Merge Replication using TCP/IP

Hi,
We need to setup merge replication between server A & B using TCP/IP. These
servers are behind a firewall. The connection
between these servers can be done only using IP (class C)
How to configure this.
rgds,
Soura
Soura,
You can use web synchronization for merge replication to sync across
firewall. You can find more information here:
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms151763.aspx
Yi Chen
"SouRa" <SouRa@.discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:64ECCDF7-F37F-4AFA-AE7B-9DC575E94363@.microsoft.com...
> Hi,
> We need to setup merge replication between server A & B using TCP/IP.
> These
> servers are behind a firewall. The connection
> between these servers can be done only using IP (class C)
> How to configure this.
> rgds,
> Soura
|||Hi Chen,
Thanks for yor suggestion.
We are using SQL Server 2000 and Web synchronization opiton is available in
SQL 2005. Is there any workaround
for this situation in SQL Server 2000 ?
rgds,
Soura
"Yi Chen [MSFT]" wrote:

> Soura,
> You can use web synchronization for merge replication to sync across
> firewall. You can find more information here:
> http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms151763.aspx
> Yi Chen
> "SouRa" <SouRa@.discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:64ECCDF7-F37F-4AFA-AE7B-9DC575E94363@.microsoft.com...
>
>

Merge Replication over VPN over the Pond

Hi,
We have two servers, one in North America, one in Europe, that are connected
by a firewall VPN. The firewalls have built-in encryption processors, so the
VPN encryption doesn't cause a speed issue. We are running SQL 2000 SP3 on
Windows 2003 Server.
We are currently hosting about 25 databases on the European server and using
Merge Replication to replicate between the servers. The Merge Agents are set
up to start every hour, and they are also running continuously (I manually
added the -continuous flag to the merge agent run step).
Right now we get various error messages during peak usage times. I have
already gone into the agent profiles and tweaked them based on
recommendations from this site among others, but we still get these errors...
I have read somewhere (including in Hilary's book) that there is an
-FTPAddress flag that you can put in the merge agent. Does this mean that if
you put that flag into the agent details, it will use FTP instead of TCP/IP
to transmit the merge data?
We get significantly faster download speeds when using FTP, so I would like
to set up as much FTP usage as possible, not just FTP'ing of the snapshots
(only once/week), but FTP of all merging information.
Right now our publisher with live data is in Europe, and our distributor is
in North America on the same server as the "backup" subscription databases.
Any insight would be greatly appreciated.
FTP uses tcp/ip protocol under the covers, so it probably won't help you.I
suspect you see performance improvements using FTP in applying your
snapshots as they are likely compressed. Otherwise I don't think you will
see performance improvements over UNC with FTP.
Exactly what are the error messages you are getting with merge replication.
Many of these errors are transitory and clear the next time the merge agent
runs.
Merge is a difficult beast to tune - you might want to review -
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/de...artitioned.asp
Hilary Cotter
Looking for a SQL Server replication book?
http://www.nwsu.com/0974973602.html
Looking for a FAQ on Indexing Services/SQL FTS
http://www.indexserverfaq.com
"Hugh" <Hugh@.discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:E34D79B5-A506-4129-8F87-B94D90558F4D@.microsoft.com...
> Hi,
> We have two servers, one in North America, one in Europe, that are
> connected
> by a firewall VPN. The firewalls have built-in encryption processors, so
> the
> VPN encryption doesn't cause a speed issue. We are running SQL 2000 SP3
> on
> Windows 2003 Server.
> We are currently hosting about 25 databases on the European server and
> using
> Merge Replication to replicate between the servers. The Merge Agents are
> set
> up to start every hour, and they are also running continuously (I manually
> added the -continuous flag to the merge agent run step).
> Right now we get various error messages during peak usage times. I have
> already gone into the agent profiles and tweaked them based on
> recommendations from this site among others, but we still get these
> errors...
> I have read somewhere (including in Hilary's book) that there is an
> -FTPAddress flag that you can put in the merge agent. Does this mean that
> if
> you put that flag into the agent details, it will use FTP instead of
> TCP/IP
> to transmit the merge data?
> We get significantly faster download speeds when using FTP, so I would
> like
> to set up as much FTP usage as possible, not just FTP'ing of the snapshots
> (only once/week), but FTP of all merging information.
> Right now our publisher with live data is in Europe, and our distributor
> is
> in North America on the same server as the "backup" subscription
> databases.
> Any insight would be greatly appreciated.
|||Hi Hilary,
Thanks for the response. Here are some of the errors we get:
The subscription to publication "xxxxx" is invalid. General Network Error.
or...
The agent is suspect. No response within the last 10 minutes.
or...
The process could not enumerate deletions at the Publisher. General Network
Error.
You are right, these errors go away when the merge agent restarts itself,
but I would like to get rid of them entirely, of course.
I have read the article you suggested, but we aren't doing any partitioning,
as the entire database is being mirrored. But from what I read there, the
replication will work better if the database is tuned, so looking into index
tuning is probably a good next step?
Oh, and when is the Merge book coming out? ;)
Thanks for the help.
|||Hi Hugh,
Just curious, what Firewall VPN product do you use? I'm intrigued by the
built-in encryption processor feature...
Thanks,
Brad
"Hugh" <Hugh@.discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:E34D79B5-A506-4129-8F87-B94D90558F4D@.microsoft.com...
> Hi,
> We have two servers, one in North America, one in Europe, that are
> connected
> by a firewall VPN. The firewalls have built-in encryption processors, so
> the
> VPN encryption doesn't cause a speed issue. We are running SQL 2000 SP3
> on
> Windows 2003 Server.
> We are currently hosting about 25 databases on the European server and
> using
> Merge Replication to replicate between the servers. The Merge Agents are
> set
> up to start every hour, and they are also running continuously (I manually
> added the -continuous flag to the merge agent run step).
> Right now we get various error messages during peak usage times. I have
> already gone into the agent profiles and tweaked them based on
> recommendations from this site among others, but we still get these
> errors...
> I have read somewhere (including in Hilary's book) that there is an
> -FTPAddress flag that you can put in the merge agent. Does this mean that
> if
> you put that flag into the agent details, it will use FTP instead of
> TCP/IP
> to transmit the merge data?
> We get significantly faster download speeds when using FTP, so I would
> like
> to set up as much FTP usage as possible, not just FTP'ing of the snapshots
> (only once/week), but FTP of all merging information.
> Right now our publisher with live data is in Europe, and our distributor
> is
> in North America on the same server as the "backup" subscription
> databases.
> Any insight would be greatly appreciated.
|||Hi Brad,
Sonicwalls have a built in HMAC MD5 processor for VPN, so if you leave the
vpn tunnels with thier default encryption settings, everything runs through
the encryption processor.
Cheers,
Hugh.

Merge Replication From Behind Corporate Firewall

I would like to replicate data between a central hosted server (which I
host) and a client server (hosted by my client). The client server is
behind a corporate firewall.
My understanding is that in order to perform Merge Replication both
servers would need to be able to see each other on port 1433, which
means both servers need to have a fixed IP address open to the accept
incoming/outgoing traffic from their respective IP addresses.

>From speaking with the client it's become apparent that they are not
going to provide a fixed IP address accessible to my server. Is there
any other way of doing this ie. replicate data from the client to my
hosted server?
BTW - the reason I'm doing this is that I have Reporting Services on my
hosted server so the idea was that the client could replicate data up
to my server, I maintain it on an ongoing basis and provide reports
through reporting services.
Any suggestions/ideas ?
Thanks for the help !
If your publisher has a fixed IP address this will work. You can pull the
snapshot using FTP, so they will have to open that port.
On your subscriber you will have to create an alias using client network
utility for the publisher using the fixed IP address.
Hilary Cotter
Looking for a SQL Server replication book?
http://www.nwsu.com/0974973602.html
Looking for a FAQ on Indexing Services/SQL FTS
http://www.indexserverfaq.com
<ciaran@.insero-technologies.com> wrote in message
news:1108055889.511697.180130@.o13g2000cwo.googlegr oups.com...
> I would like to replicate data between a central hosted server (which I
> host) and a client server (hosted by my client). The client server is
> behind a corporate firewall.
> My understanding is that in order to perform Merge Replication both
> servers would need to be able to see each other on port 1433, which
> means both servers need to have a fixed IP address open to the accept
> incoming/outgoing traffic from their respective IP addresses.
> going to provide a fixed IP address accessible to my server. Is there
> any other way of doing this ie. replicate data from the client to my
> hosted server?
> BTW - the reason I'm doing this is that I have Reporting Services on my
> hosted server so the idea was that the client could replicate data up
> to my server, I maintain it on an ongoing basis and provide reports
> through reporting services.
> Any suggestions/ideas ?
> Thanks for the help !
>
|||Hi Hilary,
Thanks for the response !
I've looked into pulling the snapshot using FTP, and while the BOL give
a good overview of setting this up from the Publication side, there is
very little covered from the subscriber side (any ideas on
references?).
I did set up the alias for my Publisher using a fixed IP address, but I
can't see where I would reference this setting up my subscription.
A Confused ..
Ciaran ;o)
Hilary Cotter wrote:
> If your publisher has a fixed IP address this will work. You can pull
the
> snapshot using FTP, so they will have to open that port.
> On your subscriber you will have to create an alias using client
network[vbcol=seagreen]
> utility for the publisher using the fixed IP address.
> --
> Hilary Cotter
> Looking for a SQL Server replication book?
> http://www.nwsu.com/0974973602.html
> Looking for a FAQ on Indexing Services/SQL FTS
> http://www.indexserverfaq.com
> <ciaran@.insero-technologies.com> wrote in message
> news:1108055889.511697.180130@.o13g2000cwo.googlegr oups.com...
(which I[vbcol=seagreen]
is[vbcol=seagreen]
accept[vbcol=seagreen]
not[vbcol=seagreen]
there[vbcol=seagreen]
my[vbcol=seagreen]
on my[vbcol=seagreen]
up[vbcol=seagreen]
|||Once you setup the subscription you just have to change the "Snapshot file
location" to FTP in the subscription properties.
Jos.
<ciaran@.insero-technologies.com> wrote in message
news:1108066869.083530.26340@.z14g2000cwz.googlegro ups.com...
> Hi Hilary,
> Thanks for the response !
> I've looked into pulling the snapshot using FTP, and while the BOL give
> a good overview of setting this up from the Publication side, there is
> very little covered from the subscriber side (any ideas on
> references?).
> I did set up the alias for my Publisher using a fixed IP address, but I
> can't see where I would reference this setting up my subscription.
> A Confused ..
> Ciaran ;o)
> Hilary Cotter wrote:
> the
> network
> (which I
> is
> accept
> not
> there
> my
> on my
> up
>