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Folder Sync accross the WAN

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by achen2002

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We have main office (site 1) and another office (site 2), the connection between them is through VPN establised on 384K DSL connections.

We wish the users at site 2 be able to access the same network drive as site 1 users, the size of it is almost 6 GB, which way in the following list will be the smartest way to set this up?

(A) Have users at site 2 to map the network drive directly from the server at site 1, do it in real time across the WAN.

(B) Setup a folder at site 2 to sync. withthe original folder at site 1, and have users at site 2 to map the network drive from their own server.

Here is what I think about pros and cons for them, please correct me if I am wrong:

(A)
pros: The users are accessing the data from the same (and only) location, so no worry about different revision of data.

cons: It's going to be slow

(B)
pros: Users at site 2 access the network drive at best perforamance because it's local

cons: I don't know how much traffic will cause for this 6GB folder to sync. with each other between site 1 and site 2.

Please give me some suggestion here.

3 replies

by mckaytech

The most important question in my view is whether this is a database (e.g. SQL Server) or is it just a file share?

If it is a database, I would tend to use database replication in a scenario like this. If it is not, I would more likely use a mapped share if the DSL lines are stable.

However, directory sync may still make sense if a corrupted file would cause big problems. For example, let's say these are huge Word files and I'm working over a file share and the connection drops out in the middle of a save. The file may well be hosed irreversibly and have to be restored from backup. If I'm using directory sync, I should still have a good copy of the file on one side or the other and that might save the day.

Probably the best answer is going to come from a short trial while monitoring the line loads using something like MRTG and seeing how the users like the process.

regards,

paul

by pgm554

If you want something that works ,is platform independent, and secure ,Novell Ifolder.

Runs on Netware ,Windows,Linux,Solaris.

Only the changes that are made to a document or database are replicated.(ie,if a 200 meg file is changed,and it is only 50 KB,then only the 50 KB change makes its way across the WAN,not the entire 200 meg).

It has a throttling mechanism built in for the type of WAN connection you are using.

Requires no Novell client.

Try that with a M$ solution.

www.novell.com/products/ifolder/features.html

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