6.5 Administering Replicas

Before you add or delete a replica, or change replica type, carefully plan target replica locations. See Guidelines for Replicating Your Tree.

6.5.1 Adding a Replica

Add a replica to a server to provide your directory with

Fault tolerance
Faster access to data
Faster access across a WAN link
Access to objects in a set context (using bindery services)

To add a replica:

On the OpenText Identity Console home page, click Partition Management tile.
On the Partitions page > from Type drop down list > select Server > Click .
Select the server > On the Replica View page, click Add Replica > specify the Partition Name and server you want to replicate.

Choose one of the following replica types:

Replica Type	Description
Read-Write	Users will be able to both read and modify the contents of the new replica. Select this option if there are no modifiable replicas close enough to the users who manage the OpenText eDirectory objects in this partition.
Read-Only	Users will be able to read but not modify the contents of the new replica. Select this option if there are no replicas close enough to the users who read but don’t modify the OpenText eDirectory objects in this partition.
Filtered Read-Write	Users will be able to both read and modify the contents of the new replica, and the contents will be limited to the types of OpenText eDirectory objects and properties specified in a filter.
Filtered Read-Only	Users will be able to read but not modify the contents of the new replica, and the contents will be limited to the types of OpenText eDirectory objects and properties specified in a filter.

Click OK.

For more information, see Replica Types.

6.5.2 Deleting a Replica

Deleting a replica removes the replica of the partition from a server.

If you want to remove a server from the directory tree, you can delete replicas from the server before removing the server. Deleting the replicas reduces the chance of having problems when removing the server.

You can also reduce synchronization traffic on the network by removing replicas. Keep in mind that you probably don’t want more than six replicas of any partition.

You cannot delete a master replica or a subordinate reference.

If the replica you want to delete is a master, you have two options:

Go to a server with another replica of the partition and make it the new master replica

This automatically changes the original master replica to a read/write replica, which you can then delete.
Merge the partition with its parent partition

This merges the replicas of the partition with those of its parent and removes them from the servers they reside on. Merging removes partition boundaries, but not the objects. The objects continue to exist on each server which held a replica of the “joined” partition.

When you delete replicas, keep the following guidelines in mind:

For fault tolerance, you should maintain at least three replicas of each partition on different servers.
Deleting a replica deletes a copy of part of the directory database on the targeted server.

The database can still be accessed on other servers in the network, and the server that the replica was on still functions in OpenText eDirectory.

You cannot delete or manage subordinate reference replicas. They are created automatically on a server by OpenText eDirectory when the server contains a replica of a partition but not of that partition’s child.

To delete a replica:

On the OpenText Identity Console home page click the Partition Management tile.
On the Partitions page > from Type drop down list > select Server > Click
Select the partition or server that holds the replica you want to delete.
Click .

6.5.3 Changing a Replica Type

Change a replica type to control access to the replica information. For example, you might want to change an existing read/write replica to a read-only replica to prevent users from writing to the replica and modifying directory data.

You can change the type of a read/write or a read-only replica. You cannot change the type of a master replica, but a read/write or read-only can be changed to a master, which automatically changes the original master to a read/write replica.

Most replicas should be read/write. Read/write replicas can be written to by client operations. They send out information for synchronization when a change is made. Read-only replicas cannot be written to by client operations. However, they are updated when the replicas synchronize.

You cannot change the replica type of a subordinate reference. To place a replica of a partition on a server which currently has a subordinate reference requires an Add replica operation. A subordinate reference replica is not a complete copy of a partition. The placement and management of subordinate reference replicas is handled by OpenText eDirectory. They are created automatically on a server by OpenText eDirectory when the server contains a replica of a partition but not of that partition’s child.

To change a replica type:

On the OpenText Identity Console home page click the Partition Management tile.
On the Partitions page > from Type drop down list > select Server > Click .
Select the partition or server that holds the replica you want to change.
On the Replica View page > select the replica type you want to change.

Change the replica type, then click OK.

Replica Type	Description
Master	Users can both read and modify the contents of this replica, and the replica is the starting point for any future partitioning activity that affects this partition, such as creating or merging a subpartition. Only one master replica is allowed per partition.
Read-Write	Users can both read and modify the contents of the new replica. Select this option if there are no modifiable replicas close enough to the users who manage the OpenText eDirectory objects in this partition.
Read-Only	Users can read but not modify the contents of the new replica. Select this option if there are no replicas close enough to the users who read but don’t modify the OpenText eDirectory objects in this partition.
Filtered Read-Write	Users can both read and modify the contents of the new replica, and the contents are limited to the types of OpenText eDirectory objects and properties specified in a filter.
Filtered Read-Only	Users can read but not modify the contents of the new replica, and the contents are limited to the types of OpenText eDirectory objects and properties specified in a filter.

The Replica type changed successfully! message appears.

Click OK.

For more information, see Replica Types.