Hi everyone,
Is there any way I can increase the performance of a
snapshot? I'm currently running sql2k sp3 and win2k sp4
with merge replication running between two servers at
different locations (about 15 mi. apart). My database is
over 200GB in size. My snapshots are taking longer and I
wanted to know if there was anything I could do to speed
it up. Faster hardware (fiber HDDs, faster servers)? Any
recommendations here would be appreciated. Thanks.

Leon,
before investing in new hardware it is worth investigating
the software posibilities to speed up the initial snapshot
eg
you could look at the profile and optimise by using a
bigger batch size,
use an alternative folder to repldata and use compression
(~1/3 size in my experience)
have an attachable subscription database and distribute it
on disk to the sites...
It may be that it is still slow, but as it's a one-off and
after that you simply need to synchronise to keep upto
date (assuming all 200mb are not altered between
synchronisations!).
HTH,
Paul (www.replicationanswers.com)

Attachable subscription databases cannot be over 2G in size. This is a
Windows limitation.

BUG: You receive an error message when you copy a large subscription
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=833044


Regards,
Shirley
SQL Server Support

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