A mechanism includes receiving, at a local node, a Hello message including an application identifier (AppId) and a target link between a target port for a local node and target port for a neighbor node. The local node determines the AppId is associated with an application for performing database synchronization. The local node sets up a local database in memory at the local node as part of a database pair for use by the application, the database pair including a neighbor database at the neighbor node. The local node associates the database pair with the target link. The local node controls synchronization of the local database with the neighbor database via the target link.