slurpd: replica chains and slave with multiple masters]

[James Timothy Kaba <jkaba@sarnoff.com>]

Hi,
  I have a situation where it would be useful to chain master and slave
slapd processes.  Also, I'd like to have replica slave databases accept
changes from multiple masters.
  The documentation mentions (but does not suggest using) these
possibilities.  Does anyone have direct experience as to what will
happen under these circumstances (either because you've tried it or
because you wrote the code)??

Case 1:  Master A serves replications to slave B, which serves these
replications to Slave C.
Question:  When modifications are made to A, will they trickle down to
C?

Case 2:  Master A serves replications to slave C.  Master B also serves
replications to slave C.
Question.  How do the timestamps (lastmodifiedtime) work?  For example:
a change is made to a DN on A and then a change is made to the same DN
on B some short time later.  If B's change (the most recent one) arrives
first at C, will the data be overwritten when A's change arrives?  Or
will slapd actually check the modification timestamp and discard the
"old" data from A?

  I'm intersested in using slapd/slurpd in a distributed environment
where the communication links aren't reliable.  So, I'd like to mirror
some data and receive updates from multiple sources so that I can be
sure I've received the most recent data.  However, if a communication
path to a Master goes down, I don't want slurpd to blindly make the
changes when the path comes back up if changes have already been made by
another Master.

  I happen to be using OpenLDAP 1.1, but if need be I can upgrade if
some new change will give me the functionality I need.

Thanks,
Jim

-- 
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James T. Kaba                   |
David Sarnoff Research Center   |  Time flies like an arrow...
jkaba@sarnoff.com               |  Fruit flies like a banana!
609-734-2246                    |
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