A good idea for the implementation of synchronization versions is to split functional levels in the organisation - such as execs from managers.

What do I need to Synchronize?

The first thing that you need to be aware of is some of the tools that are going to be helpful in creating and setting up this environment.

The first one is an executable called dbmlsrv9.exe

This is the actual MobiLink server; this is the process that resides either in your DMZ or in the corporate network behind the firewall.

When you run this executable you can run it with a multitude of possible parameters to help tell the Mobilink server what consolidated database it should be connecting to. You can also specify certain performance parameters based on your particular environment.

The second executable is the Mobilink Client – dbmlsync.exe. This is the process that will exist on your remote laptop or device, which in turn might be launched by your remote application, by your remote user through an icon perhaps, or through some sort of scheduled process.

This client component is the process that facilitates communication with the Mobilink Server and maintains the network link between the server and the client.

These are two executables that you going to want to be aware off.

Next, some of the other helpful tools are Sybase Central and the Mobilink Monitor.

Sybase central is a graphical user interface that allows you to administer all aspects of your remote SQL Anywhere Server (ASA) as well as the Mobilink synchronization environment.

Sybase Central a easy to use WYSIWYG tool that allows you to do most of the admin task through a collection of wizards, and we shortly look at some of the functionality as we step through the process of setting up synchronization.

The next tool, the Mobilink Monitor is a very useful tool that you would typically use once you have deployed your Mobilink Synchronization environment. This monitor connects to your Mobilink Server and tracks nearly all aspects of your synchronization.

From this monitor you can see all your synchronization users, how long it took them to synchronize, if there was a failure, also showing you the actual sync so that you can very easily see why the sync failed, You can also tracks users that haven’t sync’d for a long time.

The Mobilink Monitor gives you a lot of filtering capabilities which is very useful for diagnostics when you deploy your Mobilink synchronization.

Setting up Synchronization

For this walkthrough I am going to show you how to setup synchronization between a MS SQL Server database and SQL Anywhere Server.

Before we start setting up our remote environment we need to ensure that the consolidated server knows how to talk to our remote databases.

When you install SQL Anywhere Studio, a series of scripts are created that will allow you to setup your back end database to allow it to synchronize with SQL Anywhere Server (ASA).

The process is to install a few Mobilink system tables and stored procedures in the back end SQL Server / Oracle / DB2 database.

We have found that this is the least intrusive for most DB Administrators. This is achieved by running the relevant SQL file located in

%install directory%\MobiLink\setup folder.

• syncmss.sql         – SQL Server

• syncora.sql          – Oracle

• syncdb2long.sql   – DB2