Also have a look at Windows Synchronization manager if that's the sort of thing you're after
Regards

Pascal
I'm still getting a handle on what's going on in your scenario. Why won't the views and stored procedures replicate? What error messages are received. You say that windows synchronization manager is not appropriate because it will replicate the whole file every time there is a change - are you talking about schema changes or data changes? Presumably you mean the former, and some schema changes are possible without creating a new snapshot (sp_repladdcolumn, sp_repldropcolumn). If the changes are more radical, then it might be relevant to create separate publications providing the data is 'partitioned' in the database. Anyway, if you can provide some more info, we can see what posibilities exist, and if it's definitely a 3rd party tool that's needed
Regards

Well, I have been desesperately trying to use the replication feature that's
in SQL but unfortunately the database that I'm trying to replicate won't
replicate.

I have had successfully use it before for other databases but this time I
have no control over the design of this one. It has views and stored
procedures that won't replicate. The company who designed it doesn't want to
"clean" the database, so I need to go with some kind of software that would
replicate the bulk file itself.

Using Windows file Synchronisation system ( DFS ) is definitely not
appropriate to the situation, because from what I see it will rereplicate
the all file every time there's a change ( bad idea when the file is many
hundreds of megs ).

I'm more looking for a software that would do replication of only the parts
that changed in the file .


Thanks for your help guys !


[quoted text, click to view]

Paul,


When I try to replicate the views and stored procedure I get that kind of
error message :
-------
The name ' ' is not permitted in this context. Only constants, expressions,
or variables allowed here. Column names are not permitted.
(Source: SQL2 (Data source); Error number: 128)
------
When I mentioned this to the company who designed the database, they had me
drop some stored procedures and views that were obsolete. Unfortunately they
didn't give me a full list of all the obsolete objects, so I still get the
error.
I aslo get errors like :
Invalid column name 'CaseSize'.
Invalid column name 'PlcOSItemStandardId'

I think ( but not sure ) that there are calls in the stored procedures to
columns that use to exist before but don't exist anymore ( every month or 2
the Db designers make updates on their software so it's entirely possible
that they don't drop stored procedure that aren't use anymore in the new
version )



As for Windows Synchronization manager, I'm sorry, I thought at first you
were referencing DFS or FRS which are tools in Windows that allow file
replication between servers.
I will take a look at what Windows Synchronization manager can do and see
if that could solve my issue.


As for the data being partioned, I'm not exactly sure again how the database
has been designed, so it's pretty hard for me to tell if I could create
different publication.

The reason why I was thinking about a 3rd party is because when I go to :
D:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL\Data I see the database as one
file, and I would have assumed that a 3rd party tool would see difference
inside the file and replicate just the chunk of data inside the file that
are changed and not replicate the all file every time ( I'm aiming for a SQL
server failover that would be at least 1 hour up to date )



Thanks


[quoted text, click to view]
the views and stored procedures replicate? What error messages are received.
You say that windows synchronization manager is not appropriate because it
will replicate the whole file every time there is a change - are you talking
about schema changes or data changes? Presumably you mean the former, and
some schema changes are possible without creating a new snapshot
(sp_repladdcolumn, sp_repldropcolumn). If the changes are more radical, then
it might be relevant to create separate publications providing the data is
'partitioned' in the database. Anyway, if you can provide some more info, we
can see what posibilities exist, and if it's definitely a 3rd party tool
that's needed.
[quoted text, click to view]

Pascal
I think you're right - in this case SQL Replication won't be the best solution as you don't know which schema changes have taken place. You could use snapshot, but as we can't limit it to a subset of the database you might as well backup and restore. There is a tool which could be hrelpful called sqlcompare - you can find it at http://www.red-gate.com/products.htm
HTH

Thanks Paul,

I checked the redgate website and the flash demo, sqlcompare may do the work
for me, I'll try the 14 days eval and see if I can synchronize.


Thanks again for all your advices !




[quoted text, click to view]
solution as you don't know which schema changes have taken place. You could
use snapshot, but as we can't limit it to a subset of the database you might
as well backup and restore. There is a tool which could be hrelpful called
sqlcompare - you can find it at http://www.red-gate.com/products.htm.
[quoted text, click to view]