Not sure what rsync switches/options to use?

rsync -PDrphogtl

The short version would be:

rsync -Pha

I think these are really common sense options to use and probaby should be the default.

Explanation of rsync switches

P = display the progress

D = hybrid of --specials and --devices so all special and device files will be copied as well.

r = recursive (otherwise rsync won't copy files deeper than the specified target)

p = preserve the permissions

h = human readable (usually MB or GB for the filesizes and MB/s or K/s for the transfer speeds

o = preserve the owner's ownership

g = preserve the group ownership

t = preserve times (you should especially for backups)

l = copy symlinks as symlinks (why wouldn't you?) *Note that if you are not copying an entire partition/drive you may have issues (where the symlink is copied and not the file you actually want, this option may not be a good idea for databackup but is mainly useful when preserving filesystems/migrating an OS etc...)

-a, --archive        archive mode; equals -rlptgoD (no -H,-A,-

*As shown above you could replace r,l,p,t,og,D (basically everything by just using the -a) switch.

Other useful switches

--exclude=/dev --exclude=/proc --exclude=/sys

Those are basic directories that usually result in rsync hanging when trying to copy an entire live filesystem.