Wicom File Replication Service Administration Guide 2005-02-11

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Wicom File Replication Service

Wicom Communications Ltd. Tel +358 9 5257 7500 www.wicom.comSinimentie 10 A Fax +358 10 525 7750 [email protected] Espoo, FINLAND

ADMINISTRATION GUIDE

WICOM FILE REPLICATION SERVICESOFTWARE VERSION: 1.0. .8

DOCUMENT VERSION: 200 -0 -11(DRAFT)

WICOM COMMUNICATIONS LTD. 2004.
http://www.wicom.com/mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]://www.wicom.com/


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All rights reserved. Wicom Communications Ltd. 2004. WWW.WICOM.COM

The information in this document is subject to change without notice. This document is intended forthe use of Wicom Communications' customers only for the purposes of the agreement under which the

document is submitted, and no part of it may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or means

without the prior written permission of Wicom Communications.

The information or statements given in this document concerning the suitability, capacity, or

performance of the mentioned hardware or software products cannot be considered binding but shall

be defined in the agreement made between Wicom Communications and the customer. Wicom

Communications, however, has made all reasonable efforts to ensure that the information contained inthe document is adequate and free of material errors. Wicom Communications will, if necessary,

explain issues, which may not be covered by the document.

Wicom Communications' liability for any errors in the document is limited to the documentarycorrection of errors. Wicom Communications will not be responsible in any event for errors in this

document or for any damages, incidental or consequential losses that might arise from the use of this

document or the information in it.

This document and the product it describes are considered protected by copyright according to the

applicable laws.

Wicom logo is a registered trademark of Wicom Communications.

Other product names mentioned in this document may be trademarks of their respective companies.

Copyright Wicom Communications Ltd 2005. All rights reserved.
http://www.wicom.com/http://www.wicom.com/


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Wicom File Replication Service I


CONTENTS

1. About this manual .............................................................................................................................. 1

1.1 Document history ......................................................................................................................... 1

2. Terms and abbreviations ................................................................................................................... 2

3. Introduction ....................................................................................................................................... 3

4. Installation and removal .................................................................................................................... 4

4.1 Installation of the default instance ................................................................................................. 4

4.2 Installation of named instances ..................................................................................................... 5

4.3 Removing the default instance ...................................................................................................... 5

4.4 Removing named instances ........................................................................................................... 5

5. Starting and stopping the service....................................................................................................... 7

6. Concepts ............................................................................................................................................. 8

6.1 Publisher ...................................................................................................................................... 8

6.2 Publication ................................................................................................................................... 86.3 Publication definition ................................................................................................................... 8

6.4 Article .......................................................................................................................................... 8

6.5 Article definition .......................................................................................................................... 8

6.6 Subscriber .................................................................................................................................... 8

6.7 Subscription ................................................................................................................................. 9

7. Registry settings ................................................................................................................................10

8. Configuration file ..............................................................................................................................12

9. Diagnostics log file .............................................................................................................................14

10. State files........................................................................................................................................15

11. Example configurations ................................................................................................................16

11.1 Sample1 - Simple replication scenario .........................................................................................16


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II Wicom File Replication Service


11.2 Sample2 - More complex replication scenario ..............................................................................18


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Wicom File Replication Service 1


1. ABOUT THIS MANUAL

This document is the administration guide of the Wicom File Replication Service (WFRS) and is

targeted to system administrators.

1.1 DOCUMENT HISTORY

Version Date Changes

1 2004-06-10 Created the document.

2 2004-12-09Some minor updates.Still a draft

3 2005-02-11Updated configuration file and sample configurations sections.Still a draft


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2 Wicom File Replication Service


2. TERMS AND ABBREVIATIONS

WFRS Wicom File Replication Service


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3. INTRODUCTION

The Wicom File Replication Service (WFRS) is a software module, that constantly monitors file

additions, modifications and deletions in selected directories and reflects the changes to another

computer or computers where WFRS is also running. WFRS runs unattended as a Windows service

and reads most of its configuration information from an XML-file and some settings from the

Windows registry.

This document describes functionality, configuration and installation of the Wicom File Replication

Service.


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4. INSTALLATION AND REMOVAL

Currently, there is no installation program for the WFRS. However, the installation is quite

straightforward and is presented in this chapter.

The WFRS consists of one executable file WFRS.EXE, its configuration xml-file WFRS.XML

and a small set of configuration settings in the Windows registry. Registry settings and default values

for them are generated by the installation process. The configuration file has to be edited manuallywith some text editor according to instructions given in this document.

You can run multiple instances of WFRS on a single computer. This can be necessary for example in a

service center to provide own WFRS service for each customer with their own IP-addresses and other

configuration parameters. Only one of the instances can be a special default instance. There can be

multiple named instances.

4.1 INSTALLATION OF THE DEFAULT INSTANCE

The steps to install the default instance of WFRS on a computer are:

1. Create a directory for the WFRS on the hard disk

2. Copy files WFRS.EXE and WFRS.XML to the directory

3. Start command prompt

4. Change current working directory to the one created in step 1

5. To install the WFRS, start wfrs.exe with the install command line option:

wfrs install

This creates a Windows service called Wicom File Replication Service, which can be seen in

Windows registry at:

"HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\WFRS".

6. To init registry settings of the WFRS, start wfrs.exe with the init command line option:

wfrs init

This creates registry key: "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Wicom\WFRS" and some

default values under it.

7. Actual installation is now complete. However, you must still configure the default service

instance. Refer to chapter 8 for configuring it.


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4.2 INSTALLATION OF NAMED INSTANCES

The steps to install an additional named instance of WFRS are:

1. Create a new service instance by executing command:

wfrs install name=

This creates a service called Wicom File Replication Service , which can be

seen in Windows registry at:"HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\WFRS ".

2. Create registry key for instance specific configuration settings by executing command:

wfrs -init name=

This creates registry key: "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Wicom\WFRS " and some default values under it.

3. Actual installation of an instance is now complete. However, you must still configure the named

service instance. Refer to chapter 8 for configuring it.

4.3 REMOVING THE DEFAULT INSTANCE

To remove the default instance of WFRS from a computer, execute the following commands:

wfrs remove

wfrs cleanup

The first command removes service called Wicom File Replication Service and the second

command removes key "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Wicom\WFRS from Windows

registry.

NOTE! These commands do not remove any files from the hard disk.

4.4 REMOVING NAMED INSTANCES

To remove a specific named instance of WFRS, execute the following commands:

wfrs remove name=

wfrs cleanup name=

The first command removes service called Wicom File Replication Service and the

second command removes key "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Wicom\WFRS from Windows registry.


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NOTE! These commands do not remove any files from the hard disk.


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5. STARTING AND STOPPING THE SERVICE

After you have configured the WFRS, you must start it. This is accomplished as with any other

Windows service via the Services control panel applet. Naturally, the service is also stopped from the

same place. The default instance of WFRS is shown there as Wicom File Replication Service.

Named instances of WFRS are show as Wicom File Replication Service .

NOTE! The installation sets the WFRS only to start manually. In a production environment you mightwant to change the services startup type to automatic.


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6. CONCEPTS

This chapter presents the concepts that the operation of WFRS is based on. Understanding of these

concepts is vital because they are used when configuring WFRS. Following is a list of the concepts:

- Publisher

- Publication

- Publication definition

- Article

- Article definition

- Subscriber

- Subscription

6.1 PUBLISHER

An instance of WFRS is called a publisher. Publisher exchanges files with other publishers which are

known to it as subscribers. The files to be exchanged between publishers are defined as publications.

6.2 PUBLICATION

A set of files that can be exchanged between publishers is called a publication.

6.3 PUBLICATION DEFINITION

Publication definition is used to

6.4 ARTICLE

An article

6.5 ARTICLE DEFINITION

Article definition is used to

6.6 SUBSCRIBER

A publisher sees other publishers as subscribers.


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6.7 SUBSCRIPTION

Each subscriber subscribes some or all of publishers publications. The association of subscriber to a

publication is called a subscription.


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7. REGISTRY SETTINGS

Most of the configuration settings of WFRS are stored in an XML-configuration file. However, there

are few settings in the Windows registry too. These settings are related to operation of WFRS on a

generic level and not related to the actual replication tasks.

The registry settings of WFRS are stored in Windows registry under key

"HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Wicom\WFRS". The following table presents the settings,their data type and usage.

Setting Type Usage

ConfigFile STRING Name of the configuration XML-file.

Mandatory.

No default value but installation initializes this to \WFRS.xml.

PublisherName STRING Name of the publisher. This is used to identify the publisher in theconfiguration XML-file.

Optional.

Default value is the computer name.

LogFilename STRING Name of the diagnostics log file. A single file is generated per day.The file name is generated by adding date to file name as follows

_yyyymmdd.. For example WFRS_20040428.log.

Files older than 30 days are deleted automatically.

Optional.

Default value is %systemroot%\system32\logfiles\WFRS.log for

the default instance and %systemroot%\system32\logfiles\WFRS

.log for named instances.

LogLevel DWORD Log level value that controls what information is written to

diagnostics log files. Values are:

0 Error. Minimum level of diagnostics logging. Only errors are

logged.

1 Informational. Errors and key events of operations of the service

are logged.


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2 Debug. For internal use only.

3 Trace. Errors and extensive information about inner workings of

the service are logged.

Optional.

Default value is 1.

LogFlushDelay DWORD Seconds between flushes of diagnostics log file to disk.

Optional.

Default value is 5.


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8. CONFIGURATION FILE

Configuration settings, that control the actual operations of WFRS, are stored in a XML-based

configuration file.

Following is a template describing the syntax of a configuration file.


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9. DIAGNOSTICS LOG FILE

WFRS writes information about its operations and possible error conditions to diagnostics log files. A

single diagnostics log file is written per day. WFRS deletes automatically diagnostics log files that are

older than 30 days. Content and location of diagnostics log files are controlled by registry settings that

are described in chapter 7.


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10. STATE FILES

WFRS stores its internal state between restarts in state files. The state files contain list of existing files

for every publication and a list of pending replication actions for every subscription. WFRS manages

the state files automatically. The location of state files is defined in the configuration XML file by

entering an attribute called statedir into element called Publisher.


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11. EXAMPLE CONFIGURATIONS

This chapter presents some exemplary configurations of the WFRS. The examples start from a fresh

installation of WFRS i.e. they assume that there is no previous configuration information that might

disrupt the example case.

11.1SAMPLE1 - SIMPLE REPLICATION SCENARIO

The following picture illustrates a simple replication configuration with bi-directional replication of

files between folders on two computers. One computer is called comp1 and its IP address is

10.11.12.1. The other computer is called comp2 and its IP address is 10.11.12.2.

comp1

10.11.12.1

comp2

10.11.12.2

c:\folder1 c:\folder1

Following is listing of a suitable configuration file for the above replication scenario. This sample file

is included in the WFRS distribution with name sample1.xml.


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11.2SAMPLE2 - MORE COMPLEX REPLICATION SCENARIO

The following picture illustrates a more complex replication configuration. There are two computers

and six folders involved. One computer is called comp1 and its IP address is 10.11.12.1. The othercomputer is called comp2 and its IP address is 10.11.12.2.

comp1

10.11.12.1

comp2

10.11.12.2

c:\folder1 c:\folder1

c:\folder2 e:\data\folder2

pub1

pub3

pub2

The goal is to keep files in folders c:\folder1 and c:\folder2 on computer comp1 and in folders

c:\folder1 and e:\data\folder2 on computer comp2 in sync. An additional requirement in thisscenario is that only changes in folder c:\folder1 on both computers drive the replication, meaning

that there are bi-directional and unidirectional paths in the replication.

Following is listing of a suitable configuration file for the above replication scenario. This sample fileis included in the WFRS distribution with name sample2.xml.


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directory="c:\folder1" />

Wicom File Replication Service Administration Guide 2005-02-11

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