Do I Really Need A Snapshot (to Initialize Transactional Replication, In SQL2000)?
Feb 20, 2006
I have a pretty big (350 gb) OLTP database that I want to replicate in its entirety. I'm concerned about the impact of taking a snapshot of it (it is processing at some level pretty much 24x7). I know on SQL2005 there is the option to initialize from backup, but unfortunately we won't be on 2005 in time.
I'm thinking of doing something like this:
Set up the distributor, publication, and subscription
Turn off distribution agent
Set the publisher to "sync with backup"
Backup the publisher, full then log
Truncate tables MSrepl_transactions and MSrepl_commands in the distribution db (I don't have any other replication going on)
Turn off "sync with backup"
Restore the full and tran log backups to new subscriber db
Create subscriber stored procs in subscriber
Start up distribution agent
I'm looking for opinions on whether it's worth going this route to avoid taking the snapshot. Data integrity is the number one priority -- if I have to do a snapshot to ensure that, I will do it.
I am developing a system using SQL Server replication between SQL Server EXPRESS 2005 clients and SQL Server 2005 servers. I initialize the replica databases with a script, then I do not want to initilize the subscriber with the snapshot; I configure each subscriber to "not initilize", but when I run the first synchronization the snapshot copy process is always is executed.
Maybe am I forgetting something? Can I use this SQL Server EXPRESS - SQL Server replication scheme without initialize the subscribers with the snapshot? Thaks for reading!
I've set up Transactional replication Pushed from SQL 7 to SQL 2000. All works fine accept I have noticed that the snapshot agent is running once a week and storing a lot of data I don't really need in c:msql7 epldataunc eplicationnamedatastamp. This is gradually building up and as C is a smallish partition it'll only survive for another week.
My questions are: 1) Can the Snapshot schedule be disabled? I'm under the impression that it's only required when a new subscriber comes along which is never! If I do need a new subscriber I could just manually produce another snapshot.
2) Can I delete the previous snapshot folders under ReplData? On a development server I renamed one of the folders and the ground didn't open up below my feet.
3) What effect would changing the working folder used by the distribution agen have, the distributer is on the publisher (which as I mentioned is pushing) I've tried changing the working folder, on a development server, I manually ran a snapshot which whose BCP files all ended up in my new location and the Transactional Replication didn't seem to care.
I've looked in a few places for a difinitive answer and I'm not having much luck so any help (preferably before saturday) would be greatly appreciated.
I am in the process of setting up replication between two SQL boxes - the first being the production SQL Server and the second being a secondary server which is to be used as part of a web portal solution. (In fact there are two pairs of SQL boxes - SQL 7 and SQL 2k, one of each on the LAN and one of each at the hosting site.)
We need to have near realtime replication, so transactional replication is the desired mechanism. The trouble is that not all tables have primary keys defined. Oh yes, and the main database is 20G in size and has >900 user tables! :-0 (The other databases are much better behaved!)
When I set up transactional replication, I am allowed only to include tables which have PKs defined. AFAIK, the initial transactional replication snapshot will also only include these same tables.
If I set up snapshot replication (separately), I can include all the tables in the database. However, I cannot then replicate in real time.
Can I combine the two replication schemes to deliver updates to the same target database: - transactional replication delivering realtime updates to the tables with PKs during the day and - snapshot replication updating all the tables once per 24hrs at night?
Or is there a better way of doing this?
I am not sure whether I can modify the existing schemas, as some of the databases are 'maintained' by an external provider. Even if I could, if I had to add a column to have a PK, I would potentially be adding to my diskspace requirement rather significantly...
Why would you schedule a Snapshot Agent to run daily, weekly, monthly, etc. for Transactional replication when the transactions are replicated once the change is committed to the Publication database?
Does this help to replicate DDL against the Subscriber?
When you create a transactional Replication.Is there a way to disable to snapshot agent scheduler. I believe that there is a way to disble it when you create a publisher.
We are running transactional replication in a high volume environment and we are starting to see high IO on the distribution database when the distribution cleanup runs. We only build the snapshot once a week and I was wondering if I rebuilt the snapshot more often it would reduce the size of the distribution database and the amount of IO that are being generated during the cleanup?
Hi, I have transactional replication setup with SQL 2000 on W2K3 cluster using updateable push subscribers. While setting up replication, we chose default location for snapshot folder that resides on non-clustered drive. Is there a way to change this location without disturbing current replication setup. I looked at the 'alternate snapshot location' solution, but it requires snapshot re-initialization. I am trying to do this with minimal effort and downtime. Thanks, np70
I have transactional replication running. I would like the Snapshot Agent to run regularly (once per day, probably, at 23:00) so that the target data are completely refreshed so that there is little possibility of the target getting out of sync.
The Snapshot Agent's job is kicking off OK, but the "snapshot was not generated because no subscriptions needed initialization". I know I can initialise the subscriptions manually - is there a way to do this so that the initialisation happens just before the snapshot job launches?
SQL Server 2005 Books Online provides an article entitled, "Initializing a Transactional Subscription without a Snapshot". Is it possible in SQL Server 2000 to initialize transactional replication without a snapshot?
So far, I have been unable to find a similar procedure mentioned in the SQL 2000 Books Online. I was able to follow the 2005 procedure using SQL 2000 until I got to the step that says to enable the "Allow initialization from backup files" option on the "Subscription Options" tab of the "Publication Properties" dialog. But that option does not appear in the SQL 2000 version of the specified dialog box.
I built a number of publications on a SQL Server 2005 box to replicate to a SQL Server 2012 subscriber. All the publications except one are fine. During the snapshot phase of schema script generation I get Script Failed for Table 'dbo.MediaDisplayLibraryFileData'. From the Replication monitor for the Snapshot Agent on the Publication I get, "Column FileData in object MediaDisplayLibraryFileData contains type VarBinaryMax, which is not supported in the target server version, SQL Server 2000." This message makes no sense since the target server version is 2012. I have even checked that the compatibility level was set to 110 before I started the process of setting up replication. How do I resolve this error?
We have a large database with a small number of large tables in it (and a larger number of SMALLER tables), and it is a publisher for a transactional replication scenario. When I create a snapshot to initialize a new subscription, I notice with the larger tables that sometimes it generates multiple files in the snapshot folder, usually in multiples of 16, and numbers them like this:
With other tables, I'll get just one LARGE snapshot file, named:
MyOtherTable_4.bcp
In the latter case, the file can be very large (most recent is 38GB).
In both cases, the subscription will eventually be initialized, but the smaller files will generate separate log entries every few minutes in the Replication Monitor, showing 'Bulk Copied data into 'MyTable' (34231221 rows)', whereas the larger table will generate only ONE log entry, showing 'Bulk coping data into table 'MyOtherTable', and it may take a couple of hours before there is anything else showing...except for an entry saying, 'The process is running and is waiting for a response from the server.'
My question is: what would be the difference between the two tables that would result in one generating MULTIPLE snapshot files, the other only a single, much larger one? The only difference I can see in the table definition is that the one generating multiple files has a clustered index, whereas the others do not.
We have setup transactional replication between 2 databases on SQL Server 2000 SP3a (~70GB), using a concurrent snapshot (to prevent locking out of the live database) to initilaise the data and a pull subscription from the second database.
From analysing the msdistribution_history table in the distribution database on the subscriber it appears that the snapshot is being applied in a continuous loop to the subscriber database. Viewing the comments column in the msdistribution_history table we can see the following sequence of events occuring
Initialising Applied script 'snapshot.pre' Then it applies all the schema files .sch Then it applies all the index files .idx The it bulk copies the data in (bcp) Then it creates the Primary Keys Then it applies all the trigger files .trg Then it applies all the referential integrity files .dri
These all complete successfully but then the process kicks off again immediately after reapplying the snapshot. We are unaware of any settings that may be causing this.
Any help on what maybe causing this would be much appreciated.
There is a SQL Server 2008 R2 SP3 Clustered Instance that has Transactional Replication. It is by no means a large replication setup in terms of data/article count. SQL Server was recently patched to SP3 and is current on Windows 2008 R2 Patches.
When I added a new article to replication (via 2014 SSMS GUI) it seems to add everything correctly (replication tables/procs show the new article as part of the publication). The Publication is set to allow the snapshot to generate for just new articles (setting immediate_sync & allow_anonymous to false).
When the snapshot agent is run, it runs without error and claims to have generated a snapshot of 1 article. However the snapshot folder only contains a folder for the instance (that does have the modified time of the snapshot agent execution) and none of the regular bcp/schema files.
The tables never make it to the subscribers and replication continues on without error for the existing articles. No agents produce any errors and running the snapshot agent w/ verbose output provides no errors or insight into any possible issues.
I have tried:
- dropping/re-adding the article in question.
- Setting up a new Snapshot Folder
- Validated all the settings and configurations
I'm hesitant to reinitialize a subscriber since I am not confident a snapshot can be generated. Also wondering if this is related to the SP3 Upgrade, every few months new articles are added to the publication and this is the first time since the upgrade to SP3 that it has been done.
Hence you have a database which huge tables and a transactional replication (push subscriptions).
Now my question:
1. if I have to initialize a snapshot but I would like to do it without the snapshot agent, what methods are available?
2. Usually the distribution agent will request an initialize snapshot. How can I tell him, that I would like to use an alternative method and that the distribution agent should NOT request a snapshot?
3. Any suggestions about a good practive for materializing huge and big tables wihtout using the disitrbution agent (e.g. "switch off" replication, bcp table out of the primary site and bcp it into the target site, "start" distribution agent so that it doesn't request a snapshot).
I am unable to get my snapshot agent to initialize. When I start the "View Snapshot Agent Status" and press the Start button, it appears that the snapshot agent attempts to starts and then it doesn't.
I have configured the a distribution server and need to push a replication to another database, both can connect, etc.
I used the wizard to configure the distributon server and subscription server. I am using AdventureWorks, and am attempting to replicate a single small table.
I have been trying to set up transactional replication between an OLTP SQL Server 2005 Standard edition server and a BI SQL Server 2005 Enterprise edition server. I am using a pull subscription. I was able to establish the replication from the developement server to the BI server however when I tried setting up the replication between the production environment and the BI server, using the same configuration settings, I ran into a problem. The production server had been renamed after it was initially set up. I used the sp_dropserver and sp_addserver to solve this issue and was able to run the replication wizard. However once the wizard finishes the snapshot agent doesn't initialize the publication. When I look at the replication monitor it has a status of "never run". I try to run it manually and it appears to run for a few seconds then stops and still has the status of "never run". I don't get any error messages and can't find anything in the log. I am wondering if this is related to the server rename? I am hoping to find a soultion that doesn't involve uninstalling SQL Server and reinstalling since this is a production environment.
I have automated process, which synchronizes a transactional publication using initialize from backup approach. It drops subscriptions and puts them back again once the restore on the subscriber is completed.
Dropping the subscriptions causes a lot of blocking and deadlocking. I've decided to remove those steps, but it causes loss of data on the subscriber.
Is it a must to drop and re-create the subscriptions during such process? If not, how can I avoid the loss of data?
I am very new to SQL coming from a SAS background.
I work at a College where I am trying to create a table that basically stores application data so that I can record how many applications we had on a set day.
For example I want to run it say bi-weekly and create a date/time stamp for each row and then the next time it runs it appends to the original table but with the new date/time stamp.
I have managed to create the table and the date/time stamp but I'm not sure how to do the next stage.
This is not the best practice as the table will get "big" quite quickly (although we're only dealing in the hundreds in terms of rows). Ideally I'd have a more transactional database that only appends a record if there is a change i.e. the status of the application has changed from "Received" to "Interview" or similar.
I'm not sure how to copy and paste the code dynamically in this forum but this is what I have got so far (see below).
SELECT CC.cc_name as Academy, SUBSTRING(CC2.cc_reference,1,4) as Cost_Centre, MD2.m_reference as Course, MD2.m_name as Course_Name, CAST(MD2.m_start AS DATE) as Start_Date,
I'm interested in combining the Peer-to-Peer Transactional Replication and Standard Transactional Replication to provide a scale out solution of SQL Server 2005. The condition is as follows:
We may have 10 SQL Server 2005 (1 Publisher + 9 Subscriber) running transactional replication in the production environment and allow updates in subscribers. To offload the loading of the publisher, we plan to have 2 Publisher (PubNode1 and PubNode2) using Peer-to-Peer Transaction Replication and the rest 8 subscribers will be divided into 2 groups. The subscribers 1-4 (SubNode1, SubNode2, SubNode3, and SubNode4) will be set to be standard transactional replication subscribers of PubNode1, and the rest 4 subscribers (SubNode5, ..., SubNode8) will be set to be standard transactional replication subscribers of PubNode2.
Is it possible to setup above 2 Publisher + 8 Subscriber topology? Also, could we set the 8 subscribers with updatable subscriptions to achieve each node is updatable?
We do not plan to set all the 10 nodes using Peer-to-Peer Transactional Replication as it is necessary to make sure n*(n-1)/2 (i.e. 45) peer-to-peer connections is reliable. It seems that the maintenance cost is high if the servers are not in a LAN and the topology is very high coupling. So we prefer to divide the 10 nodes into 2 groups and reduce the cost of each node to maintain the connections to all other sites.
Hi,I have transactional replication set up on on of our MS SQL 2000 (SP4)Std Edition database serverBecause of an unfortunate scenario, I had to restore one of thepublication databases. I scripted the replication module and droppedthe publication first. Then did a full restore.When I try to set up the replication thru the script, it created thepublication with the following error messageServer: Msg 2714, Level 16, State 5, Procedure SYNC_FCR ToGPRPTS_GL00100, Line 1There is already an object named 'SYNC_FCR To GPRPTS_GL00100' in thedatabase.It seems the previous replication has set up these system viewsSYNC_FCR To GPRPTS_GL00100. And I have tried dropping the replicationmodule again to see if it drops the views but it didn't.The replication fails with some wired error & complains about thisviews when I try to run the synch..I even tried running the sp_removedbreplication to drop thereplication module, but the views do not seem to disappear.My question is how do I remove these system views or how do I make thereplication work without using these views or create new views.. Whyis this creating those system views in the first place?I would appreciate if anyone can help me fix this issue. Please feelfree to let me know if any additional information or scripts needed.Thanks in advance..Regards,Aravin Rajendra.
I have been researching on the proper steps or sequence to follow to completely remove SQL Server 2012 Transactional Replication. I have read articles about using SSMS as well as using replication stored procedures and some procedures use SQLCMD or just regular TSQL executed in SSMS. I have also read articles where people said all you really need is connect to the Publisher instance, find the publication you want to remove and choose "Delete" and everything will be taken care of behind the scene. I have three SQL servers that participate in transactional replication. SQL-P (publisher),
SQL-D (distributor) and SQL-S (subscriber). Do I need to connect to the distributor instance and the subscriber instance when removing transactional replication or is it just really connecting to the publisher and click delete on the publication? I want everything gone including any metadata, systems tables, distributions db and any other replication objects created during the initial configuration.
I am working on bringing our disaster recovery site to be a live site. Currently we replicate to one of out servers (server B) with merge replication (from server A). Server A also does one way transactional replication form some table to several other servers including servers at the DR site.
This setup is not going to be fast enough for what we need so I am wondering if a table is receiving merge replication will the merge updates also replicate down the transaction path??
Example... Server B update a row and merges to Server A. With this update them replicate (via transactional) to Server C??
On my distribution server there is a directory called mssql7 epldataunc that houses the bcp, sch and idx files for replications. A directory is created for each publication. Most directories are empty but some contain all the table idx, sch and bcp files for the publication. Some of these files are over 6 month. Does anyone know if these files are neccessary to keep and why do only some publications have these files. I am wondering if they are kept when you push the publicaiton and it errors out originally and you have to restart it? If any one can shed some like on this I would appreciate it.
Hi, I am planning to do a transactional replication from production server to reporting server. In one of my database is having 150 tables in it, only 100 tables are having primary key . Remaining tables are not have primary keys. So i am not able to do transactional replication for those 50 tables. Could any one tell me how i have to approch transactional replication. Because i need to have production data at my reporting server in regular interval. So pls suggest me . I am using Sql 7.0 with service pack2.
I have a problem with transactional replication in SQL Server 7. I have two databases (a publisher-distributor server and a suscriber server) and when I do an UPDATE in the publisher database the Log Agent Reader reads the UPDATE as an DELETE-INSERT and when the suscriber pull the suscription and try to do first the DELETE the transactional replication stops because of the Foreign Keys in the suscriptor database (that are the same as the publisher). If anybody knows how to solve it, please tell me
I have two servers networked via workgroups (no domain) and am trying to install Transactional Replication. Everything appears to install correctly, but when I run the initial Snapshot Agent I get the following error -
The process could not create file 'CONCEPCIONC$MSSQL7ReplDatauncCONCEPCION_Erik_Rep lication_Erik_Replication19991029153207Employer.sc h'. Access is denied.
The SQLAgent is starting with same user account on both machines - admin rights and the same password. I have added this user to the ( epldata) folder permissions as well. I even see a "Employer.sch" file in the directory.
I am planning to implement replication between two servers (either snapshot/transactional). Those two servers are physically connected but we don't have domain concept i.e we connected both servers physically and it can be pinked from each other, but not under any domain (not also under different domain). How should I register SQL server& agent services to start with 'Service startup Account'. In this case I cannot start both servers using same domain Account, they how can I relate...
Hi guys can anyone help me with this issue. if so thankyou kindly.
1. created transactional publication (for tables, stored procs & views ) 2. created empty database at subscriber 3. set up pull subscription at subscriber 4. ran the initial snapshot agent at the publisher 5. checked the schema files & found out it hadn't scripted the primary keys on the tables.
Problem: PRIMARY KEY AINT GOIN ACROSS, COULD ANYONE TELL ME IF IVE MISSED SOMETHING? THANK YOU MUCH APPRECIATED GUYS.
? Could it be that it is not picking up the primary keys on the tables because I am replicating stored procs and views with that publication?
? Should I break my publications into 3; say 1 for each object?
