Hi people,

I have a project in which we have data on a MySQL server. We want to get this data up to an Oracle server on a separate network that sits behind a firewall. The two databases are a few hundered kilometers/miles apart and have the option of either a satelite network or dial-up connection.

It was originally proposed that the MySQL database should be replicated (using MySQL replication) to another MySQL database in the same building as the Oracle database, and then the Oracle database should make a hetrogenous connection to the MySQL database in the building and pull the data out using PL/SQL. I assumed that the satellite network would have sufficient bandwidth to support the MySQL replication and thought it would solve any connection/latency problems that could arrise over the satelite network. This has not yet been tested due to internal politics.

Now the sys admin is saying that they dont like the satelite network and we must use a 56kbps dial-up connection (If I am lucky I could get a 128kbps ISDN). So the question is....can I still use MySQL replication over such dial-up connections?

I know all of you people in the US and EU have reasonable connections, but this solution is required in the back end of Africa....So der is no fone hya :P...

Ok...its not that bad, but you get the idea.... ADSL is like the new thing (only the elite can afford it over here, costing around 10% of the average persons salary per month)

In summary, how low can the bandwidth go? ...before MySQL replication stops working? Should I be concerned about latency?

hmmm...i've never thought about that before...i'm not sure if the mysql would disconnect you if you were transferring the results of a query over a network connection...you may want to check the docs on that (see how using odbc may affect it, also the values of connection timeout related variables).

Another option may be to dump the database send it as a .sql or csv file and then import it on the new machine. Considering it's going to take a while to send information over the network anyways, this may not be a horrible idea. Especially if it turns out that timeouts will be a problem.