using rsync with rsh instead of ssh for that extra 6-10MB/s

This procedure is for setting up rsh with rhosts to allow passwordless rsync. cpu on my fileserver was maxed out at around 20MB/s using ssh. using rsh pushed speeds up to 26-30MB/s (CPU still limiting).

emerge -av xinetd netkit-rsh

edit /etc/xinetd.conf:

only_from = localhost 192.168.1.0/24  

edit /etc/xinetd.d/rsh:

disable         = no  

edit /etc/pam.d/rsh, set to use pam_rhosts:

-auth       required     pam_rhosts_auth.so
+auth       required     pam_rhosts.so

hopefully that change will not be necessary forever. it’s pretty dumb. there’s no such thing as ‘pamrhostsauth.so.’

add the hostnames/IPs you wish to be able to connect from in ~/.rhosts

don’t forget to start xinetd. rsh logs will show up in the auth log.

use -e rsh with rsync

this approach works well when the users are the same on both machines (root@a -> root@b). not so well when the user names differ. less versatile than the ssh authorized_keys mechanism.