DataSync symlink target file from NFS server to EFS

If you need to actually follow the symbolic link and copy the data, you can always use rsync with specific options to handle symlinks effectively if AWS DataSync does not meet your requirements.

The -L and -K options in rsync control how symlinks are handled during the synchronization process:

• -L or --copy-links: This option tells rsync to transform the symlinks into referent files/dirs. In other words, if you have a symlink that points to a file or directory, it will copy the actual file or directory that the symlink points to insteaf of copying the symlink itself.

• -K or --keep-dirlinks: This option is used with -L to avoid duplicating the referent of a symlinked directory inside a copied tree again at the location of the symlink. This is useful for preventing extra copies of directories already copied elsewhere in the tree.

Combining both options would allow you to follow symlinks for files and handle directory symlinks, specially to avoid unnecessary duplication. Here's how you might use rsync to synchronize an NFS-mounted directory (with symlinks) to a local directory (which you could then upload to an Amazon EFS):

rsync -avzKL /path/to/nfs/mount/ /path/to/efs/mount/

This command:

• -a: Archive mode; equals -rlptgoD (no -H), preserving almost everything (except hard links) and ensuring that symbolic links, devices, attributes, permissions, ownerships, etc., are preserved.
• -v: Verbose, which increases the amount of information you're given during the transfer.
• -z: Compresses file data during the transfer.
• -K: Ensures that symlinks to directories are treated as the directory they link to.
• -L: Copies the files that symlinks point to rather than copying them themselves.

You can always create a local copy with all symlinks resolved,and then use DataSync to transfer this data to Amazon EFS.

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