sql server replication: Hi all,

Forgive me if this is a stupid question, but we lost our DBA a few months ago to a better
job opportunity. As I am the person on staff who knows most about writing SQL queries,
guess who has his duties now? :) (At least I don't have to do backups and such... the
person who knows most about hardware got that portion of his duties.)

Anyway, I'm actually a programmer rather than a DBA, and I'm writing a program that will
be used by people on laptops at remote locations (forest fires) with no network
connection. I need them to be able to get data from the central database (example: usual
hourly rate for electricians) when they are at the home office, disconnect, go to the fire
and enter data into their own local (MSDE) database (example: 3 electricians worked for 8
hours). Then when they come back to the home office, they will need to upload their
details (which might include changing the default hourly rate if it turns out their
electricians cost more than normal, or whatever)

So I'm planning to use Merge Replication. I have all of my tables set up to use GUIDs
anywhere I would normally have used a plain auto-increment field.

Does it sound like I'm on the right track with using MR? And if so, can you point me at
any resources (books, websites, etc) that would show me step-by-step how to actually make
it WORK? Is BOL any good for this? I'm reading through what they've got there but I'm
not sure if it is actually good. :) (So far I'm more confused than anything.)

Thanks much,
Beverley

Beverley,
good luck with the new duties and I'd agree that merge
sounds appropriate. I'd consider partitioning the data in
some way - according to location or datacollector person
and use -HOSTNAME to represent this rather than use GUIDS
to ensure uniqueness. Alternatively a lot of people use
identities and automatic range management, which works
fine if you select large ranges to ensure you'll never
run oput of values.
BOL is a good resource. It lacks screenshots but the
information is good and should cover what you require.
Hilary Cotter is writing a book on merge, but that won't
be out for a little while. Even so, the info in his
transactional/snapshot book will probably prove useful.
I'd also consider getting yourself on a course - MS have
a 3 day one run at CTECs which I used to teach and is
particularly useful.
HTH,
Paul Ibison SQL Server MVP, www.replicationanswers.com
(recommended sql server 2000 replication book:
http://www.nwsu.com/0974973602p.html)

Hi Paul,

I hadn't even though of a course... good idea ;) I will look for Implementing Replication
Using Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Course 2591 in my area.

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