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Vault Replication in 2008?

11 REPLIES 11
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Message 1 of 12
bdaly
485 Views, 11 Replies

Vault Replication in 2008?

Does anyone know anything about this product?

I ran across the following link, but haven't been able to find anything else.
www.hagerman.com/PDF_documents/2008/Productstream/productstream_twn_final.pdf

It looks like it is designed for most the replication scenarios requested in so many of the postings in this group.

Here's a blurb from the PDF (which is also attached):
Productstream Replicator
Autodesk® Productstream® Replicator is a new,
additional product that works with both Autodesk®
Vault 2008 and Autodesk® Productstream® 2008
databases. It enables file store replication at each
site with centralized metadata to help ensure that
all designers are working from the most up-to-date
design and to provide the benefi ts of local storage
and performance. It includes:
• Full per-site scheduling.
• On-demand pull of missing files.
• Client-side enhancements to notify users when
local files are not up to date.
• Management of inconsistent settings across sites.
• Support for the existence of orphaned metadata by
server and clients.

This looks very promising if it really does work with Vault and is a separate product that doesn't require ProductStream to be installed. Our firm has several offices around the state, and we would really like to replicate the Vault data between sites; pulling files from Vault across a WAN is painful and having a single project's design data scattered among multiple Vault servers (each site has their own) is becoming unmanageable. Then there's the single point of failure issue...

Bill Daly
www.millerlegg.com
11 REPLIES 11
Message 2 of 12
Anonymous
in reply to: bdaly

hi Bill,

This is true... This will be released with the 2008 releases and can be
added to both a vault server or a productstream server.

I'm not sure what your question is however. Did you want to know
anything specific other than if it's true?
--
Thanks,

Brian Roepke
Product Design Manager, MSD
Data Management
Message 3 of 12
martinxw
in reply to: bdaly

Hello Brian,
so Inventor 2008 RC1 is available to download.
My question is, when Productstream Replicator 2008 will be available? Because I like to try multi-site functionality etc.
Thanks for your time.
Message 4 of 12
Anonymous
in reply to: bdaly

We will not be posting a pre-release download. You'll have to wait for
the full release.
--
Thanks,

Brian Roepke
Product Design Manager, MSD
Data Management
Message 5 of 12
bdaly
in reply to: bdaly

I was trying to find out anything more about it. The only information I could find was in that one paragraph in that ProductStream PDF. I was hoping to find out more about:
- Estimated pricing
- How is it licensed (per named user, per server, per concurrent connection, per workstation)?
- Does it need a dedicated server?
- Does it require any other software (e.g. SQL Server, the full ProductStream, etc.)
- Does it support multimaster replication (sync changes made simultaneously from multiple sites)?
- Can it co-exist with standard SQL replication?
- Does it come with Civil 3D (like Vault does)?
- Does it support replication of more than 2 Vault servers?
- Is it only scheduled replication or can it replicate continuously (bandwidth throttling would be good here)
- Can it tolerate intermittent loss of connectivity between replicated servers?
- Is there a website with more info?
Message 6 of 12
Anonymous
in reply to: bdaly

- Estimated pricing
>> Please contact your reseller or Autodesk representative.

- How is it licensed (per named user, per server, per concurrent
connection, per workstation)?
>> Per site.


- Does it need a dedicated server?
>> I feel that Vault should should always be on a dedicated server;
however this doesn't require any "additional" servers... you just add
this. You will also of course need a server for the remote sites.

- Does it require any other software (e.g. SQL Server, the full
ProductStream, etc.)
>> Nothing other than the Productstream Replicator software.

- Does it support multimaster replication (sync changes made
simultaneously from multiple sites)?
>> Syncs can be done from / to multiple sites at the same time if the
schedule tells it to.


- Can it co-exist with standard SQL replication?
>> SQL replication doesn't play with this - there is only one SQL
server therefore there is no SQL replication. Only files are replicated.


- Does it come with Civil 3D (like Vault does)?
>> No - It is purchased separate but can be "added"

- Does it support replication of more than 2 Vault servers?
>> Sure. No "limits" per say... but the hardware and bandwidth needs
scale... Like thinking Amazon.com runs on a single computer 🙂


- Is it only scheduled replication or can it replicate continuously
(bandwidth throttling would be good here)
>> Three models... Scheduled time, On demand, and intervals. Intervals
can be set in minutes, or hours.


- Can it tolerate intermittent loss of connectivity between replicated
servers?
>> It can - whenever the connection to the remote sites restores, it
will finish its sync. Also, if there are other sites that contain the
data needed it will just fall over to another site that has the data.
If no sites available have the data it needs it will simply give an
error that "no sites are available"


- Is there a website with more info?
>> Sorry - There isn't anything right now.


--
Thanks,

Brian Roepke
Product Design Manager, MSD
Data Management
Message 7 of 12
Anonymous
in reply to: bdaly

I'd like to just add a few details to what Brian already mentioned.

Productstream Replicator allows you to have multiple Vault web servers, each
with its own copy of the file store. The database, however, is not
replicated. There is still only 1 database which all the sites connect to.

If web site A and web site B lose connectivity, then things will fail over
to other sites like Brian mentioned. However if web site A loses
connectivity to the database, then web site A will be unable to do anything.


Doug Redmond
Software Engineer, Autodesk Inc.
Message 8 of 12
bdaly
in reply to: bdaly

I was all excited when I hear about multimaster replication for Vault, but it appears that the multiple Vault servers use the same, single database server. It sounds like Replicator is designed more for having a vault "farm" at one location than for having a replicated Vault at multiple sites.

We'd still have a single point of failure with the database. If the site with the database becomes unavailable, all of the sites lose access to Vault. Would it be feasible to use some type of SQL replication method (transactional, mirroring, log shipping, DoubleTake, Availl, etc.) in order to have a redundant database (even if it's only a passive hot stand-by)?

When one of the Vault web servers is unable to reach the database server for a period of time, and changes (check-ins) are made at other sites, when it later reconnects, how does it true-up the missing/changed files in its local file store with the new records in the database?

Also, is it at all possible to use merge replication with Vault? I realize that I'd have to assign different identity ranges to each replicated server to prevent replication conflicts, and that the Merge setup will add Timestamp and RowGUID columns, but do you foresee any problems with this configuration? If we can use Replicator to replicate the file store real time (multimaster), and we can use merge replication to replicate the database real time (also multimaster), it seems that we could get a much more robust multi-site Vault topology. In theory, the file store and the database would stay in sync, we'd get multi-master replication, and each site can share a single vault with the rest of the sites (they currently have to go over the WAN if the project is at another site.)

Thank you very much for the quick response and number of details already provided.

Bill Daly
www.millerlegg.com
Message 9 of 12
nick.hall
in reply to: bdaly

Is the "Productstream Replicator" that was talked about here the same as "Autodesk Productstream Professional Replicator".

If so, can anyone confirm that it can be used to replicate Autodesk Vault.

If not, can anyone tell me what product I should be looking for ?

Thanks in advance

Nick
Message 10 of 12
Anonymous
in reply to: bdaly

"Productstream Replicator" is not the same as "Autodesk Productstream
Professional Replicator". "Autodesk Productstream Professional Replicator"
is for the "Autodesk Productstream Professional" products, while "Autodesk
Productstream Replicator 2008" is for the Vault & Productstream 2008
products.



-Bryan



wrote in message news:5704748@discussion.autodesk.com...
Is the "Productstream Replicator" that was talked about here the same as
"Autodesk Productstream Professional Replicator".

If so, can anyone confirm that it can be used to replicate Autodesk Vault.

If not, can anyone tell me what product I should be looking for ?

Thanks in advance

Nick
Message 11 of 12
nick.hall
in reply to: bdaly

Bryan

> "Autodesk Productstream Replicator 2008" is for the Vault & Productstream 2008 products.

That's really useful.

Only one problem though - no-one at Autodesk UK has any idea about "Autodesk Productstream Replicator 2008".

Have you got a URL I can point them to - I've tried Googling it, but all I get is links to cracked downloads and "Cheap OEM Software"

Thanks again

Nick
Message 12 of 12
Anonymous
in reply to: bdaly

Send me an email and I'll contact you directly (or my guy in the UK)

nospam_brian.roepke@autodesk.com

--
Thank You,

Brian Roepke
Manager, Customer Success, Data Management
Autodesk, Inc.

"nichall" wrote in message news:5704918@discussion.autodesk.com...
Bryan

> "Autodesk Productstream Replicator 2008" is for the Vault & Productstream
> 2008 products.

That's really useful.

Only one problem though - no-one at Autodesk UK has any idea about "Autodesk
Productstream Replicator 2008".

Have you got a URL I can point them to - I've tried Googling it, but all I
get is links to cracked downloads and "Cheap OEM Software"

Thanks again

Nick

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