Hello everyone,

I'm looking to make a massive backup onto a local FTP within our datacenter.

However, I can only access the box remotely with full root access and it is a fully dedicated server.

So, I need to make a huge (apprx 150GB) transfer to a backup ftp that can only be accessed locally (in other words using the server, not through my own computer at home).

I have tried ncftp, and gftp (with VNC), however, it is proving to be quite unreliable and half way through the transfer process something goes wrong and it disconnects.

Does anyone have a better suggestion how to get this accomplished. Another FTP app perhaps? Or what should I do with the files?

It is a folder with a high number of files and subdirectories. I need to transfer it all recursively.

Thank you for any suggestions!

Edit: I'm running Fedora Core 8

oldie but still a goodie... have you tried tar?
It's not FTP but a lot of folks use it all the time

Yes I have, but the tar fails at about 7GB

Not sure why, didn't really want to spend the time to look into it.

We are talking about thousands and thousands of files and subdirectories by the way.

Have you looked at "rsync"?

Sorry I should mention that while I have full root access on the box, I have very limited access to the FTP.

I'm only given ftp host, user and pass and 250GB of space to use as I please. Beyond that no other access.

I don't think rsync is an option with that.

I don't understand, if you have full root access, you can do whatever you want. Chances are the box has rsync and ssh installed. So you should be good to go. (Rsync runs remotely over SSH by default).

+1 for investigating rsync - it's very powerful and will help you efficiently backup and restore large amounts of data.