In 5.3.3 we released a Replication feature called FCR, or Forward Compatible Replication. Basically, FCR allows you to replicate to engines with a higher release version so you don't need to force upgrades across all your engines doing replication at once.
There are some rules to follow so that FCR works properly:
There are multiple reasons why our customers love this feature, and I would like to share some of the feedback from them here, for you to try. If you are using FCR already in a different use case, I'd love to hear it.
1. Flexible Upgrade Management. Once you have your Source Engines running 5.3.0, you can upgrade the target engines to 5.3.3 and keep your replication policies running normally. This approach gives you more time to plan upgrades and reduce overall risks.
2. New features tests. Want to know if the new Delphix engine version will solve a problem for you? or maybe you are willing to test a new feature released in a new version before your Delphix production engines get upgraded? Just upgrade or deploy the latest release in an engine (On-Premises, Cloud...your choice), replicate to it and test. Thanks, FCR!
3. Try an engine in the Cloud. Always wanted to try one engine in AWS, Azure or GCP but moving data from on-premises results in complex operations and time-consuming tasks? With FCR you can deploy our latest engine version in any Cloud, replicate a test database dSource from On-Premises and try.
Our roadmap is plenty of new Replication features coming in the next months. If you are willing to learn more or provide feedback, I am happy to chat about it.
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Alberto Sigismondi
Product Manager
Delphix
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