copy the partition /home from local machine to a remote machine, box2.

rsync -avHx --delete /home/ root@box2:/home

Make a copy of a partition:

rsync -avr --progress --stats /var/ /usr/var/

rsync new files only
rsync -avr --update --progress /web/vs/files/binary-cache/ root@10.110.2.20:/web/vs/files/binary-cache/

This will rsync a cluster from the web nodes.

#!/bin/bash

### BEGIN CONFIGURATION ###

CLUSTER="10.0.0.10 10.0.0.20 10.0.0.30 10.0.0.40 10.0.0.50 10.0.0.60 10.0.0.70 10.0.0.80"
SOURCE="/usr/drupal_www/"
DEST="/var/www/"

### END CONFIGURATION ###

# Command usage
print_usage() {
        echo "Usage: $0 [ -y | -c | -l | -h ]"
        echo
        echo " -y      perform the rsync.  The default is to do a dry-run."
        echo
        echo " -c      show the command that will run on each node, then exit"
        echo " -l      print a list of the available hosts, then exit"
        echo " -h      show this help message, then exit"
}

# Process command-line flags
FLAGS=""
SHOW_COMMAND=0
LIST_HOSTS=0
EXECUTE=0
while getopts "yhcl" options; do
        case $options in
                y )     EXECUTE=1
                        ;;

                c )     SHOW_COMMAND=1
                        ;;

                l )     LIST_HOSTS=1
                        ;;

                h )     print_usage
                        exit 0
                        ;;

                * )     print_usage
                        exit 1
                        ;;
        esac
done

# Generate rsync command
DRYRUN="n"
if [ $EXECUTE -eq 1 ]; then
        DRYRUN=""
fi
COMMAND="rsync -av$DRYRUN --delete --exclude=.ssh --exclude=CVS --exclude=.svn $SOURCE $DEST"

# Show the command and exit if -c was given on the command line
if [ $SHOW_COMMAND -eq 1 ]; then
        echo "The following command would be run on all nodes:"
        echo "$COMMAND"
        exit 0
fi

# Check if each cluster member is alive
HOSTS=""
for HOST in $CLUSTER; do
        ping -t 1 -c 1 -s 1 $HOST > /dev/null 2>&1
        if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then
                echo
                echo "*************************************************"
                echo "Host: $HOST either does not exist or is down."
                echo "Process resumes in 5 secs or Control-C to cancel"
                echo "*************************************************"
                sleep 5
        else
                HOSTS="$HOSTS $HOST"
        fi
done

# Show the host list if -l was given on the command line
if [ $LIST_HOSTS -eq 1 ]; then
        echo "The following hosts are available"
        echo $HOSTS
        exit 0;
fi

# Execute command
for HOST in $HOSTS; do
        echo
        echo " --- $HOST --- "
        ssh $HOST "$COMMAND"
        echo " --- done --- "
done
wait