another simple snapshot replication question

i have a publisher agent that generates 61 articles for publication
without a problem.
however i'm having trouble understanding exactly how the distribution
agent executes. when executed manually once, it ran successfully, and
the subscriber got the data.
is it possible to run the distribution agent again to re-push/pull data
for the subscribers without running the publisher agent? when i try to
re-run the distributor agent, i get the success message "No replicated
transactions are available." have the snapshot files become
unavailable, or is it just something where the distribution agent knows
that they are older than the subscriber last obtained?
if it's possible to have a distribution agent push/pull data from a
single collection of publisher snapshot articles multiple times, i
would greatly appreciate knowing how that's done.
thanks in advance for any help,
jason
Jason,
to have the distribution agent pick up any new snapshot files, you need to
reinitialize this particular subscriber (sp_reinitsubscription). However if
this is a regular process, perhaps you should just use snapshot replication
instead? Or are you trying to avoid table locking?
Rgds,
Paul Ibison SQL Server MVP, www.replicationanswers.com
(recommended sql server 2000 replication book:
http://www.nwsu.com/0974973602p.html)
|||paul,
sorry, i should have specified that this is a snapshot replication. but
because of the very reason you mentioned, the table locking, i was
hoping that i could tweak the distribution agent steps without having
to republish the data (avoiding further table locks).
does this information suggest any particular solutions as possible /
superior?
thanks for the response,
jason
|||Sounds like transactional would be more beneficial. Unless there are loads
of updates to the same rows, you'll notice an improvement in performance
versus regualr snapshots. Also you'll avoid locking issues by using the
concurrent snapshot generation option when initializing/reinitializing.
Rgds,
Paul Ibison SQL Server MVP, www.replicationanswers.com
(recommended sql server 2000 replication book:
http://www.nwsu.com/0974973602p.html)
|||i thought that might be the case. but doesn't transactional replication
come with a performance hit to the updates in the publisher database?
this replication is just to get "production-like" data from the
production database into the development and staging databases. we
don't want to perpetually diminish the performance of the production
database for a process we probably only need to run every couple of
weeks/months. but at the same time, the database is accessed 24-7, so
if we can do the replication without record locking, that's highly
preferable.
another option i'm looking into is a DTS task, which also seems like it
could be done without locking the tables. but i'm still sorting out the
details on DTS with regard to object copies vs. data transformations,
and how to handle identity columns, etc.
sorry for that long contextual tangent. so would you still recommend
transactional replication for a task that really only needs to
replicate data once or twice a month?
thanks,
jason
|||With no downtime of the production site allowed and representative data
required at fortnightly intervals, I'd restore full database backups - much
easier solution with no hit on the production database.
Rgds,
Paul Ibison SQL Server MVP, www.replicationanswers.com
(recommended sql server 2000 replication book:
http://www.nwsu.com/0974973602p.html)
|||that's an awesome idea. we use some sql-aware third party backup
software, so if i can figure out how to restore a single database file
from there in a way that sql can use, that's definitely the solution
i'll choose.
thanks for the suggestion!

Another newbie question

What is the role of the SQL agent and what is the difference whether it will
run automatically or manually (I am trying to run the replication wizard)
Thanks,
Shmuel
There are several agents associated with replication and they are
essentially jobs fundamental to replication. Have a look in BOL for
replication,agents for a description of each agent. Running continuously
will help you work with miniumum latency, but you will not then have control
over when the load is placed on your server, and connectivity is mandatory.
HTH,
Paul Ibison SQL Server MVP, www.replicationanswers.com
(recommended sql server 2000 replication book:
http://www.nwsu.com/0974973602p.html)
|||i'm kinda new at this too... but it seems to me that automatic means the same thing as scheduled... you can have it run once a day at a certain time, etc... manual means you want to control if and when it runs.
Andrea Garcia
Yahoo IM: mmmmojobootay
CS degree arriving in: July 2005
www.millionformarriage.com
"S Shulman" <smshulman@.hotmail.com> wrote in message news:uQ8Z4J0IFHA.2648@.TK2MSFTNGP14.phx.gbl...
What is the role of the SQL agent and what is the difference whether it will
run automatically or manually (I am trying to run the replication wizard)
Thanks,
Shmuel
|||sql server agent is the component of sql server which runs all of your
jobs. If you configure it to run automatically it will start whenever
you reboot your machine. If you configure it to run manually you will
have to manually start it.
S Shulman wrote:
> What is the role of the SQL agent and what is the difference whether it will
> run automatically or manually (I am trying to run the replication wizard)
> Thanks,
> Shmuel
>

Another merge agent for the subscription(s) is running

Hi everyone,
We are trying to implement merge replication using a central subscriber
model. When testing this out on 4 test machines, everything seemed fine.
Now, we are running a live test alongside our old system. So far we have the
central subscriber up and running and one publisher. The central subscriber
is using a one-way pull subscription to fetch the data from the publisher.
It pulls data once an hour.
The problem is that after a day or two, things stop working, and the merge
agent keeps failing and retrying to start the merge. The error from the
agent history is:
"Another merge agent for the subscription(s) is running."
Once I stop and start the sql agent service on the publisher, things work
fine for another day or two.
So my question is, why is this happening? I haven't been able to find
anything on the web about this particular error, other than to try using
this:
"select spid from sysprocesses where program_name = 'Your_Agent_Name'"
"Kill <spid>"
The problem with this solution is that I get no results from the select
statement, so there's no process to kill.
We are using MSDE 2000 Release A on Windows 2000 boxes. Any help would be
greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
-Brian
You get this when you are using WSM or the ActiveX controls to manage a pull
subscription and you also have a merge agent running. I have also seen it
when you script out publications and run them in a test environment and
don't change all the parameters.
You have to try to isolate this rouge agent.
"Brian Newtz" <anonymous@.discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:OP9lCvmEEHA.1128@.TK2MSFTNGP11.phx.gbl...
> Hi everyone,
> We are trying to implement merge replication using a central subscriber
> model. When testing this out on 4 test machines, everything seemed fine.
> Now, we are running a live test alongside our old system. So far we have
the
> central subscriber up and running and one publisher. The central
subscriber
> is using a one-way pull subscription to fetch the data from the publisher.
> It pulls data once an hour.
> The problem is that after a day or two, things stop working, and the merge
> agent keeps failing and retrying to start the merge. The error from the
> agent history is:
> "Another merge agent for the subscription(s) is running."
> Once I stop and start the sql agent service on the publisher, things work
> fine for another day or two.
> So my question is, why is this happening? I haven't been able to find
> anything on the web about this particular error, other than to try using
> this:
> "select spid from sysprocesses where program_name = 'Your_Agent_Name'"
> "Kill <spid>"
> The problem with this solution is that I get no results from the select
> statement, so there's no process to kill.
> We are using MSDE 2000 Release A on Windows 2000 boxes. Any help would be
> greatly appreciated.
> Thanks,
> -Brian
>
>
|||this message is raised after we check the sysprocesses table to see if any
SPID exists for the same application name as the merge agent.
You should try to detemine if the spids are being orphaned even after you
stop the agent, if so we need to determine the cause of that.
thanks
gopal
|||Hilary, Gopal,
I'm not using WSM or ActiveX controls for the pull subscription. What I did
was script out the replication and changed things as necessary in the
scripts to install it on the live servers.
Gopal - like I said, my problem is that when I try to get the spid of the
agent, there are no results returned... so I'm at a loss as to what to try.
Any other suggestions?
"Hilary Cotter" <hilaryk@.att.net> wrote in message
news:%23EG3DFnEEHA.3788@.TK2MSFTNGP10.phx.gbl...
> You get this when you are using WSM or the ActiveX controls to manage a
pull
> subscription and you also have a merge agent running. I have also seen it
> when you script out publications and run them in a test environment and
> don't change all the parameters.
> You have to try to isolate this rouge agent.
> "Brian Newtz" <anonymous@.discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:OP9lCvmEEHA.1128@.TK2MSFTNGP11.phx.gbl...
> the
> subscriber
publisher.
merge
work
be
>

Another merge agent for the subscription is running

When trying to replicate I get the message "Another merge agent for the
subscription(s) is running."
Both publisher/distributor and subscriber are SQL2K SP3.
There is no orphan process for the agent in the sysprocesses table.
I monitored the sysprocesses while the agent is connecting: for few
seconds several processes added to the list with the host name of the
subscriber, all start and gone in the same time, and then I get the
message above.
Please help
Yes, the ActiveX is in use, but only it. No other agent for the
subscription is running.
The publication was created by hand with the wizard.
Rgds,
Orr
Paul Ibison wrote:
> It doesn't sound as though this applies, but have you
> used the ActiveX control or windows synchronization
> manager to initiate a pull when the merge agent was
> already running? Was your publication created by hand
> from scripts?
> Rgds,
> Paul Ibison SQL Server MVP, www.replicationanswers.com
> (recommended sql server 2000 replication book:
> http://www.nwsu.com/0974973602p.html)
|||Problem solved!
The application that is using the ActiveX was started twice
automatically when computer booted.
Thanks,
Orr

Another distribution agents for the Subcription

sql2k sp3

Im getting a message on replication that has been running
for a while:

Another distribution agent for the subscription(s) is
running. NOTE: The step was retried the requested number
of times (10) without succeeding. The step failed.

Any ideas?

ThanksOriginally posted by dschuster
sql2k sp3

Im getting a message on replication that has been running
for a while:

Another distribution agent for the subscription(s) is
running. NOTE: The step was retried the requested number
of times (10) without succeeding. The step failed.

Any ideas?

Thanks

What this means is that another replication step is running while this step was executed. Check all the steps that are Running in Replication Monitor -> Publishers/Subscribers and check if any other steps are running. If they are then you will have either wait for them to be done or you can force them to stop. Once all the steps are stopped then you can run your replication step.

Hope this helps