Hibernate version:
3.05

Name and version of the database you are using:
Multiple - so sequence support cannot be assumed

I am building distributed system with separate databases, same structure, that need to be combined into a larger database. However, each will be detached from the larger database most of the time. I have no legacy data so am interested in letting Hibernate manage all keys, etc.

I am using a long id, so I had envisioned simply starting the keys at different values, such as 100 million, 200 million, etc, so that the id would never clash between distributed systems, but replication would work properly to and from the central database. Sequences would seem the best approach, but our main database is SQl Server, which does not support sequences, and I want to remain portable.

I cannot find a relatively simple way to do this and am asking if someone can point me in the right direction.

Thank you in advance.

- Mike

http://www.hibernate.org/hib_docs/v3/reference/en/html/mapping.html#mapping-declaration-id-generator

try guid or uuid . you won't need to worry about id collisions because there aren't that many atoms in the universe.

Thanks. Much better solution than where I was aimed before!