How does synchronization actually work? Does the synchronization service synchronize changes to the master repository made by manually editing a configuration file, for example, using Notepad?
Both the node agent and deployment manager keep a calculated digest for each file in the configuration they manage (master cell repository managed by deployment manager, local node repository managed by node agent). These digest values are stored in memory. Also stored in memory are “epochs” for the folders in the repository and for the repository overall. These epochs are used to determine whether any files in the directory have changed. If a change to a configuration file is made through the administration programs (Administration console, wsadmin, or other), then the overall repository epoch and the epoch for the folder in which that file resides is modified. During configuration synchronization operations, if the repository epoch has changed since the previous synchronization operation, then individual folder epochs will be compared. If the epochs for corresponding node and cell directories do not match, then the digests for all files in the directory are recalculated, including th
