A quick tour of replica management

Available with Standard or Advanced license.

You can manage replicas using the Manage Replicas pane in ArcGIS Pro. This provides a comprehensive interface that allows you to access the properties of a replica, unregister replicas, refresh the Manage Replicas pane after replica creation or checkout replica synchronization, create replicas, and synchronize changes.

Access the Manage Replicas pane

Within ArcGIS Pro, you can access the Manage Replicas pane from either the Catalog view, using the Manage Replicas button, or from the Catalog pane, using the Distributed Geodatabase context menu.

Manage Replicas button

From the Catalog view, use these steps to access or open the Manage Replicas pane in ArcGIS Pro:

1. Click the View tab on the ribbon.
2. In the Windows group, click Catalog View.
3. Within the Catalog view, double-click Databases to select or connect to a database.

   

4. Once a database connection is selected, the contextual Manage tab becomes active.

   

5. Select the Manage Replicas button to open the Manage Replicas pane.

Distributed Geodatabase context menu

From the Catalog pane, use these steps to access or open the Manage Replicas pane in ArcGIS Pro:

1. In the Catalog pane, right-click an existing geodatabase connection, point to Distributed Geodatabase, and click Manage Replicas .

   

   The Manage Replicas pane appears, and each replica is displayed as a card.

   

Manage Replicas pane

The Manage Replicas pane provides the following tools:

Elements of the Manage Replicas pane

Element	Description
1	Filter —Use this filter to control which replica types are displayed in the Manage Replicas pane. Filter options include: All Types, Checkout, One-way, and Two-way.
2	Sort —Sort the order in which replicas are displayed in the Manage Replicas pane. You can sort replicas by date, name, owner, role, and version.
3	Search box —Search for replicas using a text string. Searches can be based on replica names or any of the other fields listed in the Sort option, such as date, owner, role, and version.
4	Manage Replicas Menu —Access multiple commands for managing replicas from this menu. You can select from the following: Refresh Replicas, Expand/Collapse All cards, Create replica, Create Replica from Server, Synchronize changes, Export Data Changes Message, Export Acknowledgment Message, Import Message, Reexport Unacknowledged Messages and Logging Properties. See Manage Replicas Menu section below for details.
5	Replica cards—Replicas are displayed as cards in their collapsed state by default. An expanded view of the card shows more details about the replica. See Manage Replicas menu for more details.
6	Replica Type—Icons located to the left of the replica name indicate the replica type as a two-way replica , one-way replica or checkout /check-in replica . See Replication types for more details.
7	Replica in conflict —When synchronizing changes between a replica pair, if the conflict resolution policy on a two-way or one-way replica is set to manually resolve conflicts, your replica pair may synchronize successfully, however, conflicts may exist. When conflicts exist within a replica, this Replica in conflict icon displays on the replica card. See Resolve synchronization conflicts manually for workflow details to review and resolve conflicts manually.
8	Expand / Collapse Replica cards —An expanded view of a card shows you all the general information for the replica.
9	Synchronize Changes —Synchronize changes between a replica pair directly from a replica card by clicking the Synchronize Changes button at the bottom left of the card. The advantage of this approach is that it launches and automatically populates the Synchronize Changes geoprocessing tool with all the relevant information for your replica. You can then review the default settings on the tool and change the values as needed.
10	Export Data Changes Message —Export all new data changes (any inserts, updates, and deletes applied to the replica version since the last data change message was exported) and all unacknowledged data changes (previously exported changes for which you have not received an acknowledgment) to an output delta file stored as either an XML file or a file geodatabase.
11	Export Acknowledgment Message —Exporting an acknowledgment message is completed by the data receiver after receiving one or more data change messages to acknowledge all data change messages. If no acknowledgment messages are sent, the data sender resends the changes and maintains the information needed to resend those changes until they are acknowledged. As a result, the data sender's geodatabase can become large and new data change messages can become large as well.
12	Import Message —Import Message can import either data change messages or acknowledgment messages. Importing a data change applies data changes from the relative replica and also updates the replica's metadata. Importing an acknowledgment updates a replica's metadata such that it knows what changes to include in the next export.
13	Re-Export Unacknowledged Messages —Re-Export Unacknowledged Messages allows you to reexport data changes that may have been lost in transit or need to be sent again and only includes edits that were sent in the original data change message.
14	Replica Options —The commands accessible from the Replica Options button are applied on an individual replica. Alternatively, you can right-click the replica card to access these same commands. See the Replica Options section below for more details.
15	Replica Schema Validated—Communicates the completed status of executing the Validate schema command accessible from the Replica Options button .
16	Replica Refreshed—Communicates the completed status of executing the Refresh command accessible from the Replica Options button .
17	Number of Replicas—Provides a count of the total number of replicas that appear within the Manage Replicas pane. In addition, this count honors searches and any filter that was applied to the replica types in the Manage Replicas pane.

Manage Replicas menu

The following commands are accessible from the Manage Replicas Menu :

• Refresh Replicas—Use this to see replicas created and to remove checkout/check-in replicas that have been synchronized since the project was started.
• Expand All/Collapse All—Use to expand or collapse all replica cards that are displayed in the Manage Replicas pane. An expanded view of a card shows you the following information for the replica:
  • Type—The type of replica created: Checkout/check-in, One-way, or Two-way
  • Name—The name of the replica
  • Owner—The user who created the replica
  • Role—Shows whether the replica is a parent or child
  • Date Created—The date and time the replica was created
  • Version—The replica version set during replica creation
  • Status—Shows whether the replica is currently a data sender or a data receiver
• Create replica—Opens the Create Replica geoprocessing tool.
• Create Replica from Server—Opens the Create Replica From Server geoprocessing tool to create a replica from a remote geodatabase using a geodata service published on ArcGIS Server.
• Synchronize changes—Open the Synchronize Changes geoprocessing tool to synchronize changes for any replica pair.
• Export Data Changes Message—Opens the Export Data Changes Message geoprocessing tool to create an output delta file (.xml or .gdb) containing updates from a replica.
• Export Acknowledgment Message—Opens the Export Acknowledgment Message geoprocessing tool to create an output acknowledgement file to acknowledge the reception of previously received data change messages.
• Import Message—Opens the Import Message geoprocessing tool to import changes from a delta file into a replica geodatabase or imports an acknowledgment message into a replica geodatabase.
• Re-Export Unacknowledged Messages—Opens the Re-Export Unacknowledged Messages geoprocessing tool to create an output delta file containing unacknowledged replica updates from a one-way or two-way replica geodatabase.
• Logging Properties—Set the location and log level for the ArcGIS Pro replica activity log file. See Replica logs for more information.

  

Replica Options button

The following commands are accessible from the Replica Options button and are applied to that specific replica:

• Add to current map—This option immediately adds all the datasets that are a part of this replica to the current map. This option is not available if the active view is not a map.
• Add to new map—This option creates a new map and immediately adds all the datasets that are a part of this replica to the map.

  Note:

  When using Add to current map or Add to new map to add replica datasets to map, the connected geodatabase user must have privileges granted to view the data. Otherwise, an error is returned for any replica dataset not added due to insufficient privileges of the connected user.

  If any of the feature classes or tables within the replica dataset also participate in a relationship class, the connected geodatabase user must also have privileges granted on all the origin and destination classes that participate within the relationship class for the replica datasets to be added to the map. Otherwise, none of the datasets that participate in the relationship class are added to the map, and an error is returned for any replica datasets not added due to insufficient privileges of the connected user.

  See Grant and revoke dataset privileges in databases and enterprise geodatabases to learn more about geodatabase privilege requirements.

  See Replica Properties dialog box to learn more about the list of datasets included within a replica.

• Validate schema—Validates the replica schema. This automatically corrects a replica that contains invalid datasets. Datasets can become invalid if they have been renamed, deleted, or unversioned.
• Refresh—Refreshes the replica. The latest state of the replica's properties are retrieved or updated.
• Unregister—Unregisters the replica. If a synchronized version exists, it will also be removed.

  Note:

  You can use the Unregister Replica geoprocessing tool to unregister any type of replica from an enterprise geodatabase. This tool can run independent from the Unregister command accessible from the Replica Options button in the Manage Replicas pane.

• Properties—Opens the Replica Properties dialog box, which is described below.

Replica Properties dialog box

To view the properties of a replica, from the Manage Replicas pane, you can either click the Replica Options button on the replica card or right-click the replica card in the Manage Replicas pane and click Properties. This opens the Replica Properties dialog box, which contains four tabs: General, Description, Advanced, and Replica Log.

General tab

Under the General tab, the following replica properties are displayed:

• Name—The name of the replica.
• Owner—The user who created the replica.
• Created—The date and time the replica was created.
• Type—The type of replica: Checkout/Check in, One-way, or Two-way.
• Model—The model type. This always displays as Full for checkout/check-in and two-way replicas. For one-way replicas, this property displays either Full or Simple, depending on the model type chosen during replica creation.
• Conflicts—The conflict state of the replica.
• Replica version—The replica version associated with this replica.
• Synchronization version—The synchronization version associated with this replica.

Description tab

The Description tab on the Replica Properties dialog box lists the datasets that are included in the replica. Columns for these datasets reflect the properties selected during the replica creation process. These dataset properties include the following:

• Data—The data source of the replicated data.
• Type—The type of data replicated: Feature Class, Table, and so on.
• Replicate—Indicates whether All Features, Schema Only, Selected Records Only, or query definitions were set as filters during creation.
• Use Geometry—This is set to True if you use the spatial extent or you specify an extent upon replica creation.
• Direction—This property is valid for replicated relationship classes only. This displays Forward, Backward, or None, depending on the option chosen during replica creation.

Note:

Replicas created in ArcGIS Pro only show a direction of forward. Replicas created in ArcMap can show directions other than forward.

The first sentence located on the bottom of this dialog box indicates whether related features and rows are replicated. This information is based on the Replicate Related Data value, which is located under Advanced Settings on the Create Replica geoprocessing tool dialog box.

A description of the spatial relationship used to determine how the replica geometry was applied is contained within a second sentence at the bottom of this dialog box and is related to the Use Geometry column. Replicas created within ArcGIS Pro always use INTERSECT for the spatial relationship, as this is the default behavior for the Create Replica geoprocessing tool. Other spatial relationships such as, MUST BE COMPLETELY INSIDE, can exist for replicas created outside of ArcGIS Pro.

The Use Geometry column will always display True for feature classes belonging to replicas created from ArcGIS Pro. See Replica Geometry Features to learn more about available options to define the replica geometry.

If the Use Geometry column displays False, the replica was created outside of ArcGIS Pro and the full extent of the dataset was used to determine what is replicated for that particular dataset.

Replicated Data options

The following are the Replicated Data options:

• View filters—If filters, such as a selection set or a definition query, were applied to the data when the replica was created, this option becomes active and can be used to display the replica dataset filters.
• Unregister from replica—To remove a dataset from the replica, right-click the dataset and click this option. The replica no longer references the dataset; however, it still remains in the geodatabase. To remove a topology, you must remove all the classes at once.

Advanced tab

The Advanced tab on the Replica Properties dialog box contains information about the generation numbers associated with the replica. A generation number is a number maintained by the geodatabase that keeps track of messages being sent and received by the replica.

For example, the first data message sent from one replica to its relative replica makes the current generation of the replica equal 1. When the relative replica receives that message, its relative replica generation is set to 1 as well. When the initial replica receives an acknowledgment of the data message, its last acknowledged generation is set to 1.

The Advanced tab displays the following information about generation numbers:

• This Replica
  • Current Generation—The current generation number, which describes how many data messages were sent from the replica.
  • Last Acknowledge Generation—The generation number of the most recent data message for which an acknowledgment has been received.
• Relative Replica
  • Generation (based on last received message)—The current generation number of the relative replica based on the last message imported into this replica.
• Relative Replica Connection

  This contains the connection information of the relative replica. You can set this information by browsing to the location of the relative replica's connection file. After doing so, the Persist user name and password check box becomes available. If you check this box, the user name and password are persisted; otherwise, they are not. By default, they are not persisted for security reasons. Connection information is used when you run the Synchronize changes command or the Synchronize Changes geoprocessing tool to automatically fill in the relative replica information. This prevents you from having to browse when you synchronize changes. If the user name and password are not persisted, you are prompted to provide them.

Replica Log tab

The Replica Log tab on the Replica Properties dialog box stores synchronization events that have occurred with this replica. See Replica logs for details about the information recorded in this log.