appropriate for the environment. These basic scenarios can be combined to build the replication topology that best suits the network environment.

“Single-master replication”“Multi-master replication”“Cascading replication”“Mixed environments”6.2.1Single-master replication

In the most basic replication configuration, a supplier server copies a replica directly to one or more consumer servers. In this configuration, all directory modifications occur on the read-write replica on the supplier server, and the consumer servers contain read-only replicas of the data.

The supplier server must perform all modifications to the read-write replicas stored on the consumer servers. This is illustrated below.

Figure 6-1 Single-master replication

The supplier server can replicate a read-write replica to several consumer servers. The total number of consumer servers that a single supplier server can manage depends on the speed of the networks and the total number of entries that are modified on a daily basis. However, a supplier server is capable of maintaining several consumer servers.

6.2.2 Multi-master replication

In a multi-master replication environment, master copies of the same information can exist on multiple servers. This means that data can be updated simultaneously in different locations. The changes that occur on each server are replicated to the other servers. This means that each server functions as both a supplier and a consumer.

When the same data is modified on multiple servers, there is a conflict resolution procedure to determine which change is kept. The Directory Server considers the valid change to be the most recent one.

76 Designing the replication process