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Seeding

Consider a scenario where you have to backup large files (over 10 GB) to a remote machine over a network. Regardless of which transport mechanism you use (Syncrify, FTP or any other similar programs), transferring large amount of data across the network can take hours.



Concept of Seeding

Often a faster approach is to copy the files to external USB drive, take it to the physical machine and copy it to the appropriate folder. Since Syncrify just copies the changes in a file, the next backup task won't transfer the entire data again and therefore, will run much faster.

This method is called initial seeding.



Steps for Initial Seeding



Using Encryption When Seeding

Encryption add an extra twist to seeding. When users decides to use encryption, every file residing on the server is encrypted but same files are on the client are not. Therefore, before taking your files to the server, you need to encrypt them on your local machine and then take those encrypted files to the server.

Use the following steps to encrypt files before manually moving them over to the server machine.



Common Problems and Resolutions

The most common problem that occurs during seeding is that files are NOT copied to the expected folder path. If Syncrify expects the seeded files in folder A but the actual files reside in folder B, Syncrify server won't know about the files and it will try to copy the entire file set when a backup is run.

To ensure files are copied to the correct folder, try connecting from the web interface using the actual users login id and password. See Browsing Files for instructions if needed. If seeding is done correctly, you should be able to see the files you have just copied manually. If you don't see the files, that means they have been copied to the wrong folder.