Replication of text and image Datatypes (version 6.5)

For a published replication article, text and image columns are now replicated as text or image datatypes.

The synchronization process initializes NULL pointers in tables loaded by BCP by default. The process first obtains the names of nullable text and image columns and subsequently issues an UPDATE statement to initialize all columns with uninitialized pointers. The statement is issued repeatedly for columns with ROWCOUNT set to 1000.

Potentially, the synchronization process can cause a large number of records to be written to the transaction log of the subscriber database. To switch off the initialization of NULL pointers for text and image coumns, do one of the following:

• Use automatic transaction log backups provided in Windows NT Performance Monitor. See the Microsoft SQL Server Administrator's Companion for more information.
• Reduce the number of NULL text and image datatype columns in the published table.
• Add the -N switch to the distribution process and ensure that applications modifying text or image columns in the published table initialize pointers using some value other than NULL in the UPDATE statement.

For more information, see What's New for Administrators, earlier in this document.