I am trying to set up merge replication between windows sql 2000 and
msde clients.

I was wondering if anyone has sucessfully done this and would be would
be willing to share his experiences and approcah with me?

I would be obliged if someone could point me to a resource which would
cover all aspects of MSDE-sql merger replications over the internet.

IU have goe though the microsoft articles about replication sql sevrer
over the internet and was wondering if that approach has worked for
others and how the merger replkication should be configured for MSDE in
this environment?



Thanks



Ajay Garg

This is a very complex question - basically it boils down to this. Are you
replicating to local clients, i.e. on your lan or wan, or on the internet.

If you are replicating on the lan you should use a unc. In this case you
will want to ensure that your SQL Server agent on your pull subscribers can
access the snapshot share. The way this is normally done is to have the
subscribers SQL Server agent accounts being in the administrator group on
the publisher so they can connect to the \\Publisher\C$\Program
Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL\ReplData default snapshot share.

Some folks like to craft their own snapshot share that looks like this
\\Publisher\ShareName or \\Publisher\ShareName$ (which is hidden). In this
case make sure that the SQL Server Agent account on the subscribers have
rights to access this share and the files and folders beneath it.

The other part of this equation is to make sure that the account you are
connecting to your publisher with is in the PAL. (This is the impersonate
the SQL Server Agent account or specify an account option).

If you are replicating over the internet you only add the account that the
you are connecting to the Publisher with and when you create your
publication you hard code in the credentials there. When the subscriber
connects to the publisher it obtains the ftp account and password to use to
pull the snapshot from the publisher.

HTH - this is a very involved and complex topic.



--
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

[quoted text, click to view]

Thanks for the answer Hilary ,

I am replicating over the internet.I am using merge replication anhd
would attemp to merger data from the clients who are using MSDE to a
central sql server.
We are having a central sql server and clients are having dsl
connection.
We would be connecting via a firewall.

When I have to have the put the accounts by which the remote clients
are connecting to the sql server in PAL , since thay are not a part of
the domain , how can i put the subscribers who do not have acess to the
publishers database in the PAL list.

I have gone throgh the articles

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;324992
and also
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=321822

Hilary let me try to understand what you are saying here(If you are
replicating over the internet you only add the account that the
you are connecting to the Publisher with and when you create your
publication you hard code in the credentials there. When the subscriber

connects to the publisher it obtains the ftp account and password to
use to
pull the snapshot from the publisher)
Would this mean that we configure the clients to use pull publications
to pull the data and put it on an FTP share using the local system
account to create the publication and hard code the credentials in the
publication for the subscriber?
I saw this discussed in detail
http://www.sql-server-performance.com/pi_replication_across_internet.asp
would this also apply to merge publications?
I have gone though a lot of material in the last few days , is there a
book/article which discusses this in detail?

Thanking you in anticipation.


Ajay

Hilary