Average 28000 requests/month










 

 

 

 

 

 
Replication Blogs: Nigel Maneffa,  Lizet Pena de Sola

New Site Entries:

Why is a complete snapshot being generated when a new article is added (SQL 2005)? 7th April 2008 Transactional
Merge is hanging on initialization - what should I do? 28th March 2008 Merge
Replication Changes in SQL Server 2008 (CTP6): The Replication Monitor 20th March 2008 Articles
Standby Servers: Log-Shipping vs Transactional Replication vs Database Mirroring 14th March 2008 Articles
How can I get the text for 'sys.sp_MSrepl_helparticlecolumns' or any other such hidden procedures? 14th March 2008 General
Understanding Transactions in Transactional Replication 29th Feb 2008 Articles
High Availability (DR) Using SQL Server 2005 Transactional Replication 22 Feb 2008 Articles

News:

Just added Lizet's blog above next to Nigel's. Was researching the known issues and workarounds with merge when combining filters with joins and found some great material and analysis on her blog.

I've just started on a couple of articles for replication on SQL 2008 looking at the new bells and whistles etc. From what I've seen there are some useful but relatively minor changes compared to the SQL Server 2005 upgrade. This then led me to think what should be on the replication wish list for the future?

Personally for the next version of SQL Server, or for a service pack upgrade, I'd like to see better troubleshooting options and general transparency of the merge process as very much top of my wish list. Most people using merge don't have time to track down exactly why there might be problems with certain combinations of filters and joins, and in the worst case the existence of non-convergence can rapidly lose confidence from a client. File-based Replication that could be used to replicate via email is another wish but this would probably be a bit like the Oracle publishers facility introduced in SQL Server 2005 and only really be useful to a select few, so I'd position this much lower on the wish list. Another thing I'd like is transactional over HTTPS - trying to get through nested firewalls using replication is a real pain, and mostly SSL is permitted. When I get a second I'll post up Connect items for these and we'll see what the response is....

BTW I'm always on the lookout for any extra bits of replication-related consultancy work (at very reasonable rates!). Generally I contract at large multinationals, so it's refreshing to occasionally take time off to do my replication work, even if it's a couple of hours fixing SQL Server issues remotely or QAing a setup. So far I've done replication consultancy for firms big and small eg:

Veterinary Software Supplier
Agricultural Retailer and Wholesaler
Business Information and Magazines
Reinsurance
Medical Staffing / Recruitment
Oil Exploration Shipping

If you're also interested, please contact me at Paul.Ibison@Replicationanswers.com.

 

 News:
New SQL Server 2005 replication book by Sujoy Paul

:
Hilary Cotter has released the first SQL Server 2000 replication book  - I've done a review of this on Amazon.
SQL Server 2005 post SP2 cumulative updates listed here
SQL Server 2000 Service Pack 4 now available here. The replication-specific fixes are listed here.