# Migrating files to Amazon FSx for OpenZFS using rsync
Migrating files with rsync

With **rsync**, you can replicate data between any source and destination, but at least one must be locally accessible to the client instance.

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#### [ Amazon EC2 instance ]

**To migrate existing files to Amazon FSx from a Linux-based Amazon EC2 instance**

The following procedure configures your FSx for OpenZFS destination volume as a local NFS mount on a Linux-based EC2 instance and uses the **rsync** command to synchronize data from your source file system or existing directory on your EC2 instance.

1. Launch a Linux-based Amazon EC2 instance or connect to an existing EC2 instance that contains your desired source data.

1. Mount your destination FSx for OpenZFS source volume; for more information, see [Step 2: Mount your file system from an Amazon EC2 instance](getting-started.md#getting-started-step2). The following step assumes that you have mounted your desired destination on your OpenZFS volume to `/fsx/destination_path` on your EC2 instance.

1. Run **rsync** from this EC2 instance to synchronize data from your source. If your source data is already on the EC2 instance, use the following command:

   ```
   sudo rsync -avR /source_path /fsx/destination_path
   ```
**Note**  
You can also run **rsync** with GNU parallel to maximize performance. The following instructions apply for EC2 Linux instances running Amazon Linux 2:.  

   ```
   sudo amazon-linux-extras install epel 
   sudo yum install nload sysstat parallel -y
   sudo time find -L /source_path -type f | parallel rsync -avR {} /fsx/destination_path
   ```

   If your source is a directory on a remote host, use the following command:

   ```
   sudo rsync -avR username@source_dns_or_ip:/source_path /fsx/destination_path
   ```

   Use the following variant if you need to use .pem key-based authentication:

   ```
   sudo rsync -avR -e "ssh -i key.pem" username@source_dns_or_ip:/source_path /fsx/destination_path
   ```

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#### [ On-premises ]

**To migrate existing files to Amazon FSx from your on-premises Linux-based source**

The following procedure configures your FSx for OpenZFS destination volume as a local NFS mount on a Linux-based EC2 instance. Then, you use **rsync** from your source to connect to this EC2 instance and synchronize files to the path where the destination Amazon FSx volume is mounted.

1. Launch a Linux-based Amazon EC2 instance and mount your destination FSx for OpenZFS source volume. For more information, see [Step 2: Mount your file system from an Amazon EC2 instance](getting-started.md#getting-started-step2). The following step assumes that you have mounted the desired destination on your OpenZFS volume to `/fsx/destination_path` on your EC2 instance.

1. From your on-premises Linux-based source, run **rsync** to connect to this EC2 instance and synchronize data from any locally accessible path. For example, `source_path` can refer to a locally accessible directory or a path on another shared file system.

   ```
   sudo rsync -e "ssh -i key.pem" /source_path ec2-user@ec2_dns_name.amazonaws.com:/fsx/destination_path
   ```

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