ANSWER:

As per our comment thread above:

Having a MySQL server instance on every client is a bit overkill. There is a couple of problems with this approach.

1. The installations and configuring is going to be a nightmare.
2. Maintenance of the database server is also going to be problematic. Backups, security and maintenance of the servers will now require a DBA to go to the clients.

You would need to look at a embedded solution. Some solutions might be SQLLite, SQL CE and even good old Berkley DB. If the information stored on the client is not that relational in nature and you dont require ACID compliant databases you might want to look at storing it is in plain old text files or even XML files.

Essentially you are working on a disconnected record set model. Where connection to a server is not required for the application to work. C# does allow you to store record sets in XML files. You might for example have one central MySQL server download the records to the client application and let the client work on the records locally.

When the client has completed its work then you can (if the network is available) post these changes back to the MySQL server.

The bad news is that is going to take a effort to do this. It wont be major rework but wont be minor as well.

by Namphibian from http://stackoverflow.com/questions/11117031