sql server replication: FTP and Replication Between Separate WANs -- sql server replication

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FTP and Replication Between Separate WANs

FTP and Replication Between Separate WANs

Eugene
8/16/2006 5:00:27 PM

sql server replication:

Please forgive me for being a little green on replication, I have not
used MSSQL's (2000) replication capabilities yet but I'm trying solve a
particular problem and I'm wondering if SQL Server's built-in
replication will solve it.

We have a database (SQL Server 2000) at location 1 within a corporate
firewall. We'd like to replicate this database to a SQL Server at
location 2 which is inside a separate firewall at a remote location. Due
to corporate policies there is no way for one server to directly access
the other, so a direct push or pull is not possible. The best solution
that has been proposed so far would be to use an external FTP server
that both locations can access. Given this:

(1) Is it possible to use this external FTP server as a snapshot
location? In the documentation I could only find setup instructions for
Snapshot locations using FTP on the Publisher itself, not on a remote
machine. If so, how?
(2) If we can use the external FTP server, can we do merge replication,
or are we limited to snapshot replication?

The database at location 2 *could* simply be a snapshot of the database
at location 1, but ideally we'd like to allow data to be updated and
merged back to location 1 if it is a straightforward process.

Thank you in advance for any advice you can offer - this forum is great!

Re: FTP and Replication Between Separate WANs

Paul Ibison
8/17/2006 12:00:00 AM

The problem is that the distribution agent will do one FTP but you really
need 2 FTPs and 2 distribution agents. This will have to be a
"roll-your-own" type of solution. You could run the snapshot agent and then
have another job run which does the FTP. Have a pull distribution agent on
the subscriber which has an initial step that does an FTP and then use an
alternative snapshot location. All this sounds really prone to failing and
difficult to manage/maintain. If the firewall ports can't be opened up then
I'd stress the flakiness of this solution to your managers.
What it sounds as you really need is merge replication on SQL Server 2005
perhaps using HTTPS.
For the other points, it'll have to be snapshot, as there is no file-based
solution for replication other than snapshot.
Cheers,
Paul Ibison SQL Server MVP, www.replicationanswers.com

Re: FTP and Replication Between Separate WANs

Russell Mangel
8/17/2006 3:02:17 AM

Let me see if I understand you:

Your company policy makers are asking
you to replicate an SQL server database
to another location, but they want you
to do this without using a direct connection!

Your company must have incredibly valuable data
(like Bank of America), *or* your company
policy makers do not understand how to
develop and implement a security policy for
this type of thing. You must convince them
that it is possible to achieve this, with very
little chance of a security breach, and then
show them how. You may need an outside
consultant to help you if you do not have
the skills in house.

If you can not convince them, then you
need to start looking for a new job, as
no one can build these kinds of solutions
without a *road* between the servers.

Russell Mangel

[quoted text, click to view]

Re: FTP and Replication Between Separate WANs

Eugene
8/17/2006 4:21:27 PM

The locations are at two separate companies in different countries, each
with their own policies and restrictions (some of which are
governmental), so this appears to be my only possibility at the moment.
I'm very aware that if a direct connection could be made, life would be
peachy.

Re: FTP and Replication Between Separate WANs

Eugene
8/17/2006 4:54:25 PM

Paul, thanks so much for the suggestions. I saw that MSSQL 2005 has
better replication options, HTTPS is a definite possibiity - that may
just be the incentive for us to upgrade.

Re: FTP and Replication Between Separate WANs

Giorgio
8/21/2006 2:58:21 AM

Very simple to do this mate! :-)

Create a VPN tunnel between both companies, to some NAT masking (most
good firewalls will allow you to do this), allow only server A to
server B (you can setup host-to-host on both firewalls), allow only MS
SQL server service(SonicWall term ;-)) on port 1433, and that's it
really! You will have a VPN between the 2 servers and then you just
need to create the appropriate SQL server login and permissions to who
see what in each SQL server and replication will run like if both
servers are on the same network with the usual replication issues that
we all know about of course ;-)

I hope this helps and good luck.

[quoted text, click to view]

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