Synching the Sloth

Just some random notes from my Synching “Learning Experience”:

• Synchronization is very tricky. Replication must be stable before any synchronization can take place.

• The Synchronization DB on the remote system is based on MSDE

• MSDE has certain limitations most importantly a 2GB cap. Companies like mine will have problems if the data replicated (synchronized) is greater than 2 GB.

• Larger dbs can cause a huge amount of data (mine had 3 million rows + after several synchs) in the synch tables these need to be cleared out often.
o The SyncEntry table in the MSCRM Database
o MSMerge_contents table in the MSCRM Database
o MSMerge_tombstone table in the MSCRM Database
o MSmerge_history table in the Distribution Database

• Updating the outlook folders (the last checkbox on the offline configuration dialog box) will update the appointments and task folders in Outlook with CRM information and may add considerable time to the synchronization. This requires updating not only the client machine, but exchange. However this is valuable information and you might want to consider this as a second synch immediately after the first synch.

There is a white paper that I found helpful during this process and I recommend being familiar with these practices even if they are not all applicable in your setting.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=E1A00070-2E5A-410A-881F-D859F8474933&displaylang=en