T 3.80 Errors during synchronisation of databases

Databases or excerpts of databases are often mirrored so that the data of a database can be stored at different locations or on mobile end devices. It is necessary to synchronise the database in order to be able to compare this data.

Conflicts may arise and data may be lost while performing the synchronisation if two different users have changed or deleted the same record in the mirrored databases. The rules configured in the system describing which data can be overwritten under which conditions often are not very helpful in this case, since the contents of the changed data normally need to be examined. Even when these rules apply to all synchronisations, the users may not always know the rules, which can also lead to incorrect results in some cases.

The synchronisation of databases installed at different locations is normally performed automatically. In such cases, conflicts are often only detected when a database administrator opens the database or analyses the log files. It is often impossible for database administrators to decide how to resolve such conflicts due to a lack of authorisations and knowledge regarding the data contents. This also holds true when the synchronisation is triggered manually, but the synchronisation programs do not provide the users with any information about the resulting conflicts.

Mobile end devices are usually synchronised manually. Some databases do offer the option of informing the users about conflicts. However, a user is not always able to make the decision regarding data synchronisation, if he does not know all circumstances of the data changes.