sp_publication_validation (T-SQL)

Initiates an article validation request for each article in the specified publication.

Syntax

sp_publication_validation [@publication =] 'publication'
    [,[@rowcount_only =] rowcount_only]
    [,[@full_or_fast =] full_or_fast]
    [,[@shutdown_agent =] shutdown_agent]

Arguments

[@publication =] 'publication'

Is the name of the publication. publication is sysname, with no default.

[@rowcount_only =] rowcount_only

Is whether to return only the rowcount for the table. rowcount_only is bit, with a default of 1. If 0, returns the rowcount and checksum. If 1, returns only the rowcount.

[@full_or_fast =] full_or_fast

Is the method used to calculate the rowcount. full_or_fast is tinyint, with a default of 2, and can be one of these values.

 

Value	Description
0	Does full count using COUNT(*).
1	Does fast count from sysindexes.rows. Counting rows in sysindexes is much faster than counting rows in the actual table. However, because sysindexes is lazily updated, the rowcount may not be accurate.
2 (default)	Does conditional fast counting by first trying the fast method. If fast method shows differences, reverts to full method. If expected_rowcount is NULL and the stored procedure is being used to get the value, a full COUNT(*) is always used.

[@shutdown_agent =] shutdown_agent

Is whether the Distribution Agent should shut down immediately upon completion of the validation. shutdown_agent is bit, with a default of 0. If 0, the replication agent does not shut down. If 1, the replication agent shuts down after the last article is validated.

Return Code Values

0 (success) or 1 (failure)

Remarks

sp_publication_validation is used in snapshot and transactional replication.

sp_publication_validation can be called at any time after the articles associated with the publication have been activated. The procedure can be run manually one time or as part of a regularly scheduled job that validates the data.

If your application has immediate-updating Subscribers, sp_publication_validation may detect spurious errors. sp_publication_validation first calculates the rowcount or checksum at the Publisher and then at the Subscriber. Because the immediate-updating trigger could propogate an update from the Subscriber to the Publisher after the rowcount or checksum is completed at the Publisher but before the rowcount or checksum is completed at the Subscriber, the values could not change. To ensure that the values at the Subscriber and Publisher do not change while validating a publication, stop the MSDTC service at the Publisher during validation.

Permissions

Only members of the sysadmin fixed server role or db_owner fixed database role can execute sp_publication_validation.

See Also