Most often, we come across the error, Rsync connection timed out when we try to rsync data between two cPanel servers.

As part of our Server Management Services, we assist our customers with several Rsync queries.

Today, let us look at a possible resolution to this error.

Rsync connection timed out

Generally, this error does not relate to the cPanel software on the machine.

Hence, the error message can be helpful to diagnose the issue.

The error message looks like the following:

packet_write_wait: Connection to 192.168.0.1 port 22: Broken pipe
rsync: connection unexpectedly closed (104508573 bytes received so far) [receiver]
rsync error: error in rsync protocol data stream (code 12) at io.c(226) [receiver=3.1.2]
rsync: connection unexpectedly closed (104542504 bytes received so far) [generator]
rsync error: unexplained error (code 255) at io.c(226) [generator=3.1.2]

Rsync has a list of exit codes on its man page. To review this we can use “man rsync” on any Linux system.

Once we run it we can see the list of codes:

0 Success
1 Syntax or usage error
2 Protocol incompatibility
3 Errors selecting input/output files, dirs
4 Requested action not supported: an attempt was made to manipulate 64-bit files on a platform that cannot support them; or an option was specified that is supported by the
client and not by the server.
5 Error starting client-server protocol
6 Daemon unable to append to log-file
10 Error in socket I/O
11 Error in file I/O
12 Error in rsync protocol data stream
13 Errors with program diagnostics
14 Error in IPC code
20 Received SIGUSR1 or SIGINT
21 Some error returned by waitpid()
22 Error allocating core memory buffers
23 Partial transfer due to error
24 Partial transfer due to vanished source files
25 The --max-delete limit stopped deletions
30 Timeout in data send/receive
35 Timeout waiting for daemon connection

In this example, we see error code 12, which indicates an issue with the data stream.

Most often, this occurs due to a network issue, disk space problems on either the source or destination server or data that has gone missing from the source machine.

In order to troubleshoot this issue, we can attempt to disable the firewall on both servers to see if that helps with the problem.

However, if this doesn’t help, the next best step is to make sure that data isn’t being changed on the source while the rsync is happening

Otherwise, it could be additional networking issues that we need to investigate outside of the server itself.

If the issue continues to prevail even after trying these steps, our Support Techs recommend contacting a professional systems administrator.

[Need further assistance? We are available 24*7]

Conclusion

In short, we saw how our Support Techs fix the Rsync query for our customers.