User's Guide

Part III. Using SQL Anywhere

Chapter 28. SQL Remote Administration

There are two distinct phases of SQL Remote administration:

• Designing, implementing, and deploying a SQL Remote replication setup.
• Maintaining an operating SQL Remote setup.

SQL Remote is built to provide robust replication within a well-defined setup. Consequently, while many iterations of schema and publication design and testing can be performed, SQL Remote is not designed to support extensive alterations to database object definitions while the replication system is up and running. Upgrading a SQL Remote setup may well involve resynchronizing all remote users.

This chapter describes topics in the following categories:

• Design and setup of a SQL Remote installation This includes creating message types, managing permissions, designing and creating publications, managing subscriptions, as well as extracting databases.
• Messages and the Message Agent Using the Message Agent to send and receive messages, and how the message tracking system works.
• Error reporting and conflict resolution Major inconsistencies, such as two users inserting rows with the same primary key, must be designed out of your publications. Update conflicts, however, can be resolved using triggers.
• Direct intervention at remote databases The passthrough mode enables SQL statements to be applied at remote databases. You may need to make some changes to your database design and applications to make them suitable for replication and updating at multiple sites.

    For more information on such possible changes, see the section "Designing publications".

Sybase Central is the recommended tool for SQL Remote administration. It provides a graphical interface to all the elements of a SQL Remote setup: message types, remote users, publishers, publications, subscriptions, and the database extraction utility for synchronizing databases. If you do not have access to a platform on which Sybase Central can be run (Windows 95 or Windows NT 3.51 or later) you can carry out administration tasks using ISQL to enter SQL statements and using the command-line DBXTRACT utility to synchronize databases. This chapter describes both approaches.