Will disabling the "Cache Destination File list" empty or invalidate the existing database?

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ruudelux
Posts: 9
Joined: Tue Oct 12, 2021 7:34 am

Will disabling the "Cache Destination File list" empty or invalidate the existing database?

Post by ruudelux »

We are in the process of migrating 23 million files with a combined size of 10.4TB from local storage to a share on a Netapp.
For now the realtime sync of Syncovery is activated so that the files and folders are synced from local storage to the Netapp share.

On Saturday we plan on disabling he application so that no more changes will take place on the local storage and point our application to the Netapp share that should be fully in sync with the local share.

We preformed similar migrations in the past and from our experience the realtime sync in combination with the "cached destination file list" feature enabled is not quite sufficient.
To match the folder and file count on both sites after disabling our application so that no more changes take place, we generally always have to perform an additional unattended sync right after disabling the real-time sync to get the folder and file count on both sites in sync.
We also found out that sometimes even that does not bring both sites into sync. To solve that we have disable the "cached destination file list" and perform another lengthy unattended sync.

The problem is that disabling the "cached destination file list" feature makes the unattended sync take a lot of hours, which also means more downtime.
What we would like to try coming Saturday, is to first disable realtime sync as well as the "cached destination file list" and then to estimate how long it will take before the unattended sync finishes.
If we find out that it will take way too long, we would like to cancel the unattended sync and enable the "cached destination file list" again and try the unattended sync again.

So my question is: will disabling the "cached destination file list" also invalidate or delete the cached destination file list in the Syncovery database?

If you have any other suggestions, we are very much interested.

tobias
Posts: 1603
Joined: Tue Mar 31, 2020 7:37 pm

Re: Will disabling the "Cache Destination File list" empty or invalidate the existing database?

Post by tobias »

Hello,
in this case, Syncovery might consider the database to be outdated.

Therefore I recommend editing the profile, changing the name first (just add "without cache") and then removing the destination file list cache checkmark.

Remove any scheduling or real-time settings.

When you click OK, Syncovery will ask you if you want to keep the original profile too. Reply with yes.

Then you have one profile with cache and one without.

Make sure only one of them runs at a time.

ruudelux
Posts: 9
Joined: Tue Oct 12, 2021 7:34 am

Re: Will disabling the "Cache Destination File list" empty or invalidate the existing database?

Post by ruudelux »

Thanks Tobias!

Just for experimentation, I disabled the "cached destination file list", disabled the realtime sync and then enabled the realtime sync again.
What i noticed was that 2 threads were then running. The second thread took the longest amount time, but in total it took almost 3 hours to perform one sync. It synced 23.7GB and about 16000 files.
But what surprised me, was that even though i disabled the cached destination file list, the next realtime sync only took 1 minute (15.6mb, 63 files).
I was expecting the realtime syncs after the first one to also take a very long time, even with small amounts of files, because it has to compare all the files from both sides without using any existing cached destination file list.

Can you explain why the second realtime sync was so quick?

tobias
Posts: 1603
Joined: Tue Mar 31, 2020 7:37 pm

Re: Will disabling the "Cache Destination File list" empty or invalidate the existing database?

Post by tobias »

Well, realtime is supposed to be quick. It looks only at the folders where changes have occurred. So it doesn't have to get the complete file list.

ruudelux
Posts: 9
Joined: Tue Oct 12, 2021 7:34 am

Re: Will disabling the "Cache Destination File list" empty or invalidate the existing database?

Post by ruudelux »

That makes total sense, the realtime sync proofed to be very reliable and quick, just as long as the connection remains stable, which was the case for us.
Disabling the database in combination with the realtime sync gave us a perfect result, no additional syncs were required which saved us hours of additional downtime.
Thanks Tobias!

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