Problem with merge replication

Question

Problem with merge replication

Darius T.

SSC Enthusiast

Points: 147
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January 19, 2005 at 12:04 am

#164284

Hi,
Seems I found how to brake merge replication.
Actually I reproduced this situation on my test env. after we found it on
production.
OK we have SQL2K EE SP3a on W2k AE SP4.
Suppose You create a table with few fields of different type
(field1,field2,field3.etc.. rowguid)
Then you publish it for merge replication an push the subscription to
subscriber (with initialization).
Everything works fine.
Then suppose you need to ALTER one of columns (let's say field2) in that
table (char(12 ->char(20))
In merge (or whatever) you have to do sp_repldropcolumn then
sp_repladdcolumn and restore data of that column on publisher.
All changes are done and synchronized with the subscriber. Everything still
works.
Then you create a new merge publication including the same table and push it
to another subscriber (with initialization).
After we found that changes are not correctly transferred between two
subscribers. All data is still correct at the publisher but at the
subscribers some fields are different.
Does anyone know about this? Or any suggestions how to resolve this problem?
Thank You
Darius T.

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Rodrigo Acosta SSC-Insane Points: 21261 More actions · Answer 1

In the first subscriber the stored procedures for replication must me changed manually, because they will still have the original datatype.

In the second subscriber, the stored procedures already reflect the changes made at the column.

This could lead to different records in both subscribers...did you check this?

Darius T. SSC Enthusiast Points: 147 More actions · Answer 2

FYI

We had a case about this with MS.

It's a problem (bug) in MSSQL2000. And it will not be fixed in this version of SQL. Confirmed by MS.

Try to avoid such a steps like changing a structure of a field in a table via sp_repdropcolumn then sp_repladdcolumn if you use merge replication. You'll fall in this problem after adding new publication(s) after such change.

Thanks

Darius