File synchronization service settings

Use this page to specify that a file set on one node matches that on the central deployment manager node and to ensure consistent configuration data across a cell.

You can synchronize files on individual nodes or throughout your system.

For changes to node agent settings on this page to take effect, you must restart the node agent.

Note: If your installation includes mixed release cells, a large numbers of nodes, and runs a large number of applications, you might want to use the Generic JVM Arguments field, on the Java™ Virtual Machine Settings page of the administrative console, to enable the hot restart sync feature of the synchronization service. This feature indicates to the synchronization service that the installation is running in an environment where configuration updates are not made when the deployment manager is not active. Therefore, the service does not have to perform a complete repository comparison when the deployment manager or node agent servers restart. For more information, see the Generic JVM arguments in the Java virtual machine settings documentation.

Important: Do not routinely disable the synchronization process as various portions of the application server run time depend on synchronization. For example, the security run time depends on node synchronization to propagate updated certificates during automated replacement processes. Also, the security runtime also depends on it for Lightweight Third Party Authentication (LTPA) key changes. Other portions of the run time are dependent on synchronization. However, a complete list is not available. If you permanently disable synchronization, nodes might not be synchronized and an outage will result. The only exception is the configuration save operation. To avoid synchronizing the configuration when the configuration repository is being updated by a save operation, it might be beneficial to temporarily disable the synchronization process, save the configuration, and then re-enable the synchronization process. This process ensures that changes are fully committed to the configuration repository before the node synchronization.

To view this administrative console page, click System administration > Node agents > node_agent_name > File synchronization service.

Enable service at server startup

Specifies whether the server attempts to start the file synchronization service. This setting does not cause a file synchronization operation to start. This setting is enabled by default.

Important: Disabling synchronization is not recommended. Various portions of the run time have dependencies on synchronization being enabled. For example, in a multiple-server product, the security environment depends on node synchronization to propagate updated certificates during automated replacement and for LTPA key changes. If synchronization is disabled, the nodes might get out of synchronization, resulting in an outage.

Information	Value
Data type	Boolean
Default	true

Synchronization interval

Specifies the number of minutes that elapse between synchronizations. Increase the time interval to synchronize files less often. Decrease the time interval to synchronize files more often.

Information	Value
Data type	Integer
Units	Minutes
Default	10 1
	The minimum value that the application server uses is 1. If you specify a value of 0, the application server ignores the value and uses the default of 1. Important: You can change the node synchronization interval to a greater number of minutes. However, before you make the change, carefully consider the impact because some functions critically depend on node synchronization. Before changing the value to any value other than the default value, it is advisable that you complete careful, large-scale testing in your environment.

Automatic synchronization

Specifies whether to synchronize files automatically after a designated interval. When this setting is enabled, the node agent automatically contacts the deployment manager every synchronization interval to attempt to synchronize the node's configuration repository with the master repository owned by the deployment manager.

If the Automatic synchronization setting is enabled, the node agent attempts file synchronization when it establishes contact with the deployment manager. The node agent waits the synchronization interval before it attempts the next synchronization.

Remove the check mark from the check box if you want to control when files are sent to the node.

Information	Value
Data type	Boolean
Default	true

Startup synchronization

Specifies whether the node agent attempts to synchronize the node configuration with the latest configurations in the master repository prior to starting an application server.

The default is to not synchronize files prior to starting an application server. Enabling the setting ensures that the node agent has the latest configuration but increases the amount of time it takes to start the application server.

Note that this setting has no effect on the startServer command. The startServer command launches a server directly and does not use the node agent.

Information	Value
Data type	Boolean
Default	false

Exclusions

Specifies files or patterns that should not be part of the synchronization of configuration data. Files in this list are not copied from the master configuration repository to the node, and are not deleted from the repository at the node.

The default is to have no files specified.

Note: Exclusions are not in effect when the syncnode command line tool is used.

To specify a file, use a complete name or a name with a leading or trailing asterisk (*) for a wildcard. For example:

Name	Information
`cells/cell name/nodes/node name/file name`	Excludes this specific file
`*/file name`	Excludes files named file name in any context
`dirname/*`	Excludes the subtree under `dirname`

Avoid trouble: Excluding parts of an application might cause it to not deploy or run correctly.

Press Enter at the end of each entry. Each file name appears on a separate line.

Since these strings represent logical document locations and not actual file paths, only forward slashes are needed no matter the platform.

Changes to the exclusion list are picked up when the node agent is restarted.

Information	Value
Data type	String
Units	File names or patterns

Note: Exclusions do not affect the installedApps directory.