Replication Troubleshooting

This section contains troubleshooting techniques for SQL Server.

Revising a Database Name

Dropping a publishing database does not remove references to it in the distribution database. This can cause a problem if you re-create a database with the same name and attempt to use it as a publishing database. The distribution database will already have references to the named database, but they will not correctly reflect the newly created publishing database.

    To reuse a database name that has been involved in publishing

• In the distribution database, reset the distribution database by running the following query:

  delete from MSjob_subscriptions WHERE
  publisher = 'publisher' AND
  publisher_db = 'published db'
    

For more information about the DELETE statement, see the Microsoft SQL Server Transact-SQL Reference.

Replicating text and image Columns

When loading tables that contain text and image columns, the synchronization process will automatically initialize NULL text pointers for the text and image columns.

If the tables are large and have many uninitialized text or image columns, many records will be written to the transaction log. To minimize the impact of the initialization, you can:

• Use automatic transaction log backups through Windows NT Performance Monitor, as described in the Microsoft SQL Server Administrator's Companion.
• Minimize the number of NULL text and image columns in the published table.
• Disable this functionality (which is on by default) by adding the -N switch on the distribution process(s). Ensure that applications modifying text and image columns in the published table initialize text pointers using a value other than NULL in the UPDATE statement.