On Fri, May 2, 2014 at 3:32 PM, Yuksel Pinarbasi <yukselp@gmail.com> wrote:
First question: Does the database need to be local to both locations? Could you use a front-end that connects to the same backend database from both campuses? (Like a web front end?) That's your easiest solution.
Main concern is to be able to continue to work during a network failure. Internet connections are not very reliable in the area.
Next question is *if* that's not acceptable, do both locations need to be able to modify the database?
Yes
Going with your above description, and assuming there isn't a way to simplify your requirements, the page above points to the Bucardo project as a solution you'll want to look at: <http://bucardo.org/wiki/Bucardo>
Thanks, my online research pointed me to the same direction also.
You're going down a rather complex path, especially for someone new to full RDBMS systems. Multi-master (as this is frequently called) is one of the most difficult problems to solve in database administration. A poor network between the two locations is going to make it even more difficult to manage. The conflict resolution for both sites editing the same data is more complex of a problem than I think you realize right now. If there's any chance you can stick with a single, more reliable offsite location that both locations can access, I'd highly recommend starting there, perhaps in Amazon EC2 or RDS. Then one site being down isn't a bottleneck to the other.