Viewing replication settings
When configuring replication, Active Roles automatically sets replication parameters to the appropriate values. This ensures that replication is functioning properly. Normally, there is no need to modify the replication settings except for some error situations outlined the Troubleshooting Replication failures section later in this document.
The following table lists the values that Active Roles assigns to certain replication parameters.
Table 111: Values assigned to Replication parameters
Publication name |
AelitaReplica |
Replication type |
Merge |
Subscription type |
Push |
Subscription expiration |
Subscriptions expire and may be dropped if not synchronized in 60 days. |
Schedule |
The Merge Agents are running continuously at the Publisher. The Snapshot Agent starts daily at 12:00 a.m. at the Publisher. |
You can use the following instructions to examine these settings using SQL Server Management Studio.
It is advisable not to change these settings. Replication may not be functioning correctly if you manually modify replication settings with the use of SQL Server tools.
Start Management Studio and connect to the Publisher SQL Server:
- In Object Explorer, click Connect, and then click Database Engine.
- Complete the Connect to Server dialog box to connect to the instance of the SQL Server Database Engine that holds the Publisher role.
Open the Publication Properties dialog box:
- In Object Explorer, under the Publisher SQL Server, expand Replication | Local Publications.
- In Object Explorer, under Local Publications, right-click AelitaReplica, and click Properties.
In the Publication Properties dialog box, you can review the Active Roles publication settings.
Open the Subscription Properties dialog box:
- In Object Explorer, under Local Publications, expand AelitaReplica.
- In Object Explorer, under AelitaReplica, right-click a Subscription, and click Properties.
In the Subscription Properties dialog box, you can review the Active Roles subscription settings.
Replication Agent schedule
By default, Active Roles schedules the Replication Agents to run as follows:
- The Snapshot Agent starts every day at 12:00 a.m. at the Publisher.
- The Merge Agents start automatically when SQL Server Agent starts, and runs continuously at the Publisher.
To verify the Snapshot Agent schedule
- Open SQL Server Management Studio.
- In Object Explorer, connect to the instance of the SQL Server Database Engine that holds the Publisher role, and then expand that instance.
- Right-click the Replication folder, and click Launch Replication Monitor.
- In the left pane of the Replication Monitor window, expand your Publisher SQL Server, and click AelitaReplica.
- In the right pane of the Replication Monitor window, on the Warnings and Agents tab, right-click the Snapshot Agent in the Agents and jobs related to this publication list, and click Properties.
- In the left pane of the Job Properties window, click Schedules.
- Review the replication agent schedule settings in the right pane of the Job Properties window.
- Click the Edit button to examine the replication agent schedule settings in detail.
To verify the Merge Agent schedule
- Open SQL Server Management Studio.
- In Object Explorer, connect to the instance of the SQL Server Database Engine that holds the Publisher role, and then expand that instance.
- Right-click the Replication folder, and click Launch Replication Monitor.
- In the left pane of the Replication Monitor window, expand your Publisher SQL Server, and click AelitaReplica.
- In the right pane of the Replication Monitor window, on the All Subscriptions tab, right-click the subscription whose Merge Agent you want to examine, and click View Details.
- In the Subscription window, on the Action menu, click Merge Agent Job Properties.
- In the left pane of the Job Properties window, click Schedules.
- Review the replication agent schedule settings in the right pane of the Job Properties window.
- Click the Edit button to examine the replication agent schedule settings in detail.
Monitoring replication
In order to identify replication-related problems, you can use the Active Roles console connected to the Publisher Administration Service. If there are any replication failures, a red triangle is displayed on the Server Configuration and Configuration Databases containers in the console tree. In the details pane, the same icon is used to highlight the database affected by a replication failure.
If you have encountered a replication failure, you should ensure that the SQL Server Agent service is started on the computer running the Publisher SQL Server, and then use SQL Server Management Studio to get more information on that failure:
- In Object Explorer, connect to the instance of the SQL Server Database Engine that holds the Publisher role, and then expand that instance.
- Right-click the Replication folder, and click Launch Replication Monitor.
- In the left pane of the Replication Monitor window, expand your Publisher SQL Server, and click AelitaReplica.
- In the right pane of the Replication Monitor window, on the Warnings and Agents tab, look for a red icon under Agents and jobs related to this publication. This icon indicates a Snapshot Agent error:
- Right-click the agent that has encountered an error and then click View Details.
- In the Snapshot Agent window, view the error description under Error details or message of the selected session.
- In the right pane of the Replication Monitor window, on the All Subscriptions tab, look for a red icon in the list of subscriptions. This icon indicates a Merge Agent error:
- On the All Subscriptions tab, right-click the subscription that has encountered an error and then click View Details.
- In the Subscription window, view the error description under Last message of the selected session.
Some typical errors are discussed later in this document (see the Troubleshooting Replication failures section). The Troubleshooting Replication failures section also provides information on how to resolve such errors.
Viewing database connection settings
The most common reasons for replication problems are access failures that Replication Agents encounter when attempting to connect to the Publisher or Subscriber SQL Server. Given that security credentials of Replication Agents depend on authentication mode of the Administration Service, you may need to examine Administration Service database connection settings in order to see which mode is actually used—Windows authentication or SQL Server authentication.
You can view connection settings in the Active Roles console:
- In the console tree, select Configuration | Server Configuration | Administration Services.
- In the details pane, right-click the Administration Service you want to examine, and click Properties.
- In the Properties dialog box, go to the Configuration Database tab.
The Configuration Database tab displays the following information:
- SQL Server Identifies the SQL Server instance used by the Administration Service.
- Database The name of the Administration Service database.
- Use Windows authentication When selected, indicates that the Administration Service uses Windows authentication mode when connecting to SQL Server.
- Use SQL Server authentication When selected, indicates that the Administration Service uses SQL Server authentication mode when connecting to SQL Server.
- Login name The name of the SQL Server login that the Administration Service uses to access SQL Server; only applies to the Use SQL Server authentication option.