HP UX Red Hat Direry Server Software manual When to Initialize a Consumer

Chapter 8. Managing Replication

•Section 10.2, “Online Consumer Initialization Using the Console”

•Section 10.3, “Initializing Consumers Online Using the Command Line”

•Section 10.4, “Manual Consumer Initialization Using the Command Line”

•Section 10.5, “Filesystem Replica Initialization”

10.1. When to Initialize a Consumer

Consumer initialization involves copying data from the supplier server to the consumer server. Once the subtree has been physically placed on the consumer, the supplier server can begin replaying update operations to the consumer server.

Under normal operations, the consumer should not ever have to be reinitialized. However, any time there is a chance that there is a big discrepancy between the supplier's data and the consumer's, reinitialize the consumer. For example, if the data on the supplier server is restored from backup, then all consumers supplied by that server should be reinitialize. As another example, if the supplier has not been able to contact the consumer for a long time, like a week, the supplier may determine that the consumer is too far out of date to be updated, and must be reinitialized.

The consumer can either be initialized online using the Console or manually using the command-line. Online consumer initialization using the Console is an effective method of initializing a small number of consumers. However, since each replica is initialized in sequence, this method is not suited to initializing a large number of replicas. Online consumer initialization is the method to use when the consumer is initialized as part of configuring the replication agreement on the supplier server.

Manual consumer initialization using the command-line is a more effective method of initializing a large number of consumers from a single LDIF file.

10.2. Online Consumer Initialization Using the Console

Online consumer initialization using the Console is the easiest way to initialize or reinitialize a consumer. However, for replicating across a slow link, this process can be very time-consuming, and manual consumer initialization using the command-line may be a more efficient approach. This is described in more detail Section 10.4, “Manual Consumer Initialization Using the Command Line”.

NOTE

When a consumer server is being initialized using the online consumer creation method, all operations (including searches) on the replica are referred to the supplier server until the initialization process is completed.

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