I need to automate the upload of some files from client PCs to a central server. We're building central statistics for an online gaming community, processing game replay files.
- target is my own small VPS server running ubuntu
- upload file size 2-3MB
- 20-40 different clients running windows spread around the globe
- I expect ~6GB of wanted data to be uploaded over the course of 7 weeks (a season in our game) and 5-10x that amount of "unwanted" data.
The files are processed on the server, and then they're not required anymore, and ought to be deleted to not run out of disk space eventually. I also only need some of the files, but due to the files requiring very complex processing including decryption, so i can only determine that after the server processed it.
My initial idea was to use a scriptable client such as WinSCP, and use some Windows scheduler entry to automate it. WinSCP documentation looks very nice. I am a bit hesitant because I see the following problems:
- after deletion on the server, how to prevent re-upload ?
- ease of setup to technical novices
- reliability of the solution
I was thinking maybe someone has done the same before and can give some advice.