Configuring the Replicator Service

The Data Replicator service requires a control database in which to store information about sources, destinations, and replication subscriptions.

You can use either IBM Db2 for LUW or SQL Server for the control database, and access it using either a connection string or an ODBC DSN.  

We recommend using a connection string, as described in the Quick Start Guides for SQDR and SQDR Plus.  The choice of Db2 vs SQL Server is dependent on your environment. If SQDR is installed on the same system as SQDR Plus, we recommend using the local Db2 LUW that is installed for use by SQDR Plus.

After configuring a connection to a control database with the SQDR Configuration program, there are additional properties that you can configure from the Data Replicator Manager to control the interval at which data is committed, how connections and logging are handled, and whether notifications about the status of groups are sent to an email address. After you start the Replicator Manager, select the service and edit the properties, as described in the topic Changing Replicator Service Properties.

The following information is provided for historical reasons and for users who prefer to use ODBC data sources and SQL Server.

Using SQL Server and ODBC DSN for a control database

For the control database you must have an ODBC data source or connection string defined that connects to SQL Server 2005 or later. The control database can use the default or a named instance of SQL Server. If you do not already have SQL Server installed, Installing DB2 for LUW or SQL Server for a Control Database describes how to obtain a version of SQL Server that Microsoft provides free of charge.

After you define an ODBC data source or compose a connection string for the Data Replicator control database, use the Data Replicator Configuration Wizard to configure the control database. The Data Replicator Configuration shortcut of the StarQuest Data Replicator program group starts the configuration wizard, which provides details about the configuration options.

To configure the Data Replicator service, you must log in to SQL Server using a valid SQL Server administrative (sa) account. The Data Replicator Configuration Wizard prompts for the sa user ID if SQL Server is configured to use a trusted connection using Windows authentication, or the sa user ID and password if SQL Server is configured to use Windows and SQL Server authentication.

Each user in the SQL Server administrator group has a default object schema, or owner, of "dbo." The Data Replicator Configuration Wizard allows you to specify a different schema name for the Data Replicator control tables if desired. If you specify a schema name, it must be the default schema for the associated user ID.