Replicate Active Directory Data to Multiple Databases

Always-on applications rely on automatic failover capabilities and real-time access to data. CData Sync integrates live Active Directory data into your mirrored databases, always-on cloud databases, and other databases such as your reporting server: Automatically synchronize with remote Active Directory data from Windows.

Configure Replication Destinations

Using CData Sync, you can replicate Active Directory data to any number of databases, both cloud-based and on-premises. To add a replication destination, navigate to the Connections tab.

For each destination database:

1. Click Add Connection.
2. Select a destination. In this article, we use SQLite.
3. Enter the necessary connection properties. To replicate Active Directory to a SQLite database, enter a file path in the Data Source box.
4. Click Test Connection to ensure that the connection is configured properly.
5. Click Save Changes.

Configure the Active Directory Connection

You can configure a connection to Active Directory from the Connections tab. To add a connection to your Active Directory account, navigate to the Connections tab.

1. Click Add Connection.
2. Select a source (Active Directory).
3. Configure the connection properties.
   
   

   To establish a connection, set the following properties:

   • Valid User and Password credentials (e.g., Domain\BobF or cn=Bob F,ou=Employees,dc=Domain).
   • Server information, including the IP or host name of the Server, as well as the Port.

   • BaseDN: This will limit the scope of LDAP searches to the height of the distinguished name provided.

     Note: Specifying a narrow BaseDN may greatly increase performance; for example, cn=users,dc=domain will only return results contained within cn=users and its children.

4. Click Connect to ensure that the connection is configured properly.
5. Click Save Changes.

Configure Replication Queries

CData Sync enables you to control replication with a point-and-click interface and with SQL queries. For each replication you wish to configure, navigate to the Jobs tab and click Add Job. Select the Source and Destination for your replication.

Replicate Entire Tables

To replicate an entire table, click Add Tables in the Tables section, choose the table(s) you wish to replicate, and click Add Selected Tables.

Customize Your Replication

You can use a SQL query to customize your replication. The REPLICATE statement is a high-level command that caches and maintains a table in your database. You can define any SELECT query supported by the Active Directory API. To customize your replication, click Add Custom Query in the Tables section and define the Query Statement.

The statement below caches and incrementally updates a table of Active Directory data:

REPLICATE User;

You can specify a file containing the replication queries you want to use to update a particular database. Separate replication statements with semicolons. The following options are useful if you are replicating multiple Active Directory accounts into the same database:

• Use a different table prefix in the REPLICATE SELECT statement:

  REPLICATE PROD_User SELECT * FROM User;

• Alternatively, use a different schema:

  REPLICATE PROD.User SELECT * FROM User;

Schedule Your Replication

In the Schedule section, you can schedule a job to run automatically, configuring the job to run after specified intervals ranging from once every 10 minutes to once every month.

Once you have configured the replication job, click Save Changes. You can configure any number of jobs to manage the replication of your Active Directory data to disparate on-premises, cloud-based, and other databases.