Sync live server and development server

[eluser]mvdg27[/eluser]
Hi guys,

I have an issue, that's not directly PHP related, but since this forum has always been very helpful to me, I'm gonna give this one a go as well.

Currently I run two dedicated servers, a live server and a development server. On the live server I'm hosting a centralized CMS system for several clients now.

The development server I want to use to develop the CMS without worrying about making mistakes on the production server. After everything is working smoothly on the development server, I will deploy the application on the production server.

Now I think it would be useful to be able to test changes made on the development server on the actual websites without having to mess with the production server. So I'm looking for a way to periodically make a copy of these website files from the production server to the development server. This way it's easier to develop and test new modules in 'real life situations' without risking messing up the live server. So I'm looking for a way to sync the website data (not the application itself) between the two servers (from production to live)

Now I can do this manually, but there should be a way to do this automatically, right?

Just to be clear and give all the info:
- my servers are running DirectAdmin as an administration panel
- the website files (template files, images, etc.) are in separate hosting accounts
- each website has a seperate database, but all databases are part of one and the same hosting account for all websites

Does anyone have any experience with this and can maybe share some tips?

Thanks in advance. -Michiel