Master and Replica

One host in the network acts as the AccuRev server machine: it runs the AccuRev Server process and contains the AccuRev repository. In a replication scenario, this original host (or more precisely, this instance of the AccuRev Server process) is termed the master server.

One or more additional hosts in the network can act as replica servers. Each such host runs its own instance of the AccuRev Server process; likewise, each such host has its own copy of the AccuRev repository. The diagram below shows the servers in a replication scenario, along with various client machines.

We use the terms master repository and replica repository to distinguish the multiple repositories in a replication scenario. The master repository is always complete and up-to-date; all transactions (operations that change the repository) are handled by the master server and are logged in the master repository.

By contrast, a replica repository can become out of date during day-to-day usage: it can be missing recent transactions initiated by clients using other replica servers or the master server. You can issue a simple synchronization command to download such missing transactions from the master repository to the replica repository. This makes the replica repository database into an exact copy (temporarily, at least) of the master repository database. Synchronization also occurs automatically whenever a transaction is initiated by a client using that replica server.

A replica repository can contain a selected subset of the depots in the master repository. If the master repository contains 10 depots, one replica repository might be configured to contain 4 of the depots, another replica repository might be configured to contain 7 of them, and a third replica repository might be configured to contain all 10 depots.

For more details on day-to-day operations involving master and replica repositories, see the sections starting with Using a Replica Server. First, we address licensing issues and describe the replica setup process.