Perforce Replication
What is replication?
Replication is the duplication of server data from one Perforce Server to another Perforce Server, ideally in real time. You can use replication to:
-
Provide warm standby servers
A replica server can function as an up-to-date warm standby system, to be used if the master server fails. Such a replica server requires that both server metadata and versioned files are replicated.
-
Reduce load and downtime on a primary server
Long-running queries and reports, builds, and checkpoints can be run against a replica server, reducing lock contention. For checkpoints and some reporting tasks, only metadata needs to be replicated. For reporting and builds, replica servers need access to both metadata and versioned files.
-
Provide support for build farms
A replica with a local (non-replicated) storage for client workspaces (and their respective have lists) is capable of running as a build farm.
-
Forward write requests to a central server
A forwarding replica holds a readable cache of both versioned files and metadata, and forwards commands that write metadata or file content towards a central server.
Combined with a centralized authorization server (see Centralized authorization server (P4AUTH)), Perforce administrators can configure the Perforce Broker (see “The Perforce Broker”) to redirect commands to replica servers to balance load efficiently across an arbitrary number of replica servers.
Note
Most replica configurations are intended for reading of data. If you require read/write access to a remote server, use either a forwarding replica, a distributed Perforce service, or the Perforce Proxy. See Configuring a forwarding replica, “Commit-edge Architecture” and “Perforce Proxy” for details.
System requirements
-
As a general rule, All replica servers must be at the same release level as the master server. Any functionality that requires an upgrade for the master requires an upgrade for the replica, and vice versa.
-
All replica servers must have the same Unicode setting as the master server.
-
All replica servers must be hosted on a filesystem with the same case-sensitivity behavior as the master server's filesystem.
-
p4 pull (when replicating metadata) does not read compressed journals. The master server must not compress journals until the replica server has fetched all journal records from older journals. Only one metadata-updating p4 pull thread may be active at one time.
-
The replica server does not need a duplicate license file.
-
The master and replica servers must have the same time zone setting.
Note
On Windows, the time zone setting is system-wide.
On UNIX, the time zone setting is controlled by the
TZ
environment variable at the time the replica server is started.
Replication basics
Replication of Perforce servers depends upon several commands and configurables:
Command or Feature |
Typical use case |
---|---|
p4 pull |
A command that can replicate both metadata and versioned files, and report diagnostic information about pending content transfers.
A replica server can run multiple p4 pull
commands against the same master server. To replicate both
metadata and file contents, you must run two p4
pull threads simultaneously: one (and only one)
p4 pull (without the |
p4 configure |
A configuration mechanism that supports multiple servers. Because p4 configure stores its data on the master server, all replica servers automatically pick up any changes you make. |
p4 server |
A configuration mechanism that defines a server in terms of
its offered services. In order to be effective, the
|
p4 serverid |
A command to set or display the unique identifier for a
Perforce Server. On startup, a server takes its ID from the
contents of a |
p4 verify -t |
Causes the replica to schedule a transfer of the contents of any damaged or missing revisions.
The command reports
For the transfer to work on a replica with
|
Server names
|
Perforce Servers can be identified and configured by name. When you use p4 configure on your master server, you can specify different sets of configurables for each named server. Each named server, upon startup, refers to its own set of configurables, and ignores configurables set for other servers. |
Service users
|
A new type of user intended for authentication of server-to-server communications. Service users have extremely limited access to the depot and do not consume Perforce licenses. To make logs easier to read, create one service user on your master server for each replica or proxy in your network of Perforce Servers. |
Metadata access
|
Replica servers can be configured to automatically reject
user commands that attempt to modify metadata
(
In |
Metadata filtering |
Replica servers can be configured to filter in (or out) data on client workspaces and file revisions.
You can use the
You can use the
Using the |
Depot file access
|
Replica servers can be configured to automatically reject user commands that attempt to modify archived depot files (the "library").
These options can also be set using
|
Target server
|
As with the Perforce Proxy, you can use
You can set
A replica server with |
Startup commands
|
Use the
|
State file
|
Replica servers track the most recent journal position in a small text file that holds a byte offset. When you stop either the master server or a replica server, the most recent journal position is recorded on the replica in the state file. Upon restart, the replica reads the state file and picks up where it left off; do not alter this file or its contents. (If you remove the state file, replication begins with an offset of zero, reseeding the replica from scratch.)
By default, the state file is named
|
P4Broker |
The Perforce Broker can be used for load balancing, command redirection, and more. See “The Perforce Broker” for details. |
The p4 pull command
Perforce's p4 pull command provides the most general solution for replication. Use p4 pull to configure a replica server that:
-
replicates versioned files (the
,v
files that contain the deltas that are produced when new versions are submitted) unidirectionally from a master server. -
replicates server metadata (the information contained in the
db.*
files) unidirectionally from a master server. -
uses the
startup.
n
configurable to automatically spawn as many p4 pull processes as required.A common configuration for a warm standby server is one in which one (and only one) p4 pull process is spawned to replicate the master server's metadata, and multiple p4 pull -u processes are spawned to run in parallel, and continually update the replica's copy of the master server's versioned files.
-
The
startup.
n
configurables are processed sequentially. Processing stops at the first gap in the numerical sequence; any commands after a gap are ignored.
Although you can run p4 pull from the command line
for testing and debugging purposes, it's most useful when controlled by
the startup.
n
configurables, and in conjunction with named servers, service users, and
centrally-managed configurations.
The --batch
option to the p4 pull
specifies the number of files a pull thread should process in a single
request. The default value of 1
is usually adequate.
For high-latency configurations, a larger value might improve archive
transfer speed for large numbers of small files. (Use of this option
requires that both master and replica be at version 2015.2 or higher.)
Setting the rpl.compress
configurable allows you to
compress journal record data that is transmitted using p4
pull.
Note
If you are running a replica with monitoring enabled and you have not
configured the monitor table to be disk-resident, you can run the
following command to get more precise information about what pull
threads are doing. (Remember to set monitor.lsof
).
$ p4 monitor show -sB -la -L
Command output would look like this:
31701 B uservice-edge3 00:07:24 pull sleeping 1000 ms [server.locks/replica/49,d/pull(W)]
Server names and P4NAME
To set a Perforce server name, set the P4NAME
environment variable or specify the -In
command line
option to p4d when you start the server. Assigning
names to servers is essential for configuring replication. Assigning
server names permits most of the server configuration data to be stored
in Perforce itself, as an alternative to using startup options or
environment values to specify configuration details. In replicated
environments, named servers are a necessity, because p4
configure settings are replicated from the master server along
with other Perforce metadata.
For example, if you start your master server as follows:
$ p4d -r /p4/master -In master -p master:11111
And your replica server as follows:
$ p4d -r /p4/replica -In Replica1 -p replica:22222
You can use p4 configure on the master to control settings on both the master and the replica, because configuration settings are part of a Perforce server's metadata and are replicated accordingly.
For example, if you issue following commands on the master server:
$ p4 -p master:11111 configure set master#monitor=2 $ p4 -p master:11111 configure set Replica1#monitor=1
After the configuration data has been replicated, the two servers
have different server monitoring levels. That is, if you run
p4 monitor show against
master:11111
, you see both active and idle
processes, because for the server named master
,
the monitor
configurable is set to
2
. If you run p4 monitor show
against replica:22222
, only active processes are
shown, because for the Replica1
server,
monitor
is 1
.
Because the master (and each replica) is likely to have its own
journal and checkpoint, it is good practice to use the
journalPrefix
configurable (for each named
server) to ensure that their prefixes are unique:
$ p4 configure set master#journalPrefix=/master_checkpoints/master $ p4 configure set Replica1#journalPrefix=/replica_checkpoints/replica
For more information, see:
http://answers.perforce.com/articles/KB_Article/Master-and-Replica-Journal-Setup
Server IDs: the p4 server and p4 serverid commands
You can further define a set of services offered by a Perforce server by using the p4 server and p4 serverid commands. Configuring the following servers require the use of a server spec:
-
Commit server: central server in a distributed installation
-
Edge server: node in a distributed installation
-
Build server: replica that supports build farm integration
-
Depot master: commit server with automated failover
-
Depot standby: standby replica of the depot master
-
Workspace server: node in a cluster
-
Standby server: read-only replica that uses p4 journalcopy
-
Forwarding standby: forwarding replica that uses p4 journalcopy
The p4 serverid command creates (or updates) a
small text file named server.id
. The
server.id
file always resides in a server's
root directory.
The p4 server command can be used to maintain a
list of all servers known to your installation. It can also be used
to create a unique server ID that can be passed to the p4
serverid command, and to define the services offered by
any server that, upon startup, reads that server ID from a
server.id
file. The p4
server command can also be used to set a server's name
(P4NAME
).
Service users
There are three types of Perforce users:
standard
users, operator
users, and service
users. A
standard
user is a traditional user of Perforce,
an operator
user is intended for human or
automated system administrators, and a service
user is used for server-to-server authentication, as part of the
replication process.
Service users are useful for remote depots in single-server environments, but are required for multi-server and distributed environments.
Create a service
user for each master,
replica, or proxy server that you control. Doing so greatly
simplifies the task of interpreting your server logs. Service
users can also help you improve security, by requiring that
your edge servers and other replicas have valid login tickets
before they can communicate with the master or commit server.
Service users do not consume Perforce licenses.
A service user can run only the following commands:
-
p4 dbschema
-
p4 export
-
p4 login
-
p4 logout
-
p4 passwd
-
p4 info
-
p4 user
To create a service user, run the command:
p4 user -f service1
The standard user form is displayed. Enter a new line to set the
new user's Type:
to be
service
; for example:
User: service1 Email: [email protected] FullName: Service User for Replica Server 1 Type: service
By default, the output of p4 users omits service users. To include service users, run p4 users -a.
Tickets and timeouts for service users
A newly-created service user that is not a member of any groups
is subject to the default ticket timeout of 12 hours. To avoid
issues that arise when a service user's ticket ceases to be
valid, create a group for your service users that features an
extremely long timeout, or to unlimited
. On
the master server, issue the following command:
p4 group service_users
Add service1
to the list of
Users:
in the group, and set the
Timeout:
and
PasswordTimeout:
values to a large value or to
unlimited
.
Group: service_users Timeout: unlimited PasswordTimeout: unlimited Subgroups: Owners: Users: service1
Important
Service users must have a ticket created with the p4 login for replication to work.
Permissions for service users
On the master server, use p4 protect to grant
the service user super
permission. Service
users are tightly restricted in the commands they can run, so
granting them super
permission is safe.
Server options to control metadata and depot access
When you start a replica that points to a master server with
P4TARGET
, you must specify both the -M
(metadata access) and a -D
(depot access) options, or
set the configurables db.replication
(access to
metadata) and lbr.replication
(access the depot's
library of versioned files) to control which Perforce commands are
permitted or rejected by the replica server.
P4TARGET
Set P4TARGET
to the the fully-qualified domain name or IP
address of the master server from which a replica server is to retrieve
its data. You can set P4TARGET
explicitly, specify it on
the p4d command line with the -t
option, or you can use p4 configure to set a
protocol
:host
:port
P4TARGET
for each named replica server. See the table
below for the available
options.
protocol
If you specify a target, p4d examines its
configuration for
startup.
n
commands:
if no valid p4 pull commands are found,
p4d runs and waits for the user to manually start a
p4 pull command. If you omit a target,
p4d assumes the existence of an external metadata
replication source such as p4 replicate. See
p4 pull vs. p4 replicate for details.
Protocol |
Behavior |
---|---|
|
Use |
|
Use |
|
Listen on/connect to an IPv4 address/port only. |
|
Listen on/connect to an IPv6 address/port only. |
|
Attempt to listen on/connect to an IPv4 address/port. If this fails, try IPv6. |
|
Attempt to listen on/connect to an IPv6 address/port. If this fails, try IPv4. |
|
Use |
|
Listen on/connect to an IPv4 address/port only, using SSL encryption. |
|
Listen on/connect to an IPv6 address/port only, using SSL encryption. |
|
Attempt to listen on/connect to an IPv4 address/port. If this fails, try IPv6. After connecting, require SSL encryption. |
|
Attempt to listen on/connect to an IPv6 address/port. If this fails, try IPv4. After connecting, require SSL encryption. |
P4TARGET
can be the hosts' hostname or its IP address;
both IPv4 and IPv6 addresses are supported. For the
listen
setting, you can use the *
wildcard to refer to all IP addresses, but only when you are not using
CIDR notation.
If you use the *
wildcard with an IPv6 address, you
must enclose the entire IPv6 address in square brackets. For example,
[2001:db8:1:2:*]
is equivalent to
[2001:db8:1:2::]/64
. Best practice is to use CIDR
notation, surround IPv6 addresses with square brackets, and to avoid the
*
wildcard.
Server startup commands
You can configure a Perforce Server to automatically run commands at startup using the p4 configure as follows:
p4 configure set
"servername
#startup.n
=command
"
Where n
represents the order in which
the commands are executed: the command specified for
startup.1
runs first, then the command for
startup.2
, and so on. The only valid startup
command is p4 pull.
p4 pull vs. p4 replicate
Perforce also supports a more limited form of replication based on the p4 replicate command. This command does not replicate file content, but supports filtering of metadata on a per-table basis.
For more information about p4 replicate, see "Perforce Metadata Replication" in the Perforce Knowledge Base:
http://answers.perforce.com/articles/KB_Article/Perforce-Metadata-Replication
Enabling SSL support
To encrypt the connection between a replica server and its end users,
the replica must have its own valid private key and certificate pair in
the directory specified by its P4SSLDIR
environment
variable. Certificate and key generation and management for replica
servers works the same as it does for the (master) server. See
Enabling SSL support. The users' Perforce
applications must be configured to trust the fingerprint of the replica
server.
To encrypt the connection between a replica server and its master,
the replica must be configured so as to trust the fingerprint of
the master server. That is, the user that runs the replica
p4d (typically a service user) must create a
P4TRUST
file (using p4 trust)
that recognizes the fingerprint of the master
Perforce Server.
The P4TRUST
variable specifies the path to the SSL trust
file. You must set this environment variable in the following cases:
-
for a replica that needs to connect to an SSL-enabled master server, or
-
for an edge server that needs to connect to an SSL-enabled commit server.
Uses for replication
Here are some situations in which replica servers can be useful.
-
For a failover or warm standby server, replicate both server metadata and versioned files by running two p4 pull commands in parallel. Each replica server requires one or more p4 pull -u instances to replicate versioned files, and a single p4 pull to replicate the metadata.
If you are using p4 pull for both metadata and p4 pull -u for versioned files, start your replica server with p4d -t
protocol
:host
:port
-Mreadonly -Dreadonly. Commands that require read-only access to server metadata and to depot files will succeed. Commands that attempt to write to server metadata and/or depot files will fail gracefully.For a detailed example of this configuration, see Configuring a read-only replica.
-
To configure an offline checkpointing or reporting server, only the master server's metadata needs to be replicated; versioned files do not need to be replicated.
To use p4 pull for metadata-only replication, start the server with p4d -t
protocol
:host
:port
-Mreadonly -Dnone. You must specify a target. Do not configure the server to spawn any p4 pull -u commands that would replicate the depot files.In either scenario, commands that require read-only access to server metadata will succeed and commands that attempt to write to server metadata or attempt to access depot files will be blocked by the replica server.
Replication and protections
To apply the IP address of a replica user's workstation against the
protections table, prepend the string proxy-
to the
workstation's IP address.
For instance, consider an organization with a remote development
site with workstations on a subnet of
192.168.10.0/24
. The organization also has a
central office where local development takes place; the central
office exists on the 10.0.0.0/8
subnet. A
Perforce service resides in the 10.0.0.0/8
subnet, and a replica resides in the 192.168.10.0/24
subnet. Users at the remote site belong to the group
remotedev
, and occasionally visit the central office.
Each subnet also has a corresponding set of IPv6 addresses.
To ensure that members of the remotedev
group
use the replica while working at the remote site, but do not use the
replica when visiting the local site, add the following lines to your
protections table:
list group remotedev 192.168.10.0/24 -//... list group remotedev [2001:db8:16:81::]/48 -//... write group remotedev proxy-192.168.10.0/24 //... write group remotedev proxy-[2001:db8:16:81::]/48 //... list group remotedev proxy-10.0.0.0/8 -//... list group remotedev proxy-[2001:db8:1008::]/32 -//... write group remotedev 10.0.0.0/8 //... write group remotedev proxy-[2001:db8:1008::]/32 //...
The first line denies list
access to all users in the
remotedev
group if they attempt to access Perforce
without using the replica from their workstations in the
192.168.10.0/24
subnet. The second line denies access
in identical fashion when access is attempted from the IPV6
[2001:db8:16:81::]/48
subnet.
The third line grants write
access to all users in
the remotedev
group if they are using the replica and
are working from the 192.168.10.0/24
subnet. Users of
workstations at the remote site must use the replica. (The replica
itself does not have to be in this subnet, for example, it could be at
192.168.20.0
.) The fourth line grants access in
identical fashion when access is attempted from the IPV6
[2001:db8:16:81::]/48
subnet.
Similarly, the fifth and sixth lines deny list
access
to remotedev
users when they attempt to use the
replica from workstations on the central office's subnets
(10.0.0.0/8
and
[2001:db8:1008::]/32
). The seventh and eighth lines
grant write access to remotedev
users who access the
Perforce server directly from workstations on the central office's
subnets. When visiting the local site, users from the
remotedev
group must access the Perforce server
directly.
When the Perforce service evaluates protections table entries, the
dm.proxy.protects
configurable is also evaluated.
dm.proxy.protects
defaults to 1
,
which causes the proxy-
prefix to be prepended to all
client host addresses that connect via an intermediary (proxy, broker,
replica, or edge server), indicating that the connection is not direct.
Setting dm.proxy.protects
to 0
removes the proxy-
prefix and allows you to write a
single set of protection entries that apply both to directly-connected
clients as well as to those that connect via an intermediary. This is
more convenient but less secure if it matters that a connection is made
using an intermediary. If you use this setting, all intermediaries must
be at release 2012.1 or higher.
How replica types handle requests
One way of explaining the differences between replica types is to describe how each type handles user requests; whether the server processes them locally, whether it forwards them, or whether it returns an error. The following table describes these differences.
-
Read only commands include p4 files, p4 filelog, p4 fstat, p4 user -o
-
Work-in-progress commands include p4 sync, p4 edit, p4 add, p4 delete, p4 integrate, p4 resolve, p4 revert, p4 diff, p4 shelve, p4 unshelve, p4 submit, p4 reconcile.
-
Global update commands include p4 user, p4 group, p4 branch, p4 label, p4 depot, p4 stream, p4 protect, p4 triggers, p4 typemap, p4 server, p4 configure, p4 counter.
Replica type |
Read-only commands |
p4 sync, p4 client |
Work-in-progress commands |
Global update commands |
---|---|---|---|---|
Depot standby, standby, replica |
Yes, local |
Error |
Error |
Error |
Forwarding standby, forwarding replica |
Yes, local |
Forward |
Forward |
Forward |
Build server |
Yes, local |
Yes, local |
Error |
Error |
Edge server, workspace server |
Yes, local |
Yes, local |
Yes, local |
Forward |
Standard server, depot master, commit server |
Yes, local |
Yes, local |
Yes, local |
Yes, local |
Configuring a read-only replica
To support warm standby servers, a replica server requires an up-to-date copy of both the master server's metadata and its versioned files.
Note
Replication is asynchronous, and a replicated server is not recommended as the sole means of backup or disaster recovery. Maintaining a separate set of database checkpoints and depot backups (whether on tape, remote storage, or other means) is advised. Disaster recovery and failover strategies are complex and site-specific. Perforce Consultants are available to assist organizations in the planning and deployment of disaster recovery and failover strategies. For details, see:
The following extended example configures a replica as a warm standby server for an existing Perforce Server with some data in it. For this example, assume that:
-
Your master server is named
Master
and is running on a host calledmaster
, using port 11111, and its server root directory is/p4/master
-
Your replica server will be named
Replica1
and will be configured to run on a host machine namedreplica
, using port22222
, and its root directory will be/p4/replica
. -
The service user name is
service
. -
Note
You cannot define
P4NAME
using the p4 configure command, because a server must know its own name to use values set by p4 configure.You cannot define
P4ROOT
using the p4 configure command, to avoid the risk of specifying an incorrect server root.
Master server setup
To define the behavior of the replica, you enter configuration
information into the master server's db.config
file
using the p4 configure set command. Configure the
master server first; its settings will be replicated to the replica
later.
To configure the master, log in to Perforce as a superuser and perform the following steps:
-
To set the server named
Replica1
to usemaster:11111
as the master server to pull metadata and versioned files, issue the command:$ p4 -p master:11111 configure set Replica1#P4TARGET=master:11111
Perforce displays the following response:
For server Replica1, configuration variable 'P4TARGET' set to 'master:11111'
Note
To avoid confusion when working with multiple servers that appear identical in many ways, use the
-u
option to specify the superuser account and-p
to explicitly specify the master Perforce server's host and port.These options have been omitted from this example for simplicity. In a production environment, specify the host and port on the command line.
-
Set the
Replica1
server to save the replica server's log file using a specified file name. Keeping the log names unique prevents problems when collecting data for debugging or performance tracking purposes.$ p4 configure set Replica1#P4LOG=replica1Log.txt
-
Set the
Replica1
server
configurable to1
, which is equivalent to specifying the-vserver=1
server startup option:$ p4 configure set Replica1#server=1
-
To enable process monitoring, set
Replica1
'smonitor
configurable to1
:$ p4 configure set Replica1#monitor=1
-
To handle the
Replica1
replication process, configure the following threestartup.
n
commands. (When passing multiple items separated by spaces, you must wrap the entire set value in double quotes.)The first startup process sets p4 pull to poll once every second for journal data only:
$ p4 configure set "Replica1#startup.1=pull -i 1"
The next two settings configure the server to spawn two p4 pull threads at startup, each of which polls once per second for archive data transfers.
$ p4 configure set "Replica1#startup.2=pull -u -i 1" $ p4 configure set "Replica1#startup.3=pull -u -i 1"
Each p4 pull -u command creates a separate thread for replicating archive data. Heavily-loaded servers might require more threads, if archive data transfer begins to lag behind the replication of metadata. To determine if you need more p4 pull -u processes, read the contents of the
rdb.lbr
table, which records the archive data transferred from the master Perforce server to the replica.To display the contents of this table when a replica is running, run:
$ p4 -p replica:22222 pull -l
Likewise, if you only need to know how many file transfers are active or pending, use p4 -p replica:22222 pull -l -s.
If p4 pull -l -s indicates a large number of pending transfers, consider adding more p4 pull -u startup.
n
commands to address the problem.If a specific file transfer is failing repeatedly (perhaps due to unrecoverable errors on the master), you can cancel the pending transfer with p4 pull -d -f
file
-rrev
, where file and rev refer to the file and revision number. -
Set the
db.replication
(metadata access) andlbr.replication
(depot file access) configurables to readonly:$ p4 configure set Replica1#db.replication=readonly $ p4 configure set Replica1#lbr.replication=readonly
Because this replica server is intended as a warm standby (failover) server, both the master server's metadata and its library of versioned depot files are being replicated. When the replica is running, users of the replica will be able to run commands that access both metadata and the server's library of depot files.
-
Create the service user:
$ p4 user -f service
The user specification for the
service
user opens in your default editor. Add the following line to the user specification:Type: service
Save the user specification and exit your default editor.
By default, the service user is granted the same 12-hour login timeout as standard users. To prevent the service user's ticket from timing out, create a group with a long timeout on the master server. In this example, the
Timeout:
field is set to two billion seconds, approximately 63 years:$ p4 group service_group
Users: service Timeout: 2000000000
For more details, seeTickets and timeouts for service users.
-
Set the service user protections to
super
in your protections table. (See Permissions for service users.) It is good practice to set the security level of all your Perforce Servers to at least 1 (preferably to 3, so as to require a strong password for the service user, and ideally to 4, to ensure that only authenticated service users may attempt to perform replica or remote depot transactions.)$ p4 configure set security=4 $ p4 passwd
-
Set the
Replica1
configurable for theserviceUser
toservice
.$ p4 configure set Replica1#serviceUser=service
This step configures the replica server to authenticate itself to the master server as the
service
user; this is equivalent to starting p4d with the-u service
option. -
If the user running the replica server does not have a home directory, or if the directory where the default
.p4tickets
file is typically stored is not writable by the replica's Perforce server process, set the replicaP4TICKETS
value to point to a writable ticket file in the replica's Perforce server root directory:$ p4 configure set "Replica1#P4TICKETS=/p4/replica/.p4tickets"
Creating the replica
To configure and start a replica server, perform the following steps:
-
Boot-strap the replica server by checkpointing the master server, and restoring that checkpoint to the replica:
$ p4 admin checkpoint
(For a new setup, we can assume the checkpoint file is named
checkpoint.1
) -
Move the checkpoint to the replica server's
P4ROOT
directory and replay the checkpoint:$ p4d -r /p4/replica -jr $P4ROOT/checkpoint.1
-
Copy the versioned files from the master server to the replica.
Versioned files include both text (in RCS format, ending with "
,v
") and binary files (directories of individual binary files, each directory ending with ",d
"). Ensure that you copy the text files in a manner that correctly translates line endings for the replica host's filesystem.If your depots are specified using absolute paths on the master, use the same paths on the replica. (Or use relative paths in the
Map:
field for each depot, so that versioned files are stored relative to the server's root.) -
To create a valid ticket file, use p4 login to connect to the master server and obtain a ticket on behalf of the replica server's service user. On the machine that will host the replica server, run:
$ p4 -u service -p master:11111 login
Then move the ticket to the location that holds the
P4TICKETS
file for the replica server's service user.
At this point, your replica server is configured to contact the master server and start replication. Specifically:
-
A service user (
service
) in a group (service_group
) with a long ticket timeout -
A valid ticket for the replica server's service user (from p4 login)
-
A replicated copy of the master server's
db.config
, holding the following preconfigured settings applicable to any server with aP4NAME
ofReplica1
, specifically:-
A specified service user (named
service
), which is equivalent to specifying-u service
on the command line -
A target server of
master:11111
, which is equivalent to specifying-t master:11111
on the command line -
Both
db.replication
andlbr.replication
set toreadonly
, which is equivalent to specifying-M readonly
-D readonly
on the command line -
A series of p4 pull commands configured to run when the master server starts
-
Starting the replica
To name your server Replica1
, set
P4NAME
or specify the -In
option and
start the replica as follows:
$ p4d -r /p4/replica -In Replica1 -p replica:22222 -d
When the replica starts, all of the master server's configuration
information is read from the replica's copy of the
db.config
table (which you copied earlier). The
replica then spawns three p4 pull threads: one
to poll the master server for metadata, and two to poll the master
server for versioned files.
Note
The p4 info command displays information about replicas and service fields for untagged output as well as tagged output.
Testing the replica
Testing p4 pull
To confirm that the p4 pull commands (specified in
Replica1
's
startup.
n
configurations) are running, issue the following command:
$ p4 -u super -p replica:22222 monitor show -a
18835 R service00:04:46 pull -i 1
18836 R service00:04:46 pull -u -i 1
18837 R service00:04:46 pull -u -i 1
18926 R super 00:00:00 monitor show -a
If you need to stop replication for any reason, use the p4 monitor terminate command:
$ p4 -u super -p replica:22222 monitor terminate 18837
** process '18837' marked for termination **
To restart replication, either restart the Perforce server process, or manually restart the replication command:
$ p4 -u super -p replica:22222 pull -u -i 1
If the p4 pull and/or p4 pull -u processes are terminated, read-only commands will continue to work for replica users as long as the replica server's p4d is running.
Testing file replication
Create a new file under your workspace view:
$ echo "hello world" > myfile
Mark the file for add:
$ p4 -p master:11111 add myfile
And submit the file:
$ p4 -p master:11111 submit -d "testing replication"
Wait a few seconds for the pull commands on the replica to run, then check the replica for the replicated file:
$ p4 -p replica:22222 print //depot/myfile
//depot/myfile#1 - add change 1 (text)
hello world
If a file transfer is interrupted for any reason, and a versioned file is not present when requested by a user, the replica server silently retrieves the file from the master.
Note
Replica servers in -M readonly -D readonly
mode
will retrieve versioned files from master servers even if started
without a p4 pull -u command to replicate
versioned files to the replica. Such servers act as "on-demand"
replicas, as do servers running in -M readonly -D
ondemand
mode or with their
lbr.replication
configurable set to
ondemand
.
Administrators: be aware that creating an on-demand replica of this sort can still affect server performance or resource consumption, for example, if a user enters a command such as "p4 print //...", which reads every file in the depot.
Verifying the replica
When you copied the versioned files from the master server to the replica server, you relied on the operating system to transfer the files. To determine whether data was corrupted in the process, run p4 verify on the replica server:
$ p4 verify //...
Any errors that are present on the replica but not on the master indicate corruption of the data in transit or while being written to disk during the original copy operation. (Run p4 verify on a regular basis, because a failover server's storage is just as vulnerable to corruption as a production server.)
Using the replica
You can perform all normal operations against your master server
(p4 -p master:11111
command
). To reduce the load on the
master server, direct reporting (read-only) commands to the replica
(p4 -p replica:22222
command
). Because the replica is
running in -M readonly -D readonly
mode, commands that
read both metadata and depot file contents are available, and reporting
commands (such as p4 annotate, p4
changes, p4 filelog, p4
diff2, p4 jobs, and others) work normally.
However, commands that update the server's metadata or depot files are
blocked.
Commands that update metadata
Some scenarios are relatively straightforward: consider a command such
as p4 sync. A plain p4 sync
fails, because whenever you sync your workspace, the Perforce Server
must update its metadata (the "have" list, which is stored in the
db.have
table). Instead, use p4 sync
-p to populate a workspace without updating the have list:
$ p4 -p replica:22222 sync -p //depot/project/...@1234
This operation succeeds because it doesn't update the server's metadata.
Some commands affect metadata in more subtle ways. For example, many
Perforce commands update the last-update time that is associated with
a specification (for example, a user or client specification).
Attempting to use such commands on replica servers produces errors
unless you use the -o
option. For example,
p4 client (which updates the
Update:
and Access:
fields of
the client specification) fails:
$ p4 -p replica:22222 client replica_client
Replica does not support this command.
However, p4 client -o works:
$ p4 -p replica:22222 client -o replica_client
(client spec is output to STDOUT)
If a command is blocked due to an implicit attempt to write to
the server's metadata, consider workarounds such as those
described above. (Some commands, like p4
submit, always fail, because they attempt to write to
the replica server's depot files; these commands are blocked by
the -D readonly
option.)
Using the Perforce Broker to redirect commands
You can use the Perforce Broker with a replica server to redirect
read-only commands to replica servers. This approach enables all your
users to connect to the same
setting (the broker). In this configuration, the broker is configured
to transparently redirect key commands to whichever Perforce Server is
appropriate to the task at hand.
protocol
:host
:port
For an example of such a configuration, see "Using P4Broker With Replica Servers" in the Perforce Knowledge Base:
http://answers.perforce.com/articles/KB_Article/Using-P4Broker-With-Replica-Servers
For more information about the Perforce Broker, see “The Perforce Broker”.
Upgrading replica servers
It is best practice to upgrade any server instance replicating from a master server first. If replicas are chained together, start at the replica that is furthest downstream from the master, and work upstream towards the master server. Keep downstream replicas stopped until the server immediately upstream is upgraded.
Note
There has been a significant change in release 2013.3 that affects how
metadata is stored in db.*
files; despite this
change, the database schema and the format of the checkpoint and the
journal files between 2013.2 and 2013.3, remains unchanged.
Consequently, in this one case (of upgrades between 2013.2 and 2013.3), it is sufficient to stop the replica until the master is upgraded, but the replica (and any replicas downstream of it) must be upgraded to at least 2013.2 before a 2013.3 master is restarted.
When upgrading between 2013.2 (or lower) and 2013.3 (or higher), it is
recommended to wait for all archive transfers to end before shutting
down the replica and commencing the upgrade. You must manually delete
the rdb.lbr
file in the replica server's root
before restarting the replica.
For more information, see "Upgrading Replica Servers" in the Perforce Knowledge Base:
http://answers.perforce.com/articles/KB_Article/Upgrading-Replica-Servers/
Configuring a forwarding replica
A forwarding replica offers a blend of the functionality of the Perforce Proxy with the improved performance of a replica. The following considerations are relevant:
The Perforce Proxy is easier to configure and maintain, but caches only file content; it holds no metadata. A forwarding replica caches both file content and metadata, and can therefore process many commands without requesting additional data from the master server. This behavior enables a forwarding replica to offload more tasks from the master server and provides improved performance. The trade-off is that a forwarding replica requires a higher level of machine provisioning and administrative considerations compared to a proxy.
A read-only replica rejects commands that update metadata; a forwarding replica does not reject such commands, but forwards them to the master server for processing, and then waits for the metadata update to be processed by the master server and returned to the forwarding replica. Although users connected to the forwarding replica cannot write to the replica's metadata, they nevertheless receive a consistent view of the database.
If you are auditing server activity, each of your forwarding replica
servers must have its own P4AUDIT
log configured.
Configuring the master server
The following example assumes an environment with a regular server
named master
, and a forwarding replica server
named fwd-replica
on a host named
forward
.
-
Start by configuring a read-only replica for warm standby; see Configuring a read-only replica for details. (Instead of
Replica1
, use the namefwd-replica
.) -
On the master server, configure the forwarding replica as follows:
$ p4 server fwd-1667
The following form is displayed:
ServerID: fwd-1667 Name: fwd-replica Type: server Services: forwarding-replica Address: tcp:forward:1667 Description: Forwarding replica pointing to master:1666
Configuring the forwarding replica
-
On the replica machine, assign the replica server a serverID:
$ p4 serverid fwd-1667
When the replica server with the
serverID:
offwd-1667
(which was previously assigned theName:
offwd-replica
) pulls its configuration from the master server, it will behave as a forwarding replica. -
On the replica machine, restart the replica server:
$ p4 admin restart
Configuring a build farm server
Continuous integration and other similar development processes can impose a significant workload on your Perforce infrastructure. Automated build processes frequently access the Perforce server to monitor recent changes and retrieve updated source files; their client workspace definitions and associated have lists also occupy storage and memory on the server.
With a build farm server, you can offload the workload of the automated build processes to a separate machine, and ensure that your main Perforce server's resources are available to your users for their normal day-to-day tasks.
Build farm servers were implemented in Perforce server release 2012.1. With the implementation of edge servers in 2013.2, we now recommend that you use an edge server instead of a build farm server. As discussed in “Commit-edge Architecture”, edge servers offer all the functionality of build farm servers and yet offload more work from the main server and improve performance, with the additional flexibility of being able to run write commands as part of the build process.
A Perforce Server intended for use as a build farm must, by definition:
-
Permit the creation and configuration of client workspaces
-
Permit those workspaces to be synced
One issue with implementing a build farm against a read-only replica is that under Perforce, both of those operations involve writes to metadata: in order to use a client workspace in a build environment, the workspace must contain some information (even if nothing more than the client workspace root) specific to the build environment, and in order for a build tool to efficiently sync a client workspace, a build server must be able to keep some record of which files have already been synced.
To address these issues, build farm replicas host their own local copies of certain metadata; in addition to the Perforce commands supported in a read-only replica environment, build farm replicas with support the p4 client and p4 sync commands when applied to workspaces that are bound to that replica.
If you are auditing server activity, each of your build farm replica
servers must have its own P4AUDIT
log configured.
Configuring the master server
The following example assumes an environment with a regular server
named master
, and a build farm replica server
named buildfarm1
on a host named
builder
.
-
Start by configuring a read-only replica for warm standby; see Configuring a read-only replica for details. (That is, create a read-only replica named
buildfarm1
.) -
On the master server, configure the master server as follows:
$ p4 server master-1666
The following form is displayed:
# A Perforce Server Specification. # # ServerID: The server identifier. # Type: The server type: server/broker/proxy. # Name: The P4NAME used by this server (optional). # Address: The P4PORT used by this server (optional). # Description: A short description of the server (optional). # Services: Services provided by this server, one of: # standard: standard Perforce server # replica: read-only replica server # broker: p4broker process # proxy: p4p caching proxy # commit-server: central server in a distributed installation # edge-server: node in a distributed installation # forwarding-replica: replica which forwards update commands # build-server: replica which supports build automation # P4AUTH: server which provides central authentication # P4CHANGE: server which provides central change numbers # # Use 'p4 help server' to see more about server ids and services. ServerID: master-1666 Name: master Type: server Services: standard Address: tcp:master:1666 Description: Master server - regular development work
-
Create the master server's
server.id
file. On the master server, run the following command:$ p4 -p master:1666 serverid master-1666
-
Restart the master server.
On startup, the master server reads its server ID of
master-1666
from itsserver.id
file. It takes on theP4NAME
ofmaster
and uses the configurables that apply to aP4NAME
setting ofmaster
.
Configuring the build farm replica
-
On the master server, configure the build farm replica server as follows:
$ p4 server builder-1667
The following form is displayed:
ServerID: builder-1667 Name: buildfarm1 Type: server Services: build-server Address: tcp:builder:1667 Description: Build farm - bind workspaces to builder-1667 and use a port of tcp:builder:1667
-
Create the build farm replica server's
server.id
file. On the replica server (not the master server), run the following command$ p4 -p builder:1667 serverid builder-1667
-
Restart the replica server.
On startup, the replica build farm server reads its server ID of
builder-1667
from itsserver.id
file.Because the server registry is automatically replicated from the master server to all replica servers, the restarted build farm server takes on the
P4NAME
ofbuildfarm1
and uses the configurables that apply to aP4NAME
setting ofbuildfarm1
.In this example, the build farm server also acknowledges the
build-server
setting in theServices:
field of its p4 server form.
Binding workspaces to the build farm replica
At this point, there should be two servers in operation: a master
server named master
, with a server ID of
master-1666
, and a
build-server
replica named
buildfarm1
, with a server ID of
builder-1667
.
-
Bind client workspaces to the build farm server.
Because this server is configured to offer the
build-server
service, it maintains its own local copy of the list of client workspaces (db.domain
anddb.view.rp
) and their respective have lists (db.have.rp
).On the replica server, create a client workspace with p4 client:
$ p4 -c build0001 -p builder:1667 client build0001
When creating a new workspace on the build farm replica, you must ensure that your current client workspace has a ServerID that matches that required by
builder:1667
. Because workspacebuild0001
does not yet exist, you must manually specifybuild0001
as the current client workspace with the-c
option and simultaneously supplyclientname
build0001
as the argument to the p4 client command. For more information, see:http://answers.perforce.com/articles/KB_Article/Build-Farm-Client-Creation-Error
When the p4 client form appears, set the
ServerID:
field tobuilder-1667
. -
Sync the bound workspace
Because the client workspace
build0001
is bound tobuilder-1667
, users on the master server are unaffected, but users on the build farm server are not only able to edit its specification, they are able to sync it:$ export P4PORT=builder:1667 $ export P4CLIENT=build0001 $ p4 sync
The replica's have list is updated, and does not propagate back to the master. Users of the master server are unaffected.
In a real-world scenario, your organization's build engineers would
re-configure your site's build system to use the new server by resetting
their P4PORT
to point directly at the build farm server.
Even in an environment in which continuous integration and automated
build tools create a client workspace (and sync it) for every change
submitted to the master server, performance on the master would be
unaffected.
In a real-world scenario, performance on the master would likely improve for all users, as the number of read and write operations on the master server's database would be substantially reduced.
If there are database tables that you know your build farm replica does
not require, consider using the -F
and
-T
filter options to p4 pull. Also
consider specifying the ArchiveDataFilter:
,
RevisionDataFilter:
and
ClientDataFilter:
fields of the replica's p4
server form.
If your automation load should exceed the capacity of a single machine, you can configure additional build farm servers. There is no limit to the number of build farm servers that you may operate in your installation.
Filtering metadata during replication
As part of an HA/DR solution, one typically wants to ensure that all the metadata and all the versioned files are replicated. In most other use cases, particularly build farms and/or forwarding replicas, this leads to a great deal of redundant data being transferred.
It is often advantageous to configure your replica servers to filter in (or out) data on client workspaces and file revisions. For example, developers working on one project at a remote site do not typically need to know the state of every client workspace at other offices where other projects are being developed, and build farms don't require access to the endless stream of changes to office documents and spreadsheets associated with a typical large enterprise.
The simplest way to filter metadata is by using the -T
option with
p4 pull command. If you know, for example, that a build
farm has no need to refer to any of your users' have
lists or the state of their client workspaces, you can filter out
tableexcludelist
db.have
and db.working
entirely
with p4 pull -T db.have,db.working.
Excluding entire database tables is a coarse-grained method of managing the amount of data passed between servers, requires some knowledge of which tables are most likely to be referred to during Perforce command operations, and furthermore, offers no means of control over which versioned files are replicated.
You can gain much more fine-grained control over what data is replicated
by using the ClientDataFilter:
,
RevisionDataFilter:
, and
ArchiveDataFilter:
fields of the p4
server form. These options enable you to replicate (or exclude
from replication) those portions of your server's metadata and versioned
files that are of interest at the replica site.
Example 1. Filtering out client workspace data and files.
If workspaces for users in each of three sites are named with
site[123]-ws-
username
,
a replica intended to act as partial backup for users at
site1
could be configured as follows:
ServerID: site1-1668 Name: site1backup Type: server Services: replica Address: tcp:site1bak:1668 Description: Replicate all client workspace data, except the states of workspaces of users at sites 2 and 3. Automatically replicate .c files in anticipation of user requests. Do not replicate .mp4 video files, which tend to be large and impose high bandwidth costs. ClientDataFilter: -//site2-ws-* -//site3-ws-* RevisionDataFilter: ArchiveDataFilter: //....c -//....mp4
When you start the replica, your p4 pull metadata thread must specify the ServerID associated with the server spec that holds the filters:
$ p4 configure set "site1backup#startup.1=pull -i 30 -P site1-1668"
In this configuration, only those portions of
db.have
that are associated with
site1
are replicated; all metadata concerning
workspaces associated with site2
and
site3
is ignored.
All file-related metadata is replicated. All files in the depot are
replicated, except for those ending in .mp4
. Files
ending in .c
are transferred automatically to the
replica when submitted.
To further illustrate the concept, consider a build farm replica scenario. The ongoing work of the organization (whether it be code, business documents, or the latest video commercial) can be stored anywhere in the depot, but this build farm is dedicated to building releasable products, and has no need to have the rest of the organization's output at its immediate disposal:
Example 2. Replicating metadata and file contents for a subset of a depot.
Releasable code is placed into //depot/releases/...
and automated builds are based on these changes. Changes to other
portions of the depot, as well as the states of individual workers'
client workspaces, are filtered out.
ServerID: builder-1669 Name: relbuild Type: server Services: build-server Address: tcp:built:1669 Description: Exclude all client workspace data Replicate only revisions in release branches ClientDataFilter: -//... RevisionDataFilter: -//... //depot/releases/... ArchiveDataFilter: -//... //depot/releases/...
To seed the replica you can use a command like the following to create a filtered checkpoint:
$ p4d -r /p4/master -P builder-1669 -jd myCheckpoint
You can then continue to update the replica using the p4 pull command.
When you start the replica, your p4 pull metadata thread must specify the ServerID associated with the server spec that holds the filters:
$ p4 configure set "relbuild#startup.1=pull -i 30 -P builder-1669"
The p4 pull thread that pulls metadata for replication filters out all client workspace data (including the have lists) of all users.
The p4 pull -u thread(s) ignore all changes on
the master except those that affect revisions in the
//depot/releases/...
branch, which are the only
ones of interest to a build farm. The only metadata that is available is
that which concerns released code. All released code is automatically
transferred to the build farm before any requests are made, so that when
the build farm performs a p4 sync, the sync is
performed locally.
Verifying replica integrity
Tools to ensure data integrity in multi-server installations are accessed
through the p4 journaldbchecksums command, and their
behavior is controlled by three configurables:
rpl.checksum.auto
,
rpl.checksum.change
, and
rpl.checksum.table
.
When you run p4 journaldbchecksums against a specific
database table (or the set of tables associated with one of the levels
predefined by the rpl.checksum.auto
configurable), the
upstream server writes a journal note containing table checksum
information. Downstream replicas, upon receiving this journal note, then
proceed to verify these checksums and record their results in the
structured log for integrity-related events.
These checks are also performed whenever the journal is rotated. In addition, newly defined triggers allow you to take some custom action when journals are rotated. For more information, see the section "Triggering on journal rotation" in Helix Versioning Engine Administrator Guide: Fundamentals.
Administrators who have one or more replica servers deployed should enable
structured logging for integrity events, set the
rpl.checksum.*
configurables for their replica servers,
and regularly monitor the logs for integrity events.
Configuration
Structured server logging must be enabled on every server, with at least
one log recording events of type integrity
, for
example:
$ p4 configure set serverlog.file.8=integrity.csv
After you have enabled structured server logging, set the
rpl.checksum.auto
,
rpl.checksum.change
, and
rpl.checksum.table
configurables to the desired
levels of integrity checking. Best practice for most sites is a balance
between performance and log size:
p4 configure set rpl.checksum.auto=1 (or
2
for additional verification that is unlikely to
vary between an upstream server and its replicas.)
p4 configure set rpl.checksum.change=2 (this setting checks the integrity of every changelist, but only writes to the log if there is an error.)
p4 configure set rpl.checksum.table=1 (this setting instructs replicas to verify table integrity on scan or unload operations, but only writes to the log if there is an error.)
Valid settings for rpl.checksum.auto
are:
|
Database tables checked with every journal rotation |
---|---|
|
No checksums are performed. |
|
Verify only the most important system and revision tables:
|
|
Verify all database tables from level 1, plus:
|
|
Verify all metadata, including metadata that is likely to differ, especially when comparing an upstream server with a build-farm or edge-server replica. |
Valid settings for rpl.checksum.change
are:
|
Verification performed with each changelist |
---|---|
|
Perform no verification. |
|
Write a journal note when a p4 submit,
p4 fetch, p4 populate,
p4 push, or p4 unzip
command completes. The value of the
|
|
Replica verifies changelist summary, and writes to
|
|
Replica verifies changelist summary, and writes to integrity log even when the changelist does match. |
Valid settings for rpl.checksum.table
are:
|
Level of table verification performed |
---|---|
|
Table-level checksumming only. |
|
When a table is unloaded or scanned, journal notes are
written. These notes are processed by the replica and are
logged to |
|
When a table is unloaded or scanned, journal notes are written, and the results of journal note processing are logged even if the results match. |
For more information, see p4 help journaldbchecksums.
Warnings, notes, and limitations
The following warnings, notes, and limitations apply to all configurations unless otherwise noted.
-
On master servers, do not reconfigure these replica settings while the replica is running:
-
P4TARGET
-
dm.domain.accessupdate
-
dm.user.accessupdate
-
-
Be careful not to inadvertently write to the replica's database. This might happen by using an
-r
option without specifying the full path (and mistakingly specifying the current path), by removing db files inP4ROOT
, and so on. For example, when using the p4d -r . -jc command, make sure you are not currently in the root directory of the replica or standby in which p4 journalcopy is writing journal files. -
Large numbers of "
Perforce password (P4PASSWD) invalid or unset
" errors in the replica log indicate that the service user has not been logged in or that theP4TICKETS
file is not writable.In the case of a read-only directory or
P4TICKETS
file, p4 login appears to succeed, but p4 login -s generates the "invalid or unset" error. Ensure that theP4TICKETS
file exists and is writable by the replica server. -
Client workspaces on the master and replica servers cannot overlap. Users must be certain that their
P4PORT
,P4CLIENT
, and other settings are configured to ensure that files from the replica server are not synced to client workspaces used with the master server, and vice versa. -
Replica servers maintain a separate table of users for each replica; by default, the p4 users command shows only users who have used that particular replica server. (To see the master server's list of users, use p4 users -c).
The advantage of having a separate user table (stored on the replica in
db.user.rp
) is that after having logged in for the first time, users can continue to use the replica without having to repeatedly contact the master server. -
All server IDs must be unique. The examples in the section Configuring a build farm server illustrate the use of manually-assigned names that are easy to remember, but in very large environments, there may be more servers in a build farm than is practical to administer or remember. Use the command p4 server -g to create a new server specification with a numeric Server ID. Such a Server ID is guaranteed to be unique.
Whether manually-named or automatically-generated, it is the responsibility of the system administrator to ensure that the Server ID associated with a server's p4 server form corresponds exactly with the
server.id
file created (and/or read) by the p4 serverid command. -
Users of P4V and forwarding replicas are urged to upgrade to P4V 2012.1 or higher. Perforce applications older than 2012.1 that attempt to use a forwarding replica can, under certain circumstances, require the user to log in twice to obtain two tickets: one for the first read (from the forwarding replica), and a separate ticket for the first write attempt (forwarded to the master) requires a separate ticket. This confusing behavior is resolved if P4V 2012.1 or higher is used.
-
Although replicas can be chained together as of Release 2013.1, (that is, a replica's
P4TARGET
can be another replica, as well as from a central server), it is the administrator's responsibility to ensure that no loops are inadvertently created in this process. Certain multi-level replication scenarios are permissible, but pointless; for example, a forwarding replica of a read-only replica offers no advantage because the read-only replica will merely reject all writes forwarded to it. Please contact Perforce technical support for guidance if you are considering a multi-level replica installation. -
The
rpl.compress
configurable controls whether compression is used on the master-replica connection(s). This configurable defaults to 0. Enabling compression can provide notable performance improvements, particularly when the master and replica servers are separated by significant geographic distances.Enable compression with: p4 configure set fwd-replica#rpl.compress=1