I am making replica copies of Domino databases from an old server (R8.5.x) to a new server (R9.01) by using the Domino Administrator client doing it from the Files tab, selecting multiple databases, right-clicking and selecting New >> Replics(s).
This is something I’ve done many times over the years, but the last few times that I’ve done it, strange things happen: Some of the new replicas are missing the database icon (the design element is blank), and also sometimes they have lost the database launch properties (where they previously were set to open a frameset). It didn’t happen this time, but another time the new replica’s ACLs did not come over (and only had default entries). When I say the database icon is gone, I should say the Notes client shows a blank square for on the workspace with the database title, but the database icon design element (the graphic image) is blank / empty / missing.
This only happens to some of their application databases, and most will be fine, but of course, the ones affected are usually the larger and most important ones. The two servers are in different physical locations (this time they are in different cities in the same state, another time they were in different countries) - so, not sure if network latency could be a factor.
Any ideas on what may be causing this? Anyone else running into this problem? I’ve done a lot of searching and have only found one very old posting about this issue.
Subject: re: possible work-arounds
@Mark - Thanks for the reply and info. None of the databases are that big in size - all were much smaller than a GB. I should’ve used “most widely used” instead of “largest” in my description. Typically, they have been in-use for over a decade. The tech note mentions a problem was fixed in 8.5.3, but the source server is 8.5.3 and the destination server is 9.0.1 FP3.
The New Replica process description in the tech note is interesting. I’d be curious to know more. I’ve observed the entries that are posted in the Admin Requests database to “Check Access for New Replica Creation”, “Accelerated Create Replica”, and “Create Replica”. I had thought that the “Create Replica” only creates a replica stub (because the Domino Administrator client only shows the replica ID instead of a file name), and that scheduled replication was what actually populated the data.
@John - Also, thanks for you reply and info. We are definitely looking at copying them at the operating system level. Depending upon my customer, we might open a PMR. Which debugging variables would be useful?
Subject: Re: New Replicas Lose Database Icon and Launch Properties
Hi Don,
Network latency sounds like the most likely cause of the issue considering that it is mainly happening to larger databases.
The following describes something similar when creating replicas using an AdminP request:
http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21417806 http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21417806
Generally, issues usually start to occur on databases over 25GB
Thanks,
Mark
Subject: One possible work around would be…
If Source Database is not encrypted you can bring down the source Domino Server and the destination Domino Server and just copy or ftp the database to the destination…
If the Source Database has DAOS Enabled, once the copy completes to the destination, you would run
fixup -j -d [databasename] on the destination and it will discard (not delete) all documents with missing attachments…
Then once both servers are backup do a replication between the Source and the Destination and it will bring back all documents that were discarded into the destination.
A bit of a PITA but an option for you…
If you want to open a PMR with Support about your problem I’m sure they can have you enable enough debug/trace on source and destination to determine why the new replica is not being initialized properly.