What is a replication package in AGOL?

[MaryWindsor1]

What exactly is a replication package (.crpk) as shown in ArcGIS Online or can I be pointed to any documentation on it?

I saw the permissions on this were automatically set so only I can see it...does it need to be shared with the public or groups so those uses can see the data published from portal in ArcGIS Online?

My guess is it has something to do with the collaboration and sync between portal and ArcGIS Online.

Thanks!

[David]

I'm surprised how little is written about replication packages. If you have access to the portal logs, it might reveal why that package was created. I am trying to find out the same thing. It might have to do with the amount of data copied from Enterprise to Online.

[ArchitSrivastava1]

Hello @Mary Windsor,

Your guess is correct the replication package (.crpk) is created by Distributed Collaboration. Replication items in the ArcGIS Platform are used for replicating data from one device or environment to another.

Most commonly they occur when part of a Collaboration when syncing between different portals/ArcGIS Online.

Example – If a Portal was configured as part of a Collaboration with an ArcGIS Online organization portal the Replication Packages are used to transfer data between the two.

In most circumstances, these packages are transferred in the background and will never see the replication packages appear in the content within a portal. If a Collaboration is removed Replication Packages can be left as a method of delete prevention. We are working on documentation to explain the details of CRPK files.

[BrianFausel]

It appears to me that these replication packages are created and left in AGOL when there is a failure in the synchronization, can anyone confirm this? At least that is one way they are created. There were a bunch created in our AGOL account this weekend (in our primary admin account's root folder), and when I checked our Portal logs there were various synchronization failures. Each failure correspond to a replication package on AGOL. I'm guessing in our case it might be a network problem because the layer being synched is not being actively updated -- it is a test layer. But the sync continues to run every hour. The replication packages don't appear to be created when a sync is successful.

I assume it is safe to delete these, as long as a successful sync happens after the last failure? In our case, we have had multiple successful syncs after the last error.

Here are some of the error messages I saw in Portal log viewer (bi-directional collaboration is set up and the errors reflect this):

The downloading of peer replication package on portal with id '{ID}' failed.

A scheduled job synchronizing items of collaboration '{collaboration}', '{ID}' and collaboration workspace '{ID}' with participant '{ID}' has failed.

The import of replication package on portal with id '{ID}' failed.

[KevinChristy1]

Hey Brian,

Have you deleted these? If so, what effect did it have?

[KevinChristy1]

Actually, I just answered my own question. The following article outlines what you can do:

Problem: Replication packages files (.crpk) used for distributed collaboration remain in the portal ... 

[ODWC_GIS]

Was there ever any documentation written to explain the .CRPK files?

I'm looking at 9 of them that were created about 4 years ago. Two of the files say they were updated this year, but I don't know how nor why.  It looks like the only thing I can do with them is "share" them.

What's the worst that could happen if I were to try to delete them?

[MaryWindsor1]

The problem I am having the replicas are with the orphaned replicas. They seem to prevent the database from compressing which datasets are referenced from. Ideally I wanted to reference datasets in Portal and copy them over to AGOL from a collaboration, but then orphaned replicas keep happening.