Replication Distribution Agent Does Not Start

Hi,
For some magical reason, my database replication has suddenly stopped
working. I modified the publication but the Distribution agent will
not run; the snapshot does not get applied to the subscriber, and
changes made at the publisher do not get replicated.
My configuration is: Transactional Replication with a
‘Pull’ Subscription. The Subscriber is Updateable with
Immediate Updates Only. All created via the SQL Server Enterprise
Manager. Both the Publisher and Subscriber are on the same server.
I’m running SQL Server 2000 (8.00.760 SP3), on Windows 2000
Server (5.0 (2195)).
I manually run the snapshop agent. It runs fine with the status
‘Succeeded’ and the Last Action is ‘A Snapshot of X
article(s) was generated’.
When I look at the distribution agent, things start to get a bit
confusing in ( <SERVERNAME>/Replication Monitor/ Publishers/
<SERVERNAME?>/ Publication/ Subscription), the status stays
constantly at ‘Never Started’. All other columns are
either blank or 0. When I right click over the subscription, both
Start Synchronising and Stop Synchronising are NOT greyed out. If I
click on either Start Synchronising or Stop Synchronising (absolutely)
nothing happens (except the mouse turns ‘busy’ for a
fraction of a second). There are no error messages.
I added -output c:\sqlout.txt -outputverboselevel 3 to the
distribution agent command. C:\sqlout.txt did not get created.
It worked fine up to a couple of days ago. I’m not sure exactly
what caused the problem, as I made a few changes at the same time. The
changes included: adding a new transactional publication, adding more
articles to an existing transaction publication, and adding a merge
publication. I’ve tried to go back to the set up before I made
the changes, even disabling replication and starting again from
scratch. Still the problem persists.
The owner of the distribution agent has dbo permissions in both the
publishing and subscribing database. Under ‘Publisher and
Distributor Properties’ I’ve set the ‘Replication
Agent Connection to Publisher’ and ‘Agent Connection to
the Subscriber’ both to Use SQL Server Authentication, both with
the same account that has dbo permissions in both publishing and
subscribing database.
Has anybody come across anything like this before? Can anybody make
any suggestions? Thanks in advance for your help.
Regards
Damian Helme
IS Manager
INTEC Engineering (UK) Ltd.
are you using an ActiveX control or Windows Synchronization Manager to
manage this subscription? If so you will not be able to manage your
distribution agent in EM.
Hilary Cotter
Looking for a book on SQL Server replication?
http://www.nwsu.com/0974973602.html
"Damian H" <damianhelme@.hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:2b893e38.0407220153.32af854e@.posting.google.c om...
> Hi,
> For some magical reason, my database replication has suddenly stopped
> working. I modified the publication but the Distribution agent will
> not run; the snapshot does not get applied to the subscriber, and
> changes made at the publisher do not get replicated.
> My configuration is: Transactional Replication with a
> ‘Pull’ Subscription. The Subscriber is Updateable with
> Immediate Updates Only. All created via the SQL Server Enterprise
> Manager. Both the Publisher and Subscriber are on the same server.
> I’m running SQL Server 2000 (8.00.760 SP3), on Windows 2000
> Server (5.0 (2195)).
> I manually run the snapshop agent. It runs fine with the status
> ‘Succeeded’ and the Last Action is ‘A Snapshot of X
> article(s) was generated’.
> When I look at the distribution agent, things start to get a bit
> confusing in ( <SERVERNAME>/Replication Monitor/ Publishers/
> <SERVERNAME?>/ Publication/ Subscription), the status stays
> constantly at ‘Never Started’. All other columns are
> either blank or 0. When I right click over the subscription, both
> Start Synchronising and Stop Synchronising are NOT greyed out. If I
> click on either Start Synchronising or Stop Synchronising (absolutely)
> nothing happens (except the mouse turns ‘busy’ for a
> fraction of a second). There are no error messages.
> I added -output c:\sqlout.txt -outputverboselevel 3 to the
> distribution agent command. C:\sqlout.txt did not get created.
> It worked fine up to a couple of days ago. I’m not sure exactly
> what caused the problem, as I made a few changes at the same time. The
> changes included: adding a new transactional publication, adding more
> articles to an existing transaction publication, and adding a merge
> publication. I’ve tried to go back to the set up before I made
> the changes, even disabling replication and starting again from
> scratch. Still the problem persists.
> The owner of the distribution agent has dbo permissions in both the
> publishing and subscribing database. Under ‘Publisher and
> Distributor Properties’ I’ve set the ‘Replication
> Agent Connection to Publisher’ and ‘Agent Connection to
> the Subscriber’ both to Use SQL Server Authentication, both with
> the same account that has dbo permissions in both publishing and
> subscribing database.
> Has anybody come across anything like this before? Can anybody make
> any suggestions? Thanks in advance for your help.
> Regards
> Damian Helme
> IS Manager
> INTEC Engineering (UK) Ltd.
|||Hillary
Thanks for your reply. No I am not using an ActiveX control or Windows
Synchronization Manager. It is all done through EM.
Here's the post again, but this time free of the garbled control
characters:
================================================== =============================
Hi,
For some magical reason, my database replication has suddenly stopped
working. I modified the publication but the Distribution agent will
not run; the snapshot does not get applied to the subscriber, and
changes made at the publisher do not get replicated.
My configuration is: Transactional Replication with a 'Pull'
Subscription. The Subscriber is Updateable with Immediate Updates
Only. All created via the SQL Server Enterprise Manager. Both the
Publisher and Subscriber are on the same server. I'm running SQL
Server 2000 (8.00.760 SP3), on Windows 2000 Server (5.0 (2195)).
I manually run the snapshop agent. It runs fine with the status
'Succeeded' and the Last Action is 'A Snapshot of X article(s) was
generated'.
When I look at the distribution agent, things start to get a bit
confusing in ( <SERVERNAME>/Replication Monitor/ Publishers/
<SERVERNAME?>/ Publication/ Subscription), the status stays
constantly at 'Never Started'. All other columns are either blank or
0. When I right click over the subscription, both Start Synchronising
and Stop Synchronising are NOT greyed out. If I click on either Start
Synchronising or Stop Synchronising (absolutely) nothing happens
(except the mouse turns 'busy' for a fraction of a second). There are
no error messages.
I added -output c:\sqlout.txt -outputverboselevel 3 to the
distribution agent command. C:\sqlout.txt did not get created.
It worked fine up to a couple of days ago. I'm not sure exactly what
caused the problem, as I made a few changes at the same time. The
changes included: adding a new transactional publication, adding more
articles to an existing transaction publication, and adding a merge
publication. I've tried to go back to the set up before I made the
changes, even disabling replication and starting again from scratch.
Still the problem persists.
The owner of the distribution agent has dbo permissions in both the
publishing and subscribing database. Under 'Publisher and Distributor
Properties' I've set the 'Replication Agent Connection to Publisher'
and 'Agent Connection to the Subscriber' both to Use SQL Server
Authentication, both with the same account that has dbo permissions in
both publishing and subscribing database.
Has anybody come across this problem before? Can anybody make any
suggestions? Thanks in advance for your help.
Regards
Damian Helme
IS Manager
INTEC Engineering (UK) Ltd.
|||I've encountered this error before and its driving me crazy trying to recall
exactly what is causing it. IIRC its something pretty simple.
Can you right click on your distribution agent, select agent properties
select steps, click on Run Agent, and click edit.
Then copy everything in the commands text box.
Open a command window and go to c:\program files\microsoft sql server\80\com
and then type
distrib and paste your commands here. To do this, go to the c:\ thingy in
the upper left hand corner of your command window and select edit - paste.
Make sure there is a space between distrib and the commands.
Then hit enter. You should get an error message this time.
Hilary Cotter
Looking for a book on SQL Server replication?
http://www.nwsu.com/0974973602.html
"Damian H" <damianhelme@.hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:2b893e38.0407222334.bc69d37@.posting.google.co m...
> Hillary
> Thanks for your reply. No I am not using an ActiveX control or Windows
> Synchronization Manager. It is all done through EM.
> Here's the post again, but this time free of the garbled control
> characters:
>
>
================================================== ==========================
===
> Hi,
> For some magical reason, my database replication has suddenly stopped
> working. I modified the publication but the Distribution agent will
> not run; the snapshot does not get applied to the subscriber, and
> changes made at the publisher do not get replicated.
>
> My configuration is: Transactional Replication with a 'Pull'
> Subscription. The Subscriber is Updateable with Immediate Updates
> Only. All created via the SQL Server Enterprise Manager. Both the
> Publisher and Subscriber are on the same server. I'm running SQL
> Server 2000 (8.00.760 SP3), on Windows 2000 Server (5.0 (2195)).
> I manually run the snapshop agent. It runs fine with the status
> 'Succeeded' and the Last Action is 'A Snapshot of X article(s) was
> generated'.
> When I look at the distribution agent, things start to get a bit
> confusing in ( <SERVERNAME>/Replication Monitor/ Publishers/
> <SERVERNAME?>/ Publication/ Subscription), the status stays
> constantly at 'Never Started'. All other columns are either blank or
> 0. When I right click over the subscription, both Start Synchronising
> and Stop Synchronising are NOT greyed out. If I click on either Start
> Synchronising or Stop Synchronising (absolutely) nothing happens
> (except the mouse turns 'busy' for a fraction of a second). There are
> no error messages.
> I added -output c:\sqlout.txt -outputverboselevel 3 to the
> distribution agent command. C:\sqlout.txt did not get created.
> It worked fine up to a couple of days ago. I'm not sure exactly what
> caused the problem, as I made a few changes at the same time. The
> changes included: adding a new transactional publication, adding more
> articles to an existing transaction publication, and adding a merge
> publication. I've tried to go back to the set up before I made the
> changes, even disabling replication and starting again from scratch.
> Still the problem persists.
> The owner of the distribution agent has dbo permissions in both the
> publishing and subscribing database. Under 'Publisher and Distributor
> Properties' I've set the 'Replication Agent Connection to Publisher'
> and 'Agent Connection to the Subscriber' both to Use SQL Server
> Authentication, both with the same account that has dbo permissions in
> both publishing and subscribing database.
> Has anybody come across this problem before? Can anybody make any
> suggestions? Thanks in advance for your help.
> Regards
> Damian Helme
> IS Manager
> INTEC Engineering (UK) Ltd.
|||Thanks for the suggestion, I didn't get chance to try your suggestion
as I had already reinstalled SQL Server, which solved the problem.
I'll keep a note of your suggestion for future use.
Thanks again.
Damian.