Introduction
Files conflicts can occur for the following reasons:
| 1. | Two or more users open a file at the same time before all files can be locked down by the file collaboration session. |
| 2. | A file is already opened by a user when a file collaboration session is started and the file size and timestamp does not match the other target hosts. |
| 3. | A file is already opened by two or more users when a file collaboration session is started. |
| 4. | A general I/O failure occurs on the Source Host after the file has been modified, and before the file is synchronized to all Target Hosts. In this case, the file will automatically be quarantined. |
When a file conflict is detected the file is placed in the File Conflict list with a specific status which will determine how the conflict is resolved. The 3 possible file conflict statuses along with their resolution strategies are as follows:
Conflict Status |
Resolution Strategy |
||||||
Pending Conflict Resolution |
This status will be assigned to files that have already been verified or synchronized by session via the initial synchronization process. When all files in use are closed by users on the source hosts, the files will be analyzed to determine if a file conflict has occurred as follows:
|
||||||
Pending Initial Synchronization |
This status will be assigned to files that have not been verified or synchronized by session via the initial synchronization process. When all files in use are closed by users on the source hosts, then standard file conflict resolution will be performed based on the configured File Conflict Resolvers. |
||||||
Quarantined |
A file will be quarantined when a file conflict with "Pending Conflict Resolution" status cannot be resolved or a fatal I/O error occurs. Quarantined files will need to be explicitly removed from the File Conflict list. |
When a file conflict occurs the status will be set to Pending Conflict Resolution if the file has already been verified or synchronized by the initial synchronization process, otherwise the file conflict status will be set to Pending Initial Synchronization. If the conflict is a result of a fatal I/O error on the source then the file conflict status will be set to Quarantined.
NOTE: If a file collaboration session is stopped before a file conflict with a status of Pending Conflict Resolution is resolved, then that file will automatically be quarantined the next time the file collaboration session is started.
Quarantined Files
Once a file is marked as Quarantined, the file will no longer participate in collaboration, and thus changes to any version of the file will not be propagated to other hosts. However, subsequent file activity on a quarantined file will be logged in the event log as a warning, so you can determine who modified the file while it was quarantined. Quarantined files are saved to disk and will survive session restarts. The File Conflict list displays the time and date of the quarantine along with an error message indicating the reason for the quarantine (see below). A Quarantined File event is also logged in the Event Log, and you can obtain a more detailed reason for the quarantine by analyzing the Event Log file(s). In addition, if Email Alerts are configured and enabled for File Quarantined alerts, then an alert email will be sent.
Removing a file from Quarantine
You must explicitly remove a file from quarantine in order to have it participate in the collaboration session again. To remove a file from quarantine, select the file in the File Conflict list, and then select the host with the correct version and press the Release Conflict button. After doing this all hosts are checked to make sure the file is not currently locked by anybody, and if so, then locks are obtained on all versions of the file, and the targets that are out-of-date are synchronized with the selected source host. You may also chose to perform no action, in which case the file is removed from the File Conflict list but none of the file versions are modified; therefore if the files are not currently in-sync, then the next time the file is modified, changes will be propagated to the other hosts. If an error occurs while removing the file conflict, then the Status field in the File Conflict table is updated to reflect the error.
You may also select multiple files to remove from conflict list in one operation.
