Question Lost my Master - how to save the day (1 Viewer)

[thomas.dahl]

Hallo,

I have a question. We have 6 "Replicas" located on laptops etc. Periodically the users synchronise with the "Master" which is located on a server in the office. Works great.

I now wanted to modify a datatype inorder to improve some functionality and discovered that the "Master" is actually another "Replica". Everyone has been synchronising with a "Replica". And this for a very long time, so no data seems to have gotten lost.

I did know this was even possible.

Anyway, how do to create a new "Master" from the pseudo Master (actually a Replica) and can I do this without loosing the ability to synchronise everything. Some users only come in seldom so I cannot be sure that everyone is fully synchronised before I try to repair the "Master".

I cannot change any datatypes in a "Replica" and will need to recreate the missing "Master".

Any ideas what I am up against?

Thanks
Thomas

 

[CJ_London]

It's a while since I have used replica's but what you need to do is a follows.

1. Ensure all users have synced so the server replica is up to date. Once each user has synced they must make no more changes to their copy of the replica (since those changes will be lost) until they recieve a new replica.

2. now convert the server replica to a master - can't quite remember how but I think it is one of the facilities on the menu. This only takes a few seconds. To save time, suggest you find this facility before you start the whole process

3. Once you have a new master, this can be copied back out to your users as a replica to replace their old replica - job done

Last time I had to do this (about 8 years ago) we had 10 users and we just had to set a date and time to make this happen. The longest process and the one that needs most coordinating is step one. Users can only sync one at a time and syncing may take from a few seconds to an hour or so. I basically had to ensure all users were available or had at least synced before not being available and would phone them one by one to start them syncing and they would phone me back once done. It took the best part of a day.

 

[thomas.dahl]

Thanks CJ. I was afraid of this.. I guess there is no other way without loosing the replicas.

How do you manage remote users today if you have not used replicas/master for 8 years?

Thomas

 

[CJ_London]

That particular client had a very slow LAN so we used replication so users could actually work! All the users were actually inhouse (although in different buildings around the UK). Now they have a faster network so they all work off the LAN.

With regards other clients with offsite users, they connected via VPN, syncing took forever and was risky since the file could become corrupted if the connection was lost.

What they now use is either terminal server or citrix - in my experience terminal server is faster from the users perspective but that could just be the way everything has been organised.

For a number of my smaller clients, terminal server is too expensive so they have two computers for each user - a 'cheap' pc (decent memory/processor, cheap or no peripherals) that is connected to the LAN plus a laptop or PDA. Then they connect using TeamViewer or JumpDesktop which gives control of their pc to the laptop/PDA. One of the benefits of this is that the laptop/PDA could be an Apple for example.

Tend to recommend Jump for PDA's and touchscreen devices because it replicates the touch experience better - basically just tapping on a button activates the click event. Other systems you have to use a finger to drag the mouse over the button before tapping.

For demo purposes (and emergencies), I use Jump from my iPhone to control my pc back at base and have redesigned a few forms that I can convert to work on a much smaller screen so it is potentially practical to use!