Cached Replica Vaults

Document vaults can be replicated from the main server to geographically separate replica servers. Opening objects from replica servers often makes it quicker to open documents for editing, because the connection to the main server may be slow. Therefore, replication makes accessing frequently used documents on client computers in geographically separate facilities much faster.

Cached replica vaults need a connection to the main server, but full replication can be used even if the connection to the main server is cut off. For more information on implementation of full replication, refer to Interaction Among Several Vaults.

The document vault is replicated from the main server to the replica server. The document vault on the replica server is called a cached replica vault.

Note: The files on the cached replica server are not encrypted.

In M-Files Desktop Settings, the connection to the cached replica vault is created in the same way as any other document vault connection. The M-Files Desktop user only sees the name of the cached replica vault. In other words, the user does not know whether the vault is replicated or not.

Video: Cached Replica Vaults

Creating a Cached Replica Vault

Before you begin

Make sure you have administrator rights on the computer that servers as the replica server.
Install M-Files Server and M-Files Admin with the same minor release level as the main server (for instance, 11.1.x and 11.1.x).
Make sure you have a user ID with access to the document vault on the main server.

Note: Administrator rights are only required for accessing the replica server. The main server does not require administrator rights at any stage of specifying the replication.

For more information about administrator rights, see Server roles: System administrator.

Steps

Open M-Files Admin on the computer that serves as a replica server.
In the left-side tree view, expand the desired connection to M-Files Server.
Still in the left-side tree view, highlight Cached Replica Vaults and then click New Cached Replica Vault... on the right pane.
The Cached Replica Vault Properties dialog is opened.
In the Server name field, enter the network name or IP address of the server on which M-Files Server has been installed and that contains the document vault.
In the Port number field, enter the port to connect to the server. M-Files uses the port 2266 by default.
Using the Protocol drop-down menu, select the protocol to be used for the network connection. You can select between TCP/IP, SPX, or HTTPS.
Using the Document vault drop-down menu, select the document vault to be replicated.
The Name field is updated with the name of the source vault and the Unique ID field is updated with the unique ID of the source vault. The Unique ID value is used as storage identification of the cached replica vault. M-Files Server uses the IDs to tell document vaults apart, which prevents, for instance, the same vault being replicated twice to the same server.
Optional: Click Test Connection to Document Vault to check whether you can successfully connect to the document vault. If the connection test is successful, proceed to the next step. If the test fails, check the connection properties and try again.
Optional: Using the Name field, you can change the name of the cached replica vault. By default, the cached replica vault has the same name as the source vault.
If the name of the source vault is changed, you can click Update to update the name of the cached replica vault with the updated name of the source vault.
Click the ... button next to the Cache location on server field to specify the directory where the replica vault is stored on the server.
The Location for cached file data field is updated with the path to the replicated files in the cache directory.
Optional: Click Set Account... to select the login account used to connect to the server cache.
M-Files Server uses the specified account to store information in the server cache or open files from it. The account must be specified when the server cache is on, for example, a file server requiring authentication for connection.
Click OK to finish creating the cached replica vaults.

Results

The cached replica vault that you have just created is added to the Cached Replica Vaults list and it now acts as a cached replica vault of the specified source document vault.