Mobile Home Directory synchronizing in OS X Server environments is used to synchronize the home folder of clients with a copy that lives on the server, so users can roam between computers with their desktop, documents and preferences following them from machine to machine. Server Side File Tracking creates and keeps a copy of the sync database on client machines and servers, comparing the two databases when synchronizing rather than scanning directories for all the synced files each time a synchronization occurs. In environments with synchronizing Mobile Home Directories, Server Side File Tracking (SSFT) can help reduce the amount of time required for syncs. Server Side File Tracking is disabled by default in OS X Mountain Lion Server and cannot be enabled from the Server app. To enable Server Side File Tracking (aka – FileSyncAgent), use the following command:
sudo serveradmin settings info:enableFileSyncAgent = yes
To then turn it back off, if you so choose:
sudo serveradmin settings info:enableFileSyncAgent = no
Logs are then stored in ~/Library/Logs/FileSyncAgent/FileSyncAgentVerbose.log if you need further information. Note that TCP port 2336 needs to be open for the FileSync Agent to connect over ssh on port 2336 to the server; however, ssh doesn’t need to be enabled on the standard port 22 but mobile users must have access to the SSH SACL.
