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.
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.
If there are any replication failures in Active Roles, the Active Roles Console provides a visual indication of this issue by placing a red triangle on the Server Configuration and Configuration Databases containers in the console tree. To get more information on a replication failure, you can use SQL Server Management Studio. For more information, see Monitoring replication.
The following sections discuss specific actions to take if you encounter a replication problem in Active Roles.
Symptoms
Replication stops synchronizing changes to configuration data, that is, changes made on a replication partner are not propagated to other replication partners. Replication Monitor in SQL Server Enterprise Manager or SQL Server Management Studio does not indicate any error.
Solution
To verify that the SQL Server Agent service is started on the Publisher SQL Server
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With SQL Server Management Studio, connect to the Publisher SQL Server.
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In the Console tree, right-click SQL Server Agent, and then click Start.
If the Start button is disabled, it means that the SQL Server Agent service is already started.
To ensure that the Merge Agents are started on the Publisher SQL Server
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With SQL Server Management Studio, connect to the Publisher SQL Server.
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In the Console tree, right-click Replication, and click Launch Replication Monitor.
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In Replication Monitor, in the left pane, browse the My Publishers branch to select the AelitaReplica publication.
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In Replication Monitor, in the right pane, right-click a subscription and click Start Synchronizing. Perform this step for each subscription of the AelitaReplica publication.
If the Start Synchronizing command is unavailable, the agent is already started.
Verify that the Replication Agent is scheduled correctly at the Publisher. The Merge Agents must be configured to run continuously. The Snapshot Agent must be configured to start daily at 00:00. For more information, see Replication Agent schedule.