
Copy the output. Then on the secondary: bash
Run on secondary
mkdir -p /root/.ssh echo "PASTE_PUBLIC_KEY_HERE" >> /root/.ssh/authorized_keys chmod 600 /root/.ssh/authorized_keys
Copy secondary key → primary: bash
Run on secondary
cat /root/.ssh/Jayred365-rsync-key.pub
Copy the output. Then on the primary: bash
Run on primary
mkdir -p /root/.ssh echo "PASTE_PUBLIC_KEY_HERE" >> /root/.ssh/authorized_keys chmod 600 /root/.ssh/authorized_keys
2c — Test the Connection
From the primary, test that it can SSH to the secondary without a password prompt: bash
ssh -i /root/.ssh/Gmer4Lfe-rsync-key root@$(tailscale ip -4 unRAID-Jayred365) "echo connected"
You should see connected. If prompted for a password the key was not authorised correctly — recheck Step 2b. 2d — Gitea SSH Key
Generate a separate key for Gitea access on each server: bash
ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -f /root/.ssh/id_gitea_rsync -C "unraid-gitea" -N ""
Add the public key to your Gitea account: bash
cat /root/.ssh/id_gitea_rsync.pub
Copy the output and add it in Gitea under Settings → SSH / GPG Keys → Add Key. Step 3 — Enable SSH on unRAID
unRAID 7.x has SSH disabled by default. Enable it on both servers so the scripts can connect between them.
Go to Settings → Management Access
Under Secure Shell set SSH to Enabled
Set SSH port to 22 (default)
Click Apply
Security note: SSH is only exposed on your local network and Tailscale interface. The rsync scripts connect via the Tailscale IP so traffic is encrypted end-to-end.
Step 4 — Clone the Git Repository
The scripts live in a Gitea repository. Both servers clone from the same repo so updates propagate everywhere via a single git pull. On Both Servers bash
Create the target directory
mkdir -p /mnt/user/appdata/unraid_scripts
Clone the repository
GIT_SSH_COMMAND="ssh -i /root/.ssh/id_gitea_rsync"
git clone git@YOUR_GITEA_HOST:YOUR_USER/Unraid_Scripts.git
/mnt/user/appdata/unraid_scripts
Replace YOUR_GITEA_HOST and YOUR_USER with your Gitea server address and username. Verify the Structure bash
ls /mnt/user/appdata/unraid_scripts
You should see:
Master.conf common.sh Rsync/ rsync.sh Orchestrators/ daily_sync.sh Tools/ recreate_shares.sh
Make Scripts Executable bash
chmod +x /mnt/user/appdata/unraid_scripts/Rsync/rsync.sh chmod +x /mnt/user/appdata/unraid_scripts/Orchestrators/daily_sync.sh chmod +x /mnt/user/appdata/unraid_scripts/Tools/recreate_shares.sh
Step 5 — Configure Master.conf
All user configuration lives in Master.conf. Open it and adjust the following to match your setup: bash
nano /mnt/user/appdata/unraid_scripts/Master.conf
Required Changes Variable Description Example HOST1 Hostname of your primary server unRAID-Gmer4Lfe HOST2 Hostname of your secondary server unRAID-Jayred365 HOST1_SSH_KEY Path to primary's rsync private key /root/.ssh/Gmer4Lfe-rsync-key HOST2_SSH_KEY Path to secondary's rsync private key /root/.ssh/Jayred365-rsync-key REPO_SSH SSH URL of your Gitea repository git@192.168.50.2:User/Unraid_Scripts.git GITEA_SSH_KEY Path to Gitea private key /root/.ssh/id_gitea_rsync BW_LIMIT Global bandwidth limit in KB/s 12500 ROOTFS_WARN Remote rootfs % threshold before aborting 75 Daily Sync Shares
Add the full paths of all media shares you want synced nightly: bash
DAILY_SYNC_SHARES=( /mnt/user/Movies /mnt/user/Tv_Shows /mnt/user/Music # add more here )
Profiles
Profiles control per-share rsync behaviour for your frequently synced appdata shares. Each profile is matched by the directory basename (lowercased). Add a key to each profile array for any share that needs custom settings: bash
declare -A PROFILE_CRITICAL_CONTAINER_NAMES=( [arrs_stack]="Sonarr Radarr Lidarr Prowlarr" [important-data]="Postgres-NextCloud NextCloud" )
Any share with no matching profile falls through to the global DEFAULT_RSYNC_OPTS. Step 6 — Set Up User Scripts
The User Scripts plugin is how unRAID schedules and runs the scripts. Each sync job is its own script entry in the plugin. Frequent Sync Jobs (Scheduled Individually)
Create one script entry per appdata profile. Go to Plugins → User Scripts → Add New Script.
Name it descriptively — e.g. rsync appdata arrs_stack.
In the script body paste: bash
#!/bin/bash bash /mnt/user/appdata/unraid_scripts/Rsync/rsync.sh /mnt/user/appdata-Failover/Arrs_Stack
Set the schedule to match your desired frequency: Profile Recommended Schedule Emby Every 1 hour Critical-Data Every 2 hours Important-Data Every 6 hours Arrs_Stack Every 12 hours
Important: Set each script to run as a Background Task — this ensures output streams correctly to the log rather than buffering in the browser.
Daily Sync Orchestrator
Create one more script entry for the daily media sync:
Name it daily media sync.
In the script body paste: bash
#!/bin/bash bash /mnt/user/appdata/unraid_scripts/Orchestrators/daily_sync.sh
Set the schedule to Daily at 01:00. Step 7 — Verify the Setup
Before letting the scheduled jobs run, do a manual test from the terminal on the primary: bash
bash /mnt/user/appdata/unraid_scripts/Rsync/rsync.sh /mnt/user/appdata-Failover/Arrs_Stack --log
A healthy run will show:
━━━ ⚙️ Setup ━━━ ℹ️ [INFO] 🖥️ Host: unRAID-Gmer4Lfe → unRAID-Jayred365 ℹ️ [INFO] 🌐 Remote IP: 100.x.x.x
━━━ 🛡️ Pre-flight Checks ━━━ ℹ️ [INFO] 📡 unRAID-Jayred365 is reachable ℹ️ [INFO] 🩺 Remote rootfs: 12% used (threshold: 75%) ℹ️ [INFO] 🩺 Remote share verified: ... ℹ️ [INFO] 💾 disk1 🟢 — share present ✅ [OK] All disks backing share are online
If any pre-flight check fails the script will abort with a clear error and hint before touching anything. Step 8 — Secondary Server Initial Setup
If setting up the secondary from scratch (no existing data):
Complete Steps 1–5 on the secondary
Start the array and create your shares in the unRAID UI
Run the share recreation tool to create disk directories from your cfg files:
bash
bash /mnt/user/appdata/unraid_scripts/Tools/recreate_shares.sh
Temporarily remove --delete from DEFAULT_RSYNC_OPTS in Master.conf
Run the initial push from the primary — the .recovery marker files allow rsync to populate empty shares without aborting
Once complete, restore --delete to Master.conf
The next nightly run will clean up the .recovery marker files automatically
Troubleshooting SSH connection refused
Verify SSH is enabled on the target server (Step 3)
Check the correct key is referenced in Master.conf
Confirm the Tailscale IP resolves: tailscale ip -4 HOSTNAME
Pre-flight aborts on rootfs
Remote rootfs is above ROOTFS_WARN threshold
Check if the remote array is started and drives are mounted
df / on the remote to see current usage
Pre-flight aborts on empty share
Share exists but has no content — drives may not be mounted
Run recreate_shares.sh if setting up fresh
Check array status on the remote server
Pre-flight aborts on disk check
One or more disks backing the share are not mounted
Check Main → Array Devices on the remote for offline disks
Verify disk assignments are correct after any hardware changes
Script not found
Verify the repo was cloned to /mnt/user/appdata/unraid_scripts/
Check scripts are executable: chmod +x /mnt/user/appdata/unraid_scripts/Rsync/rsync.sh
Containers not stopping/starting
Verify container names in Master.conf match exactly what Docker shows
Check SSH key has access to run docker commands on the remote
Test manually: ssh -i /root/.ssh/KEY root@REMOTE_IP "docker ps"
Available Flags
All scripts support the following flags: Flag Description --dry-run or -n Run without making any changes --log Enable verbose logging output --no-log Disable logging (overrides Master.conf) --status Print resolved configuration and exit
Example: bash
Preview what would be synced without transferring anything
bash rsync.sh /mnt/user/Movies --dry-run --log
Check what profile and settings resolved for a share
bash rsync.sh /mnt/user/appdata-Failover/Arrs_Stack --status
Repository Structure
Unraid_Scripts/ ├── Master.conf # All user configuration — edit this file only ├── common.sh # Shared library — functions used by all scripts ├── Rsync/ │ └── rsync.sh # Core rsync script — called per share ├── Orchestrators/ │ └── daily_sync.sh # Daily media sync orchestrator └── Tools/ └── recreate_shares.sh # Share directory recreation from cfg files