Job Actions

You can create a new Replication Job by clicking the New Replication Job menu item under the Job menu, or pressing the keyboard shortcut Ctrl-N or clicking on the Create New Job toolbar action button. Performing any of these actions will open the Replication Job Wizard in create mode. See the Creating a Replication Job section for detailed instructions on creating and configuring a Replication Job.

You can edit an existing Replication Job by selecting a job and clicking the Edit Replication Job menu item under the Job menu, or pressing the keyboard shortcut Ctrl-O, or clicking on the Edit Job toolbar action button, or by double mouse clicking the Replication Job in the Replication Job List table. Performing any of these actions will open the Replication Job Wizard in edit mode.

From here you can edit most job settings with the exception of the following: Backup Job Type, Primary Data Source and Primary Database Name. You can also add and remove target databases, but you cannot edit an existing target database’s Data Source or Database Name. In order to do so, you will need to remove the target and add a new one. In addition, changing the Backup Folder location will move all existing backup files to the new location.

You can delete an existing Replication Job by selecting a job and clicking the Delete Replication Job menu item under the Job menu, or clicking on the Delete Replication Job toolbar action button, or by right mouse clicking the Replication Job in the Replication Job List table and selecting Delete Replication Job. You will be asked to confirm the deletion of the selected Replication Job and you will be given the option to remove all existing backup files stored in the Backup Folder and on all Target Database Copy Destination folders.

You can pause an already scheduled Replication Job by selecting the job and clicking the Pause Job menu item under the Job menu, or by right mouse clicking the Replication Job in the Replication Job List table and selecting Pause Job. Pausing a job will temporarily disable all job schedules until you manually Start the Job, or until the application is restarted. The Job Status in the Replication Job List table will updated to "Paused". No backups or restores will be performed while a job is paused, but you can still manually run a full or incremental backup.

You can Start a Replication Job that has been previously Paused by selecting the job and clicking the Start Job menu item under the Job menu, or by right mouse clicking the Replication Job in the Replication Job List table and selecting Start Job. Starting a job will enable all previously enabled job schedules.

You can perform a Full Backup at any time by selecting a Replication Job and clicking the Full Backup menu item under the Job menu, or clicking on the Full Backup toolbar action button, or by right mouse clicking the Replication Job in the Replication Job List table and selecting Full Backup. Selecting this option will immediately perform a full backup, copy the full backup data files to all targets and perform a full restore on all targets.

This is useful for testing changes after creating or editing a replication job and you don’t want to wait for the next scheduled full backup to occur. It is also useful for immediately re-synchronizing a database with all targets if they become out-of-synch for some reason, e.g. log files were deleted.

You can perform an Incremental Backup at any time by selecting a Replication Job and clicking the Incremental Backup menu item under the Job menu, or clicking on the Incremental Backup toolbar action button, or by right mouse clicking the Replication Job in the Replication Job List table and selecting Incremental Backup. Selecting this option will immediately perform an incremental backup, copy the incremental backup data files to all targets and perform an incremental restore on all targets.

You can copy an existing Replication Job by selecting a job and clicking the Copy Replication Job menu item under the Job menu, or pressing the keyboard shortcut Ctrl-D, or clicking on the Copy Job toolbar action button, or by right mouse clicking on the job and selecting Copy Replication Job. Performing any of these actions will open the Copy Replication Job Wizard depicted below. You can only copy replication jobs configured for individual databases and not for job configured to replicate all databases in a data source instance.

Job Name: Specify a descriptive name for the new Replication Job. It is a good idea to include the primary database name somewhere in the description.

Primary Database Name: Copying a Replication Job will make an identical clone of a job with the exception of the primary database name. You will need to select a new Primary Database that is not already being replicated by Peer DRS on the same Primary Data Source as the job you are copying.

Enable All Job Schedules: Checking this box will automatically enable and schedule all job schedules that were enabled in the job that you are copying. Leaving this field unchecked will disable all job schedules and put the entire job in a "Not Scheduled (Manual Mode)". It is a good idea to do this if you plan on adjusting some job settings and/or schedules after performing the copy so that the job doesn't start running before it is properly configured.

Copy All Target Databases: Checking this box will copy all targets whose database name matches the primary database name of the job you are copying and override the new target database name with the new primary database name above. In addition all Copy Only (No restore is performed) targets will be cloned as well.

NOTE: This option is very useful for quickly creating backup jobs for all databases residing on a single database instance. Just create and configure a Replication Job for one of the databases then use the copy job feature to make a clone and tweak any changes that are necessary, if any.

You can perform various operations on a target database such as target recovery/failover, re-synchronizing a target from the latest backup set, etc. by selecting a replication job and selecting the Target Database Operations menu item under the Job menu, or by right mouse clicking on the job and selecting Target Database Operations. Performing any of these actions will open the Target Database Operation Dialog depicted below.

Operation: After selecting a target database, the operation list box will be populated with a list of valid operations for the target database. Below is a list of operations that may be available for a target based on replication type (e.g. MS SQL Server, MS Exchange Server, etc) or target database type or current state.

Re-Synchronize target files from latest backup set	This operation will re-synchronize the target database with the latest primary backup set by copying all backup files in the backup folder to the target File Copy Destination folder and overwriting any existing files, and then perform a full and incremental restore into the target to bring it up-to-date. This may be useful if a target some how becomes out-of-date, e.g. corrupt or missing log file, or a target is brought online after being offline for sometime. You normally will not need to do this because Peer DRS will automatically perform this operation when it detects certain conditions. Another scenario for using this option is when you want to use the target for testing by disabling the target restore jobs or performing recovery on the target, and then bringing the target online and using it for testing. When testing is complete, you can then perform this operation to re-synchronize with the latest primary backup set.
Perform database recovery from latest backup set	Performs recovery on the target database from the latest backup set for the purpose of failing-over to target. This operation will bring the target up-to-date (if necessary) by copying and restoring any outstanding log files and will place the target database in a recoverable and usable state. In addition, the replication job will be temporarily disabled by setting it to manual mode in order to prevent any replication activity from occurring. Also, as an extra safeguard the target restore job schedule will be disabled to prevent overwriting the target.
Test log file replay for latest backup set	Performs Log Replay testing which will test the integrity of your full and transaction log backups by automatically replaying transactions into a copy of a full backup. Once this task completes a full restore into the target database will be performed to put the target database back in-sync. with the primary. This operation should be performed at least once after configuring a new replication job which supports log replay testing (e.g. Exchange) to make sure your target is correctly configured for recovery, and will subsequently lead to less problems if you should need perform recovery on the target.

Clicking the OK button will display a confirmation dialog detailing the operation and prompting whether you would like to continue or cancel the operation. If you confirm the operation then the task will be run and the Job's Activity Log panel will be displayed so you can monitor the status of the operation.