Replication and raster data

This topic applies to ArcGIS for Desktop Standard and ArcGIS for Desktop Advanced only.

Raster catalogs, raster datasets and mosaic datasets cannot be versioned in ArcGIS for Desktop and, therefore, cannot be replicated. However, the Create Replica wizard will extract a raster dataset, raster catalog or mosaic dataset from the source geodatabase if it is in the ArcMap document. Since the data is extracted, any edits made to the raster will not be transferred to the relative replica during synchronization.

The spatial extent of the replication area is used to determine the portion of the raster to extract. For raster datasets, the data is clipped to the spatial extent. For raster catalogs and mosaic datasets, the entire raster dataset is extracted for each raster dataset intersecting the spatial extent. Once you've extracted data to the child, you may need to calculate statistics for the raster dataset and raster catalog before you can display their imagery.

With mosaic datasets, an external reference to the raster datasets inside the mosaic is copied when the target replica is in an ArcSDE geodatabase. If the files referenced by the mosaic dataset are not accessible by the target geodatabase, because of network connectivity, permissions, and so forth, the you will need to copy those files to an accessible location and reset the references in the target geodatabase.

When the target replica is a file or personal geodatabase, the raster datasets are copied.

If a table or feature class in a geodatabase has a field of type raster, the default behavior for replication is applied. As long as the table is versioned, and the connected user has permissions to edit the table, the field will be replicated.