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Software Engineering vocabulary · Databases and Persistence

Replication

Meaning in software engineering, with examples

/ˌrɛplɪˈkeɪʃən/nounCore term

In software engineering, replication means: Keeping copies of the same database on several servers by sending every change from one server to the others, for safety and to share the load.

In Turkish: replikasyon, çoğaltma

How it is used

It can be synchronous (the primary waits for the replica) or asynchronous (faster, but the replica can fall behind; this delay is replication lag). Replication protects against server failure but not against mistakes: a wrong DELETE is copied to every replica, so backups are still needed.

Example sentences

  1. Replication to the second data center is asynchronous, so we may lose a few seconds of data.

  2. Replication broke last night and the replica is now two hours behind.

Common collocations

  • set up replication
  • replication lag
  • synchronous replication
  • asynchronous replication
  • logical replication
  • read replicaA copy of a database that receives changes from the main server and is used only for read queries, taking load off the primary.
  • failoverSwitching work from a failed primary database server to a standby or replica so that the application can keep running.
  • high availabilityDesigning a database system so that it keeps working with very little downtime, even if a server, disk or data center fails.
  • backupA copy of a database saved at a certain moment so that the data can be brought back after a failure, a mistake or an attack.
  • shardingSplitting one large dataset across several database servers, each holding a different part of the rows, so the system can grow beyond one machine.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

More terms: Databases and Persistence

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