Tuesday, May 03, 2005

cwRSync and copSSH

Note: These directions are works-in-progress... in fact, they might not even work at all. I got side-tracked before I could finish this and will re-visit it at some point in the future.

The folks who created cwRSync (www.itefix.no) have now released a package called copSSH which is basically SSH for windows and works with cwRSync. I'll be refering back to my old post about installing cwRSync. The latest version I have is from late April 2005 and includes bug fixes for Windows Server 2003.

Also see the rsyncd.conf file for configuring rsync.

These steps are for installing rsync in a server configuration (meaning that it will be listening on the listed ports). Since the install process needs to (optionally) create an user account and create a new service, you'll need administrative access to the machine that you are using. (I'm not sure whether members of the Power Users group have enough privileges.)


  1. Download cwRSync, open up the ZIP file, then extract/run cwRsync_x.x.x_Installer.exe.

  2. Click "Next" to begin the install.

  3. Read and agree to the licence.

  4. Make sure that both the client and server components are checked off and click "Next".

  5. Choose your installation location. I prefer to put mine in a custom location (C:\bin\cwRsync).

  6. Click "Install" to begin the installation.

  7. The default user account is "cwrsync" (with a random password) and it will be installed as a service. You will probably want to change the password to something stronger and adjust the properties of the service in Computer Management. Specifically, I changed the Recovery tab to auto-restart the service after 5 minutes if it dies. I've left the "auto-start" setting to "manual" until I've finished configuration and testing.

  8. By default, the newly created "cwRSync" folder grants permissions to the Administrators group (full control), the CWRSYNC user account (full control) and the Users account (read/execute).

  9. Now you should configure your rsyncd.conf file.


Now we need to install copSSH.


  1. Download copSSH, open up the ZIP file, then extract/run copSSH_x.x.x_Installer.exe.

  2. Click "Next" to begin the install.

  3. Read and agree to the licence.

  4. Change the install folder to match where you installed cwRSync (C:\bin\cwRsync). (This is according to the FAQ on the itefix.no web site.)

  5. This creates a new service called "OpenSSH SSHD" with a default users account of "SvcCOPSSH"

  6. You will probably want to change the password to something stronger and adjust the properties of the service in Computer Management. Specifically, I changed the Recovery tab to auto-restart the service after 5 minutes if it dies. I've changed the "auto-start" setting to "manual" until I've finished configuration and testing.

  7. Notice that the copSSH installation blows away existing permissions on the c:\bin\cwRSync folder. This may require fixing (I have to test first).

  8. Re-start the SSHD service in manual mode (if you stopped it earlier).