The following sections describe the MultiSite architecture.
A database set consists of a schema repository and its associated user databases. A user database cannot exist without its corresponding schema repository, so when you replicate a database set, both the schema repository and the user database are replicated. When you work with a database replica, you are working with two physical databases: a schema repository replica and a user database replica.
A clan (Figure 1) consists of all replicas of a database set. Within a clan, replicas are grouped into replica families. A replica family is all the replicas of a specific database.
Schema repositories and user databases belong to separate replica families. For user databases, the family name is the same as the database name. The family name of a schema repository is always MASTR.
A site is a named collection of replicas in the same clan that reside at the same location. Each site has a schema repository replica and at most one replica from each user database family. Each site is served by a synchronization server, which receives and sends update packets to replicas within its family. Updates for a site can contain updates to the user database replicas, the schema repository replica, or both.
Within a clan, one of the schema repository replicas is the working schema repository. At the working schema repository, you can change schemas and create additional user databases which can then be replicated. At other schema repositories, you cannot change schemas or create user databases. A clan can have only one working schema repository.
At either kind of schema repository, you can perform the following tasks:
MultiSite documentation uses the following terms.