Use the Active Roles Console to remove all Subscribers and to demote the Publisher as follows.
To remove all Subscribers and demote the Publisher
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In the Console tree, expand Configuration > Server Configuration, and select Configuration Databases.
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In the Details pane, right-click a Subscriber, and click Delete.
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In the confirmation message box, click Yes.
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Repeat the deletion steps for each Subscriber.
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In the details pane, right-click the Publisher, and click Demote.
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In the confirmation message box, click Yes.
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Wait while Active Roles demotes the Publisher.
After demoting the previous Publisher, you can promote the appropriate SQL Server to Publisher and designate the other SQL Servers as Subscribers to the new Publisher, thus configuring the new replication group.
TIP: After you add a Subscriber, the configuration data stored on the Publisher is replicated to the Subscriber, overriding the data on that Subscriber. Therefore, in order to retain your existing Active Roles configuration, it is advisable to assign the Publisher role to SQL Server that belonged to the old replication group. This ensures that each Administration Service in the new replication group inherits the configuration that was in place when you removed the Subscribers and demoted the Publisher.
To configure the new replication group using the Active Roles Console
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Right-click the Console tree root, click Connect, and then select the Administration Service the SQL Server of which you want to hold the Publisher role.
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In the Console tree, expand Configuration > Server Configuration, and select Configuration Databases.
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In the Details pane, right-click the database and click Promote.
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In the confirmation message box, click Yes.
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Wait while Active Roles performs the operation.
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In the Details pane, right-click the Publisher, and click Add Replication Partner.
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On the Welcome page in the New Replication Partner wizard, click Next.
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On the Database Selection page, click Browse.
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To configure the SQL Server of an Administration Service as a Subscriber to this Publisher, specify the corresponding Administration Service in the Connect to Administration Service dialog. Click OK.
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In the New Replication Partner wizard, click Next, click Next, and then click Finish.
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Repeat the steps for adding a replication partner for each SQL Server you want to make a Subscriber.
Once the Publisher becomes unavailable, Subscribers cannot synchronize configuration data. The only way that replication can be recovered is by restoring the current Publisher or making another SQL Server the Publisher.
If the current Publisher cannot be restored, you need to transfer the Publisher role to SQL Server that holds the Subscriber role, and reconfigure the other Subscribers to use the new Publisher. This requires that you first remove all Subscribers from the replication group.
Given that the Publisher is unavailable, you can remove a Subscriber from the replication group by using the Active Roles Console.
To remove a Subscriber from a replication group using the Active Roles Console
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Right-click the Console tree root, click Connect, and then select the Administration Service that uses the Subscriber SQL Server.
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In the Console tree, expand Configuration > Server Configuration, and select Configuration Databases.
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In the Details pane, right-click the Subscriber and select All Tasks > Advanced Properties.
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In the Advanced Properties window, select both the Show all possible attributes and Include attributes with empty values check boxes.
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In the list of attributes, double-click the attribute edsvaReplicationForceStandalone.
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In the Edit Attribute window, type TRUE in the Value box. Click OK.
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In the Advanced Properties window, click OK.