By plantarum
I’m trying to upload a large file, 9.5GB, to my droplet. It’s in a directory with many other files that I need on the droplet, so I tried rsync:
rsync -az --progress grassdata/trich_ast_ll username@dr.op.let.ip:grassdata/
This appeared to work, but the pipe is broken after a while - 30 minutes to an hour, when the upload will take ca. 4 hours to complete. Restarting rsync did not restart with the partially uploaded file, but instead started to reload this particular large file completely.
Now I’m trying sftp, with compressionLevel=9 and TCPKeepAlive=yes. So far so good, but it will take another 3 hours to complete, assuming it works (after which I’ll return to rsync to get the rest of my smaller files on board). In the meantime, I wonder if there is another option for uploading large files reliably that I should use instead?
specs: Debian 7/64bit on 32GB RAM server Thanks!
EDIT: just found out about rsync --partial. I’ll try that next time for sure. Still interested in alternatives!
Tyler
This textbox defaults to using Markdown to format your answer.
You can type !ref in this text area to quickly search our full set of tutorials, documentation & marketplace offerings and insert the link!
I think you’re looking for the --partial flag for rsync:
–partial By default, rsync will delete any partially transferred file if the transfer is interrupted. In some circumstances it is more desirable to keep partially transferred files. Using the --partial option tells rsync to keep the partial file which should make a subsequent transfer of the rest of the file much faster.
By default, rsync will delete the temporary file it creates if a transfer fails.
Become a contributor for community
Get paid to write technical tutorials and select a tech-focused charity to receive a matching donation.
DigitalOcean Documentation
Full documentation for every DigitalOcean product.
Resources for startups and AI-native businesses
The Wave has everything you need to know about building a business, from raising funding to marketing your product.
The developer cloud
Scale up as you grow — whether you're running one virtual machine or ten thousand.
Get started for free
Sign up and get $200 in credit for your first 60 days with DigitalOcean.*
*This promotional offer applies to new accounts only.