Synchronization

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Use Aspera for desktop to transfer files from your HSTS or AoC accounts and set up automatic folder synchronization between your client computer and the server whenever the folder content changes in either location.

Set up synchronization

With an AoC or HSTS account already added, follow these steps:

Attention: The content changes or file system updates refer to the modification, renaming, creation, and deletion of both file and folder contents. By default, the system replicates any deletions. For example, if you delete a file, the system also deletes it on the other side.
  1. In the navigation bar, go to Accounts > Automation.
  2. Click New automation. Then, select the account to synchronize files with.
  3. On the Files tab, configure the files automation:
    1. Automatically check for new items: When enabled, the application checks for new files. You can specify the interval by going to Settings > General > Automation in the navigation bar. Find Files and change the interval.
      When disabled, files are will only be synchronized once you manually run the automation. For more information, see the Manually check for new items section in Download packages automatically.
    2. Local directory to sync with: The directory that you synchronize in the local system.
    3. Continuous mode: The sync process synchronizes the endpoints and continues running. As file system updates occur, it detects these changes and synchronizes with the peer endpoint. This is useful when the local or remote path is on a file system that does not support notifications, such as cloud object storage or certain mounted storage types.
    4. Sync direction: When setting up sync, select the direction of synchronization. You can configure the following direction settings:
      - Remote to local: This is the default setting. In this configuration, the server retains the primary version of the files, and it copies the latest content to users' workstations.
      - Local to remote: In this configuration, the user's version of the content is considered the primary version, and they copy it to a central server. This setting is typically used when users frequently update content.
      - Two-way: In a two-way or bidirectional sync relationship, the system copies changes from each location to the other. With this type of sync, both the remote and local contents are identical after the sync is complete.
    5. Directories: Select the remote directories that you want to sync with.
    6. Remote deleted items from target: Specify a mount signature file to prevent file deletions if the NFS or CIFS mount becomes unavailable.
    7. Custom sync parameters: Custom sync parameters in JSON format that allows to override the default synchronization settings for Files when creating or editing an automation task. For example: 
      {"filters":{"include":{"value":"/SyncSrc/*.txt"},"exclude":{"value":"/SyncSrc/*.mov"}}}

      Enter valid JSON in the Custom sync parameters field because invalid JSON prevents saving the automation task. Any unsupported keys are ignored, and you can set a value to null to remove a default field.

Initial synchronization

When you set up a sync relationship between two computers, the system begins the initial transfer of content from the source location to the destination. Depending on the size of the content, the operation can be significant.

During the next automatic sync, the system copies any changes from the source location to the target.