Chapters1 Basic Usage
When using the CRSync with the Gentics Portal Connector from the command line or directly from Java, the Classpath needs to contain all required libraries. Additionally the corresponding JDBC-driver for your database has to be available. The CRSync resides at com.gentics.api.portalnode.connector.
From the command line you want to use the following code to invoke the CRSync. This way you don’t have to worry about setting a correct classpath, as our java.sh script will take care.
/Node/bin/java.sh com.gentics.api.portalnode.connector.CRSync
Place the JDBC driver at /Node/node/java/lib/
1.1 File synchronization
1.1.1 MySQL
For bigger files it’s necessary to increase the MYSQL setting max_allowed_packet because binary conents are read and written from and to the database. This is necessary for the source- and the target system. The setting should be set to at least twice the size of the biggest file.
1.1.2 CRSync:
You can influence the memory usage and the speed of the CRSync by changing the -batchsize parameter. If you have allot of files, it is advised to not set this setting above 50 in order to limit the memory usage. It is also important to start the CRSync with enough memory. In order to do that, you can use the JVM parameters “jmx” and “jms”. When you are synchronizing allot of big files you should start the JVM at least with 1500 MB.
2 Parameters
The CRSync is capable of handling the following parameters.
-allowempty allow empty source-repository.
Without this flag the sync will fail when the source
is empty, to prevent unintended deletions on
productive environments.
-allowaltertable allow structural changes (quick columns).
Without this flag the sync will fail when the table
structure differs.
Note that the source database might be locked during
altering the sql table structure. Also note that data
might be lost when altering the target database due to
structure incompatibilities.
-batchsize maximum number of objects sync'ed or deleted in a
single step (default: 100).
Reduce this number if the generated SQL statement
become too large for the database. A higher value will
speedup crsync but needs more memory. You will need at
least enough memory to store your batchsize count of
objects in memory. (You can exclude Text Long and
Binary Content attributes sizes from your object size)
-datamodifier specify a class that implements
com.gentics.api.portalnode.connector.CRSyncModifier
to modify objects before syncing
-delete when using a rule, remove all other data from target
which do not match the given rule. Note that deleted
source objects will always (with or without this flag)
be removed from target when no rule is given, or the
rule matches the objects.
-help help
-ignoreoptimized ignore optimized flag for attributetypes.
This allows different quick columns in source and
target content repositories.
-rule rule to use for sync. Important note for usage with
the delete flag: comparisons on columns with NULL
values is not supported, when the delete flag is set.
This is because negations on NULL values are not
supported in most databases. So take care that all
attributes used in the rule have values in the whole
Content Repository, and none of them is NULL.
-sanitycheck2 enable extended sanity check for source and target
repository. When an incompatibility is found in either
the source or the target, the sync will fail.
-source source properties file OR use source_*
arguments instead.
-source_driverClass source datasource driverClass
-source_ds source datasource properties file
-source_passwd <password> source datasource password
-source_url source datasource url
-source_username source datasource username
-source_autorepair2 enable autorepair2 for the source database
-source_sanitycheck2 enable sanitycheck2 for the source database
-target target properties file OR use target_*
arguments
-target_driverClass target datasource driverClass
-target_ds target datasource properties file
-target_passwd <password> target datasource password
-target_url target datasource url
-target_username target datasource username
-target_autorepair2 enable autorepair2 for the target database
-target_sanitycheck2 enable sanitycheck2 for the target database
-test dry run and tell changes
-transaction enable transaction for datasource, possible
values: none (default), source, target, both.
Here’s a usage example call from the command line:
/Node/bin/java.sh com.gentics.api.portalnode.connector.CRSync \
-source source.properties \
-target_url jdbc:mariadb://localhost:3306/crsynctarget \
-target_driverClass org.mariadb.jdbc.Driver \
-target_username root \
-target_passwd secret \
-allowAlterTable \
-allowEmpty \
-delete
You maybe also need to configure SSL properties in the MySQL JDBC URL. Read the MySQL SSL documentation for more information.
2.1 Usage of -source_ds and -target_ds
The parameters -source_ds and -target_ds allow you to specify a *.properties file with datasource properties. Available datasource properties are descriped in the Gentics Portal.Node SDK Documentation Here’s an example properties file:
# connection type type = jdbc # target URL url = jdbc:mariadb://dev6.office:33041/crsync_target # datasource driver driverClass = org.mariadb.jdbc.Driver # username and password username = root passwd = secret
2.2 Using -ignoreoptimized
When starting a synchronization process, first all attribute definitions are compared to find differences. -ignoreoptimized changes this behaviour. On existing attributes the optimized flag will not be updated. When new attributes have been created in the source Content Repository these will be created in the target Content Repository too, but without setting the optimized flag. However the CRSync will generate all optimized attributes in the ContentMap.
If -ignoreoptimized is switched off attributes in the target database will only be optimized if they have been optimized in the source. This aeffects attribute definitions as well as creating and filling quick columns.
The CRSync will intentionally fail with an error message if quick columns need to be created in the target database as long as you are not using the option -allowaltertable.
3 Common Problems
3.1 Handling java.lang.OutOfMemory errors
The CRSync will spawn a Java-process which will have to 64MB of RAM by default. Be sure to set an adequate memory limit. As a rule of thumb you should use three time the size of the biggest object to be synchronized, which will most likely be a video or an image. If you don’t use LOB optimization for the datasource please multiply this value by the batchsize you set. The maximum filesize can be found by using the following SQL statement:
SELECT filesize FROM contentfile ORDER BY filesize DESC LIMIT 1;
3.2 Handling java.sql.SQLException: Out of memory errors
In this case the database ran out of memory. Verify memory usage and change the database configuration accordingly.
3.3 Out-Dated Content Repository Structures
Many problems are caused by trying to sync to out-dated Content Repository structures. Make sure that all Content Repository structures are up to date by using the check and repair features from the backend.
4 Logging
The CRSync will rely on log4j for logging. Use the parameter log4j.configuration to configure logging:
/Node/bin/java.sh \ -Dlog4j.configuration=file:/Node/etc/sync.properties \ com.gentics.api.portalnode.connector.CRSync
Use the following example for /Node/etc/sync.properties to log to /Node/node/log/crsync.log.
log4j.rootLogger=ERROR,A1 log4j.logger.com.gentics.api.portalnode.connector.CRSync=INFO log4j.logger.com.gentics.api.portalnode.connector.CRSyncProgress=INFO log4j.appender.A1=org.apache.log4j.DailyRollingFileAppender log4j.appender.A1.File=/Node/node/log/crsync.log log4j.appender.A1.layout=org.apache.log4j.PatternLayout log4j.appender.A1.layout.ConversionPattern=%d [%t] %-5p %c - %m%n