Data Transfer Best Practice Guide

MsLS has recently released a new Best Practice Guide on Datat Transfer with GL ShipManager. We’ve added this Best Practice Guide to the Quick Reference Guides folder in your Workspace (My Downloads) in the GL ShipManager Customer Portal on the MsLS website. This Best Practice Guide on Data Transfer can be downloaded as a PDF.

The GL ShipManager system is installed as a Board system (on the vessel) and an Office system. The Board system consists of at least one computer on which the GL ShipManager software and a database specific for the individual ship are installed. The Office system is set up in a similar manner; however, the Office system contains all data of each individual ship.

In order to ensure that users of the system in the office and users onboard the respective ships are working with the same data - i.e. the same data are present in the Office system and Board system - the databases must be synchronized. The process of ensuring the consistency of data in both counterpart systems (Board and Office) is referred to as data transfer, database synchronization, or data replication.

The Data Transfer module of GL ShipManager fulfils this purpose. Although the creator of GL ShipManager has taken great efforts to automate procedures to the greatest extent possible, the process of database synchronization can not occur correctly without proper user interaction. If the user fails to carry out the data transfer process correctly, this could result in inconsistencies between the data in the Board and Office systems.

This Best Practice Guide aims to provide an understanding of the principles and philosophy involved in the process of database synchronization. We strongly recommend users to become familiar with these principles and philosophy in order to ensure the consistency of data maintained in the GL ShipManager system.