Starting the Aspera Watch Service

Aspera Sync can be configured to use asperawatchd for fast synchronization of very large numbers of files without scanning the directory. Aspera Sync can push files from a local directory, pull files from a remote directory, or create a bi-directional session between two directories (as long as asperawatchd is properly configured to monitor both directories).

To push files to a remote server using Aspera Watch Service, configure asperawatchd on the local host. The remote server does not need to be configured. For instructions on starting asperawatchd for a push Aspera Sync, see Starting Aspera Watch Services and Creating Watches.

To pull files from a remote host, configure asperawatchd on the remote host. See the following steps for configuration instructions. The local host does not need to be configured.

On the remote server, configure asperawatchd database storage.
If you set default database storage, Aspera Sync uses asperawatchd for all pull requests to the server, whereas if you set database storage for a specific user then asperawatchd is used only for pull requests by that user.

To configure the Watch Service database as the default, run the following command:
```
#asconfigurator -x "set_node_data;async_watchd,redis:hostname:31415[:domain]"
```
To configure the database storage for a specific user, run the following command:
```
#asconfigurator -x "set_user_data;user_name,username;async_watchd,redis:hostname:31415[:domain]"
```
On the remote server, set up asperawatchd.
For instructions, see Starting Aspera Watch Services and Creating Watches.