sp_refreshsubscriptions - An useful Transactional Replication Stored Procedure

Consider you are having a Transactional replication setup in a Live environment with a huge published database (For example, more than 50 GB publisher database size) , and you want to add an article to this existing publication without generating the snapshot for the all the articles. Also consider that the size of the new article that you are going to add is only 2 MB.:)
Now think, Do you really prefer to generate and apply the snapshot for the complete 50 GB database just for adding a 2 MB article?
I would really not prefer this as the environment is Live and its requires more time to complete the process of generating and applying snapshot. Then how will you achieve this?

You can do this by using the unpopular Transactional Replication Stored Procedure sp_refreshsubscriptions.
This stored proc expects a parameter "Publication Name" and has to be run on the publisher database.
When you run this on the publisher, it will mark only the newly added articles for generating snapshot.

Syntax:

exec sp_refreshsubscriptions 'PublicationName'

GO

Example:

-- Adding the transactional articles

use [AdventureWorks]

exec sp_addarticle @publication = N'TestAdv', @article = N'Contact', @source_owner = N'Person', @source_object = N'Contact', @type = N'logbased', @description = N'', @creation_script = N'', @pre_creation_cmd = N'drop', @schema_option = 0x000000000803509F, @identityrangemanagementoption = N'manual', @destination_table = N'Contact', @destination_owner = N'Person', @status = 24, @vertical_partition = N'false', @ins_cmd = N'CALL [dbo].[sp_MSins_PersonContact]', @del_cmd = N'CALL [dbo].[sp_MSdel_PersonContact]', @upd_cmd = N'SCALL [dbo].[sp_MSupd_PersonContact]'

GO

--Refresh Subscriptions

exec sp_refreshsubscriptions 'TestAdv'

GO

After running the above commands, run the snapshot agent.

Before running the sp_refreshsubscriptions SP, make sure that the publisher properties "allow_anonymous" and "immediate_sync" are set to "False", if these 2 options are set to "True" then this SP will mark all the articles for generating snapshot instead of marking only the newly added articles.

To Check the publication properties, use this query.

exec sp_helppublication 'PublicationName'
GO

If the values of the output columns "allow_anonymous" and "immediate_sync" are 0 then they are set to "False" if their values are 1 then they are set to "True"

To Change the publication properties for "allow_anonymous" and "immediate_sync", use this query

EXEC sp_changepublication

@publication = 'PublicationName',

@property = N'allow_anonymous',

@value = 'false'

GO

EXEC sp_changepublication

@publication = 'PublicationName',

@property = N'immediate_sync',

@value = 'false'

GO

Generate Database Script with its Objects

Generating the database script with its objects is one of the common tasks that a DBA would perform very frequently. This task may be carried out for various reasons like keeping the databases identical between environments and etc.

The process of scripting the database is simple and here is how to do this.

1. Right-Click on the database which you choose to script out.
   
2. Go to "Tasks" and choose "Generate Scripts"
   
   
   
3. Now in the Script wizard, you will see the database that you want to script will be highlighted and there will be a check-box which "Script all objects in the selected database". If you select this check-box, then the wizard will script all the objects that are present in that particular database.
   
4. After selecting the appropriate option click "Next" and now in the "Choose Script Options" page, select the option that you want to include in the script.
   From SQL Server 2008 onwards, you can choose to script the data also if needed. So to script the data, go to the "Table/View Options" in the "Choose Script Options" page and change the "Script Data" option to "True"
   
   
   
5. If you have not choose the option to script all objects from step 3 then after clicking next, the wizard will ask you what type of objects it want to script. Select the object types and click "Next".
   
6. Choose the objects that you want to script and click "Next".
   
   
7. Now in the "Output Option" page, select how you want to store the output of this process and click "Next"
   
8. Now the wizard will summarize on what actions it will perform. If you are satisfied with the action then click "Finish" else go back and change accordingly.
   
   
   
   
   
   This article is also available in pdf format for downloading.
   Please Click here to get your copy.

How to clear most recently used (MRU) servers list

As the days move with your work on SQL Server management studio, it will accumulate the list of servers that you have been working on, starting from the point of installation of  SQL Server management studio.
This list is called as MRU servers list. Here MRU refers to Most Recently Used.
This makes your life easier by showing the most recently used servers by you and you can just select one from the list instead of remembering the server name and typing it manually.

As the list becomes big or the servers that you were using are no more used by you or for any other reasons you may want to clean up this list, Here is the process on how to clear the MRU servers list.

For SQL Server 2005

1. Make sure that the "SQL Server management studio" is not opened
2. Go to "Run"
3. Type this command %APPDATA%\Microsoft\Microsoft SQL Server\90\Tools\Shell\ and click "ok". This will open up the folder where this list is stored
4. Now search for the file "mru.dat" and rename this file.
5. After renaming, launch the SQL Server management studio and you will not see any of the most recently used servers in the list.

For SQL Server 2008

1. Make sure that the "SQL Server management studio" is not opened
2. Go to "Run"
3. Type this command %APPDATA%\Microsoft\Microsoft SQL Server\100\Tools\Shell\ and click "ok". This will open up the folder where this list is stored
4. Now search for the file "SqlStudio.bin" and rename this file.
5. After renaming, launch the SQL Server management studio and you will not see any of the most recently used servers in the list.
   

DTS packages in SQL Server 2005 and SQL Server 2008

As you all know that the DTS packages in SQL server 2000 is replaced by the giant called Integration Services which has more features than DTS, and DTS is no more supported in SQL Server 2005 and up.
To give a backward compatibility until the DTS packages are migrated(or converted by you) to SSIS packages, you can import the DTS packages into SQL Server 2005 and SQL Server 2008 and call them in the jobs to do their work.

These Imported packages will be present at the below location in SQL Server management Studio.
SQLServer>> Management>> Legacy>> Data Transformation Services.

The DTS packages under this path cannot be edited in SQL Server 2005 and SQL Server 2008.
For editing these packages, you need to install "DTS Designer Components"

If you want to edit DTS packages in SQL Server 2005 go here, download and install the component "SQLServer2005_DTS.msi"

If you want to edit DTS packages in SQL Server 2008 go here, download and install the component "SQLServer2005_BC.msi"

Once you install the DTS Designer Components, it will allow you to edit the DTS packages as you do in SQL Server 2000.
Just right-click on the package and choose the option "open" and this will open up the DTS designer for you.

I strongly recommend to convert the DTS packages to the SSIS packages as the support to DTS will be completed removed in future versions of SQL Server.

Happy New Year 2011

Wishing you all a very happy and prosperous new year.