Copy and synchronize with Rclone

Rclone is an open-source command-line tool that allows you to copy and synchronize files to numerous cloud storage services, including S3-compatible storage. It is particularly well-suited for backups, data migrations, and directory synchronization.

Required version

Make sure you are using a recent version of Rclone to ensure compatibility with Cloud Temple object storage. You can check your version with rclone version.

Prerequisites

• A Cloud Temple S3 storage account with access keys (Access Key and Secret Key).
• The S3 endpoint for your account (available in the Cloud Temple console).

Installing Rclone

On Linux/macOS, install Rclone using the official script:

curl https://rclone.org/install.sh | sudo bash

On other systems, see the official installation documentation.

Verify the installation:

rclone version

Configuration

Create the Rclone configuration file for your Cloud Temple S3 storage:

mkdir -p ~/.config/rclone
cat > ~/.config/rclone/rclone.conf <<EOF
[cloudtemple-s3]
type = s3
provider = Other
access_key_id = YOUR_ACCESS_KEY
secret_access_key = YOUR_SECRET_KEY
endpoint = https://YOUR_ACCOUNT.s3.fr1.cloud-temple.com/
EOF

tip

Replace YOUR_ACCESS_KEY, YOUR_SECRET_KEY, and YOUR_ACCOUNT with your actual information, available in the Cloud Temple console under Object Storage > Storage Accounts.

You can verify your configuration:

cat ~/.config/rclone/rclone.conf

Connection Check

List your buckets to verify that the connection is working:

rclone lsd cloudtemple-s3:

List the files in a bucket:

rclone ls cloudtemple-s3:bucket-name

Copying files (copy)

The rclone copy command copies source files to the destination without deleting existing files on the destination.

Test in dry-run mode

Before any operation, test with --dry-run to see what will be done without making any changes:

rclone copy /data/backup cloudtemple-s3:nom-du-bucket/ --dry-run --verbose

Effective copy

rclone copy /data/backup cloudtemple-s3:bucket-name/ --verbose

Synchronize files (sync)

The rclone sync command makes the destination identical to the source. Files present on the destination but missing from the source will be deleted.

Attention

rclone sync deletes files from the destination that no longer exist in the source. Always test with --dry-run before executing the command.

Simulation test

rclone sync /data/backup cloudtemple-s3:bucket-name/ --dry-run --verbose

Effective synchronization

rclone sync /data/backup cloudtemple-s3:bucket-name/ --delete-during --verbose

Useful Options

Option	Description
--dry-run	Simulates the operation without making any changes
--verbose	Displays details of the operations
--progress	Shows a real-time progress bar
--transfers N	Number of parallel transfers (default: 4)
--bwlimit RATE	Limits bandwidth (e.g. 10M for 10 MB/s)
--exclude PATTERN	Excludes files matching a pattern (e.g. *.tmp)
--min-age DURATION	Transfers only files older than the specified duration

Example with advanced options

rclone sync /data/backup cloudtemple-s3:nom-du-bucket/ \
  --transfers 8 \
  --bwlimit 50M \
  --exclude "*.tmp" \
  --exclude ".cache/**" \
  --progress \
  --verbose

Automation with cron

To automate a daily backup, add a cron entry:

Daily backup at 2 AM

0 2 * * * rclone sync /data/backup cloudtemple-s3:nom-du-bucket/ --log-file=/var/log/rclone-backup.log --log-level INFO