Some systems just can’t be taken offline. Whether your enterprise organization is in finance, government, defense, or just around-the-clock ecommerce, some backend architectures are too mission-critical to be down for maintenance – or worse, because something breaks. In these cases, always on isn’t just an aspiration, but a requirement.

And yet, database maintenance, upgrades, and (unfortunately) failures are a reality of day-to-day data management. Unless you have the tools and plans in place to keep your database up and running around the clock, then always on is just wishful thinking.

If you’re using a graph database like ONgDB, GraphGrid Fuze can help you turn that always-on wish into reality.

As part of GraphGrid, Fuze provides integration services to distribute, route, and transform transactional event data from ONgDB to trigger dynamic workers for graph processing, searching, indexing, and machine learning processes. GraphGrid Fuze has five components: Distributor, ONgDB Writer/Reader, Trigger Manager, and Worker.

Last week, we took a closer look at Fuze Distributor. In this blog post, we’ll cover how Fuze Replication keeps your graph database – and the larger context of your connected data platform – running (no matter what).

How GraphGrid Fuze Replication Works

GraphGrid Fuze is the perfect data replication tool for any always-online system, because your data tier experiences zero downtime. If you need to update or restore a database without taking it offline – and you can’t do a rolling upgrade – then Fuze Replication helps you get the job done.

Fuze Replication primarily handles load from data redundancy. If one of your databases goes down, a second database can capture changes in the graph and then replicate those changes to the downed-database once it’s brought up again. Fuze Replication is bidirectional, so if you need to bring either database down you can do so.

For instance, if you wanted to update to the latest version of ONgDB, you could do so without any downtime. While your first database is offline for the update, your second database listens for new data and replicates what it captures to the first database once it’s back online.

Fuze Replication can also replicate targeted graph data between clusters. One use case of this capability would be compliance with data privacy regulations for data that originates in the EU. Specific user data in EU clusters is not allowed to leave the region and can’t be replicated to the U.S., but other non-user data in your graph database might be ripe for replication to a U.S.-based analytics system.

It’s important to note that if Fuze Replication hasn’t been set up, then data already in your graph might not be replicated. You should use bidirectional replication for planned downtime and for data replication of any new or targeted data.

How to Get Started with Bidirectional Data Replication

GraphGrid Fuze Replication uses policies from both the ONgDB Writer/Reader and Trigger Manager components to achieve bidirectional data replication.

You’ll need to save and activate two different ONgDB Writer policies. One policy listens for `txData` from your first graph database, and the other policy does the same for your second database. These Writer policies also set up the message broker endpoints that the `txData` will be sent to. A Fuze Trigger Policy then ensures that the triggers needed for replication exist on both ONgDB instances.

To continue the setup process, dive into the Fuze Replication tutorial for beginners in the GraphGrid documentation.

Conclusion

If you have a mission-critical system that simply can’t be taken offline, you need the right services in place to make sure your graph database remains up and running no matter what – especially in the face of catastrophe. With GraphGrid Fuze, you have the data replication capabilities you need to ensure your database stays online while still keeping up with system maintenance, migrations, upgrades, and other operational necessities.

Because when achieving your mission depends on 24×7 access to real-time data, the last thing you want to hear is that the system is down. GraphGrid Fuze helps you avoid that worst-case scenario and turn always on into a reality.

Don’t just take our word for it!

Try out GraphGrid and test out Fuze Replication for yourself.