TMS Redundancy - Synchronizing Local Files

[Patrick Sparkman]

What program and suggested method (one-way, two-way) for local file synchronization between two redundant TMS servers does Cisco recommend?

[Justin Ferello]

Patrick,

What files would you want to synchronize?  The only data that needs to be shared between servers would be the SQL database.

Thanks,

Justin

[Patrick Sparkman]

Cisco TMS Redundancy Deployment Guide v13.2

Appendix 2. Local files for synchronization
During installation of Cisco TMS, customizable files are added which must be synchronized between the two servers when using a redundant deployment.
The files include software and images which can be uploaded to Cisco TMS, and images created by Cisco TMS.
In a default installation the files are located here:
C:\Program Files\TANDBERG\TMS\wwwTMS\Data\CiscoSettings
C:\Program Files\TANDBERG\TMS\wwwTMS\Data\CompanyLogo
C:\Program Files\TANDBERG\TMS\wwwTMS\Data\ExternalSourceFiles
C:\Program Files\TANDBERG\TMS\wwwTMS\Data\Image
C:\Program Files\TANDBERG\TMS\wwwTMS\Data\Language
C:\Program Files\TANDBERG\TMS\wwwTMS\Data\Logo
C:\Program Files\TANDBERG\TMS\wwwTMS\Data\Map
C:\Program Files\TANDBERG\TMS\wwwTMS\Data\MGCSettings
C:\Program Files\TANDBERG\TMS\wwwTMS\Public\Data\Software

[Justin Ferello]

Patrick,

I see, never really thought about those files.  I believe all those files are not mission critical.  Anyway you could do a couple things.  You could schedule a time in the evening to stop all TMS services and then use a batch file to copy the files over to the other server, then restart the services.

You could also use a program, there are some very expensive products out there and some cheap ones.  I use this program for all my sync'ing needs.  I just looked and you can schedule it too.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/freefilesync/

Thanks,

Justin

[Martin Koch · Accepted solution]

btw, if I see it right these are "customizable" files, so most are either default, do not exist or like the

Data\Software which are just the downloads of software versions.

They can become mission critical if you change and depend on them :-)

Properly syncing them is the right way to go, but don't be disappointed if there is nothing to sync :-)

[Kjetil Ree]

Hi,

(...) You could schedule a time in the evening to stop all TMS services and then use a batch file to copy the files over to the other server, then restart the services

No, stopping the services should never be necessary.

When using load balanced TMS servers internally we usually set up file replication using DFS. DFS is included in all Windows 2008 installations, and makes synchronizing very easy.

Just remember to temporary turn off synchronization before upgrading to a later TMS version, as the installer could fail to update folders that are locked by the synchronization mechanism.

Regards,

Kjetil