Replication Survey; Replication Resource Requirements - Netscape DIRECTORY SERVER 6.01 - DEPLOYMENT Deployment Manual

Defining a Replication Strategy
• Using Replication for Load Balancing
• Example Replication Strategy for a Small Site
• Example Replication Strategy for a Large Site

Replication Survey

The type of information you need to gather from your survey to help you define
your replication strategy includes:
• Quality of the LANs and WANs connecting different buildings or remote sites,
and the amount of available bandwidth.
• Physical location of users, how many users are at each site, what is their
activity
For example, a site that manages human resource databases or financial
information is likely to put a heavier load on your directory than a site
containing engineering staff that uses the directory for simple telephone book
purposes.
• The number of applications that access the directory, and relative percentage of
read/search/compare operations to write operations.
For example, if your messaging server uses the directory, you need to know
how many operations it performs for each email message it handles. Other
products that rely on directory are typically products such as authentication
applications, or meta-directory applications. For each one you must find out
the type and frequency of operations that are performed in the directory.
• The number and size of the entries stored in the directory.
For example, a site that manages human resource databases or financial
information is likely to put a heavier load on your directory than a site containing
engineering staff that uses the directory for simple telephone book purposes.

Replication Resource Requirements

Using replication requires more resources. Consider the following resource
requirements when defining your replication strategy:
• Disk usage—On supplier servers, the change log is written after each update
operation. Supplier servers receiving many update operations may see higher
disk usage.
108 Netscape Directory Server Deployment Guide • January 2002