Interesting - I'll look into that more. Thanks for all your input while I was struggling through the snow, all.
The client is a property management firm, and the quality and equipment available at each site...varies widely. These are small rental offices and apartment complexes and so forth, connected by VPN to home base, and most of their apps are web-based, so the site bandwidth also tends to be low. Anything that runs under a user profile (Dropbox, Windows Live) can't necessarily be counted upon, as access to a particular desktop is spotty at any given time. We use Kaseya for management, so I'm looking to maximize that with a scriptable solution that doesn't require anything to be running in userland. Do Dropbox or Live Sync run a true background sync as a service, or does the sync run as a user process? I can set them up under a service account, but if they require the profile to be logged in to sync I'd be out of luck. They are starting to pick up Windows 7 though, so BranchCache may be an option for some sites. We're pushing for a cheap LinkStation at each site, but purchases unfortunately require approval from each site manager, as the property management company doesn't technically "own" each site, just manages it. Thanks all! -- Durf On Tue, Feb 1, 2011 at 3:49 PM, David Lum <[email protected]> wrote: > I believe Win7 offers this sans server side requirement. > > > > “ BranchCache caches content from remote file and Web servers in the branch > location so that users can more quickly access this information. The cache > can be hosted centrally on a server in the branch location, or can be > distributed across user PCs.” > > > > http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/dd573290 > > > > Dave > > > > *From:* Andrew S. Baker [mailto:[email protected]] > *Sent:* Tuesday, February 01, 2011 12:32 PM > > *To:* NT System Admin Issues > *Subject:* Re: File distribution with local peer to peer feature? > > > > Doesn't sound like he's using any servers, though... > > > > *ASB *(My Bio via About.Me <http://about.me/Andrew.S.Baker/bio>) > *Exploiting Technology for Business Advantage...* > > > > > > On Tue, Feb 1, 2011 at 2:17 PM, Brian Desmond <[email protected]> > wrote: > > *This sounds exactly like the description of the BranchCache feature in > Win7/2008R2…* > > * * > > *Thanks,* > > *Brian Desmond* > > *[email protected]* > > * * > > *w – 312.625.1438 | c – 312.731.3132* > > * * > > *From:* Durf [mailto:[email protected]] > *Sent:* Tuesday, February 01, 2011 9:17 AM > > > *To:* NT System Admin Issues > > *Subject:* File distribution with local peer to peer feature? > > > > Hi all; > > > > I have a client who has multiple (50+) small sites with 2-10 PC's at each > site, most with no network file storage. So far I have been distributing > small files to each site using FTP from their central webserver, and that > has been working fine for small files. We're now investigating staging > larger files to these sites (100MB+, thanks Windows Live!) and utilizing a > cloud-based file depot for that purpose (Sharefile in this case). > > > > To minimize costs, I'd like if possible to utilize some sort of > peer-to-peer sync. In an ideal world, I would only download one copy of the > file to one machine at a given site, and the other machines would then look > to the peer "file server" for the file. In my ideal, the "file server" > would also be automagically selected, to prevent having to manually > designate a machine that may or may not be online at a given time. > > > > Does anyone know of a script or utility that would assist in this? The > process would be something like: > > > > 1. Site receives request to sync FOO.EXE > > 2. Check local peers to see if a copy of FOO.EXE is present on the local > network. > > 3. If yes, copy file from local peers. > > 4. If no, a file server is "elected" and downloads the file. > > 5. Remaining machines at site sync from the elected file server. > > > > BitTorrent would be an ideal solution, but we can't it for political and > technical reasons. > > > > Thanks, > > Durf > > > > ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ > ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ > > --- > To manage subscriptions click here: > http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/ > or send an email to [email protected] > with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin > > ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ > ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ > > --- > To manage subscriptions click here: > http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/ > or send an email to [email protected] > with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin > -- -------------- Give a man a fish, and he'll eat for a day. 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