I have a challenge.. I have a network with a primary (HQ) location (US-East), three regional locations (US-Central, US-West, and Canada), and about 350 branch locations. Most of the branches are connected to HQ via MPLS, and the regional locations also connect to HQ. Some of the branches connect to their closest regional site.

We have a set of data files (document templates, for example) that are being replicated to a server in every location and used by a Kix-based application. All files are maintained at the central HQ, including archives and new (development-stage) files. All active files are replicated to the regional and remote branch sites. The development files are not replicated at all, and only archives 1-year old and newer are replicated to the regional sites. (older files are pruned from the regional sites by the replication service.)

If I am at a branch, I need to be able to query my local server for the file I want. If it isn't there, I need to locate the next closest regional server, and then the master server at HQ if the data isn't in the regional server.

Since branch offices don't have "servers", a share is arbitrarily defined on the manager's workstation and the replication service is installed by the setup process.

I'm looking for thoughts/ideas on how to solve the following requirements:
  • During installation of the server/replication service on a workstation, that workstation can identify itself via some central process. The method to access the central repository, both for update and query, should be able to easily traverse subnets (and firewalls).
  • The Kix script placed on a client can not use any local configuration file or hard-coded paths to locate the data files.
  • The client should try to use the nearest server first, moving to regional and finally the primary server if it can't locate what it wants.
  • The client should never use a peer-site server (ie - a branch client cannot query a server in another branch)

I have a working solution at this moment, but A) wonder if there are better methods, and B) want to know if other admins have similar situations.

Thanks for your ideas.

Glenn
_________________________
Actually I am a Rocket Scientist! \:D