A long time feature request: being able to see the transfer logs at a glance using a graphical interface without having to open bulky text logs on disks. Here we go.
Figure 1: daily total volume sent by a synchronisation hub, 30 days range from 2026-04-27 to 2026-05-26, total: 3.46Tio
Rsync Logs
These logs contain useful information for each transfer: the involved files, time, bandwidth and more, depending on the configured options. We keep these logs in a structured way to be able to analyse the activity for every connected storages in each direction during all the production period.
Figure 2: some synchronisation scenarios between a hub and its connected storages
Why we do it
Looking at the information contained in these logs, we can directly answer these questions: are the synchronisation processes running ok? How are they performing? How does the system handle the huge amount of data we need to propagate this week? Is there a bottleneck that I could address and if so, where? Having monitoring charts can give the answers without the need to manually fetch and analyse the text log files from the synchronisation hub.
What we do
We program a tool to analyse these logs to extract the useful information needed to generate the charts. The analysis and chart generation processes are separated from the file transfer service itself, to make the tool standalone, robust, and easy to maintain. The final result is in SVG format which makes it ready to be integrated into web interfaces, offers interactivity options, and adapts nicely to large and mobile screens.
Figures 3 to 7: breakdown of the figure 1 : daily total volume received per storage, 30 days range.
What is the difference between this and my network bandwidth charts?
Well, the rsync logs contain more information than network statistics only. The process is located above the file system and is end-to-end from the file pickup to the delivery process. It means that the gathered statistics include the possible bottlenecks induced by disks reading/writing speed, the possible cpu struggles if some compression is involved, etc.
Why don't we use Munin or Grafana?
While these monitoring tools are really nice, we wanted to have a more concise and fully integrated way to go straight to the point. The data we monitor is a bit specific, so having the process in-house can offer better results. You can always connect the logs to the tool you like, like Munin and Grafana as they are standard rsync logs.
When will it be available?
This tool is still in development stage. Our beta users can use it and provide us important feedback to drive our development to their needs. To participate, just contact support@syncplanet.io to reach us.