How to prevent a replication storm

1345 August 8, 2022 611

Summary:

How to prevent replication storm
What types of changes cause a replication storm?

Solution:

1. Keep server time in sync. For instance, do not change time zones on a server machine that already exists in a replication network.

2. Be careful with bulk inserts/updates. They can trigger replication storms if not done carefully. This frequently happens after a schema change / pdupgrade. It can also happen if somebody runs a giant SQL script against a replicated table without thinking through the replication impact.

3. Be careful with schema changes to tables with very large numbers of records. pdupgrades to tables with many records may need to be handled carefully to avoid replication storms. In particular, adding a field with a DEFAULT VALUE to a table with a large number of records will certainly trigger a storm. See solution <> for more details on this specific replication storm situation.

4. Having sites off-line or not replicating for a long time while still receiving user updates can trigger a replication storm.