Create a checkout replica

Available with Standard or Advanced license.

Checkout/check-in replication allows you to edit data in the child replica and synchronize these edits with the parent replica. When creating checkout replicas, the child replica can be either an enterprise or file geodatabase. See Replication types for more information.

You can use the Create Replica option Create Replica from the Distributed Data context menu to access the Create Replica tool from an enterprise geodatabase. Once a checkout replica is synchronized, it is unregistered. If additional edits are required, you must create a checkout/check-in replica.

Before getting started, see Prepare data for replication to review the data requirements. For a list of data types supported with geodatabase replication in ArcGIS Pro, see Replication and geodatabase compatibility.

Follow these steps to create a checkout replica:

  1. Start ArcGIS Pro and open an existing ArcGIS Pro project, or begin without a template.
  2. In the Catalog pane, right-click an existing geodatabase connection and click the Distributed Geodatabase context menu.

    Distributed Geodatabase context menu

    Note:

    To create a replica, you must use a traditional versioned connection to an enterprise geodatabase as a user with data creator privileges on the database.

  3. Select Create Replica Create Replica.

    Distributed Geodatabase context menu

    The Create Replica geoprocessing tool dialog box appears with default settings.

    Create Replica geoprocessing tool

  4. For Replica Datasets, use the browse button to select the layers to be replicated in this checkout replica.

    Replica Datasets drop-down menu

    Tip:
    • There must be at least one layer in the map for the Add Many icon Add Many to appear.
    • Use Add Many Add Many next to Replica Datasets to add multiple datasets at once.
    • If you are replicating a subset of data, apply definition queries as described in Determine datasets to replicate. Then use the drop-down menu to add datasets containing a subset of data to this one-way replica. If the browse button is used to select datasets containing a subset of data instead of the drop-down menu, the definition queries will not be honored, and the default behavior will be applied.
    • To include tables in your replica, it’s important to understand that the default behavior for tables is replicate schema only. To replicate all records, specify the SQL expression 1=1 for your definition query. To replicate a subset of records in your table, set the appropriate SQL expression.
  5. For Replica Type, select Check out replica from the drop-down menu.

    Replica Type

  6. For Geodatabase to replicate data to, click the browse button Browse to browse to the geodatabase that will host the child replica. This geodatabase can be a file or enterprise geodatabase.
    Tip:

    If the file geodatabase doesn’t already exist, you can create a file geodatabase directly from the browse button that opens the Geodatabase to replicate data to dialog box:

    1. Under Project, select Folders.

    2. Select a folder where the file geodatabase will be stored.

    3. Use the New Item menu, select File Geodatabase.

  7. For Replica Name, type a name to identify the replica. The name of each replica must be unique to the user creating the replica.
    When deciding on a replica name, make note of these additional rules:
    • Names must begin with a letter, not a number or special character such as an asterisk (*) or percent sign (%).
    • Names should not contain spaces. If you have a two-part name for your replica, connect the words with an underscore (_).
    • Names should not contain reserved words, such as select or add. Consult your DBMS documentation for additional reserved words.
    • The length of a replica's name depends on the underlying database. Be sure to consult your DBMS documentation for maximum name lengths.
    See Name and Alias for more information regarding rules for geodatabase objects.
  8. Click Advanced Setting to expand additional options if you want to override the replication default options. If you are not making any change to the default options, skip to step 15.

    Advanced Setting in the Create Replica tool

  9. Under Advanced Setting, for Replica Access Type, choose Full or Simple for the geodatabase model.
  10. From Expand Feature Classes and Tables, select one of the following four options:
    • Use defaults—Adds the expanded feature classes and tables related to the feature classes and tables in the replica. The default for feature classes is to replicate all features intersecting the spatial filter. If no spatial filter has been provided, all features are included. The default for tables is to replicate the schema only.
    • Add with schema only—Adds only the schema for the expanded feature classes and tables.
    • All rows—Adds all rows for expanded feature classes and tables.
    • Do not add—Doesn't add expanded feature classes and tables.
  11. For Re-use Schema, choose from one of the two available options, Reuse or Do not reuse, which is the default setting.

    The Reuse schema option creates a replica using a template, allowing you to reuse a geodatabase that contains the schema of the data you want to replicate. This reduces the amount of time required to replicate the data.

    The Reuse schema option first deletes any data currently in the schema you specify, then repopulates it with the data specified for replication. By creating an empty schema, you avoid deleting data from the existing dataset when you use it to create a schema.

    Another advantage to using an empty schema is that it takes less time, since the existing contents do not have to be deleted first.

    Note:

    This option is available for checkout replicas only and can only be performed when replicating to a file geodatabase.

  12. For Replicate Related Data, choose Get related or Do not get related to specify whether to replicate rows related to rows already in the replica. Get related is the default setting.
    Note:

    See Replication and related data to learn more about how this setting works when replicating data.

  13. Replica Geometry Features can be used to define the replica geometry:
    • The replica geometry features can be a feature layer with points, lines, or polygons.
    • A feature layer used for the replica geometry features can contain one or more features. If there are more than one, the geometries are merged, and only data that intersects the merged geometries will be replicated.
    • If filters (such as definition query) have been defined on the replica geometry features, only features that satisfy these filters will be used to define the replica geometry.
    • You can also use the Extent environment setting to define the replica geometry:
      • If Replica Geometry Features is set, it will be used as the replica geometry.
      • If Replica Geometry Features is not set, the Extent environment is used as the replica geometry.
      • If both Replica Geometry Features and the Extent environment are set, the Replica Geometry Features setting is used.
      • If neither Replica Geometry Features nor the Extent environment is specified, the full extent of the data is used.
  14. Optionally, check Register existing data only if the data already exists in the child geodatabase and is used to define the replica datasets. If Register existing data only is not checked, which is the default, data in the parent geodatabase is copied to the child geodatabase.
    Register existing data only option located on the Create Replica geoprocessing tool

    Note:
    See Register existing data only for a list of additional geodatabase replication requirements that must be met prior to selecting this option on the Create Replica geoprocessing tool.

  15. Click Run to create the checkout replica.

    Note:

    Optionally, you can click the Run drop-down menu and select Schedule Run to run the tool at a later date and time and optionally with recurrence.

    Schedule Run

    Learn more about scheduling geoprocessing tools

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