Using SyncBreeze Server to Synchronize Databases

Databases and other continuously running applications usually lock data files preventing SyncBreeze from synchronizing these files. Moreover, even when some database files are not locked and may be synchronized, the consistency of the database is not guaranteed and the only way to properly backup a database or synchronize two databases is to suspend the database before starting the file synchronization operation and restart the database when the file synchronization operation is completed.

SyncBreeze Server provides the ability to configure pre-sync and post-sync actions for any file synchronization command allowing one to stop a database before the sync operation is started and restart the database again when the sync operation is completed.

For example, in order to safely backup Microsoft SQL server data files, set the pre-sync action and the post-sync action as follows:

Pre-Sync Action: 'net stop MSSQLSERVER'

Post-Sync Action: 'net start MSSQLSERVER'

The per-sync action will stop the Microsoft SQL Server database service before the file sync operation and the post-sync action will start the Microsoft SQL Server database service again after the sync operation is completed.

Sometimes, a database may use multiple directories for different types of files. In this case, in order to synchronize such a database using a single file synchronization command, open the file synchronization command dialog, select the 'General' tab, select the 'Expert' configuration mode and add all directory pairs that should be synchronized. This way the database will be stopped only once when the file synchronization command is started and all the required directories will be synchronized in a single operation.

In order to minimize the impact of the database downtime on users and other applications, the file synchronization operation may be scheduled to be executed automatically when no users are working with the database.