The New Replication GUI (beta2)
Introduction
This article describes the changes to replication from the point of view of
the SQL Server 2005 GUI. In case you haven't already been checking out the new
version, we are now at Beta 2 and 'Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio' is
the new graphical replacement for 'Enterprise Manager'. It's probably true to say that unlike many other
administrative tasks, most DBAs intensively use the graphical interface to
administer replication. With this in mind, Replication DBAs will want to
discover how to perform their original tasks using the new GUI, as well as
finding out about all the new functionality available. Future articles will begin
to address all the new bells and whistles, but this article focuses on how to
use the new interface to carry out original replication tasks.
Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio
If we initially focus on the 'Object Explorer' in
the Management Studio, we can see some changes
immediately. In the example below, there is a transactional publication called
'TransParentsTable' in the database 'PaulsPublisher' and a subscription in
'PaulsSubscriber' to the same publication. So, what has changed? Firstly, there is
no hand under the replicated database to indicate the database is enabled for
replication. Secondly, in Enterprise Manager, a publication exists in 3 separate
places: a folder under the database icon, the replication folder and the
replication monitor. Below we can see that this has been reduced to one
occurrence in the replication folder. This is a big simplification and also
removes the irritating inconsistency between the right-click menus in the three
different Enterprise Manager publication icons.
Left-clicking on the publication yields the following 'Summary' details in
the right-hand pane. This lists the snapshot and log-reader agent's latest
history, and the current agent status.
The corresponding Summary pane for the distribution agent is currently
unavailable, but presumably this will display the corresponding information for the
distribution agent. Note that the Summary pane is a HTML page and there is no
option to right-click the displayed icons. So, these are not the real
agents, just a historical display and in that way things are done quite differently
to Enterprise Manager as the agents themselves are no longer accessible via the
replication/publication folders. Of course we know that the replication agents are
essentially just jobs running the appropriate replication executable and are
therefore still available through the SQL Server Agent Jobs folder, but this
involves trawling through all the other administrative jobs. So, to access
just the agents, we must use the Replication Monitor which has been changed
substantially and is now a stand-alone application (see section below).
If we right-click the replication
folder, we have the following menu
This is very similar to the
replication monitor right-click menu from Enterprise Manager, and also the tools
menu, the latter of which has now been removed - so this is the now only way we can
get access to the publisher and distributor properties. They have been separated
into 2 different options to make things simpler, but essentially this is the
same form as in SQL Server 2000.
Right-clicking a publication gives
access to its properties, much like in SQL Server 2000. Although the form is a
different style to the many-tabbed properties window in SQL Server 2000, the
options are much the same and similarly for subscription properties.
The Replication Monitor
To start the replication monitor,
right-click either the replication folder or the publications folder. This is a
stand-alone tool and you'll have to initially register your publisher
(PC-Template below).
The refresh-rate for the replication
monitor is accessible through right-clicking on the publisher, as it now allows
different settings for each publisher rather than one setting for all. From the
same menu, we can also create and edit agent profiles:
The tabs on the RHS give access to
the replication agents. 'All Subscriptions' refers to the Distribution/Merge
agents, while the 'Warnings and Common Agents' tab gives access to the Log
Reader/Snapshot agents. What is displayed is the most recent history, and to see
the complete history of the agent's execution, right-click on the agent and
select 'View Details'. This menu also allows access to the specific profile used
for this agent - 'Performance Profile'.
Other Settings
It seems that the miscellaneous
agents - e.g. the distribution cleanup agent - are only accessible through the
Jobs folder of the SQL Server Agent. This is unfortunate, as it is a useful
replication control, but on the other hand, not one that we would frequently
want to manually alter. The menu settings for transformable subscriptions no
longer exists because this feature is deprecated in SQL Server 2005, and is only
supported using the SQL Server 2000 engine. Scripts can be generated and
subscriptions validated as in Enterprise Manager. There appears to be no direct
way to 'Explore the latest snapshot folder' as there was in Enterprise Manager,
so Windows Explorer will have to be used instead.
Conclusions
This article should allow DBAs
administering most straightforward publications to find their way around the new
graphical interfaces and perform corresponding tasks in SQL Server 2005. The
article ignores new functionality and graphical options, which will be explored
in future articles.
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