Help.
I am having a hard time getting the snapshot agent to run when I create a
distrubution/publication and then a subscription. I followed the following
tutorials:
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa337475.aspx

I have both SQL Server 2005 developer and Express on my development box. I
create the distribution using the wizard which creates a database in the
system databases group called distribution.
I create the publication (AdventureWorks) called AdventureWorksMerge.
I create the subscription in the instance of SQL Server Express and it does
not initialize because there is no snapshot. I run the Veiw Snapshot Agent
Status and it says agent has never run. I click run, a moment goes by and
then the same message re-appears. It seems that I have to run the following
batch file to get a snapshot created.

SET DistPub=MACHINENAME\SQL2005
SET PubDB=AdventureWorks
SET PubName=AdventureWorksMerge

"C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\90\COM\SNAPSHOT.EXE" -Publication
%PubName% -Publisher %DistPub% -Distributor %DistPub% -PublisherDB
%PubDB% -ReplicationType 2 -OutputVerboseLevel 1 -DistributorSecurityMode
1

Is it really suppose to be this hard to set up replication? It doesn't seem
to matter whether I'm setting it up as a push or pull replication.
I'm going to have to write vb6 code to syncronize these two databases in a
MS Access project front end. Is there a place for some example code for
that?

Okay, sorry, there was more than one question here.

Thanks in adavance for any help. I'd like to know what it is that I'm doing
wrong here...
S

I would simplify things a bit. First try to run the snapshot agent's job from
SSMS. Set up the subscriber as a push and run the agent on the publisher. If
you can get this working then at least we'll know that the setup is correct.
If not then post back any problems you have.
Cheers,
Paul Ibison

As a test, I disabled distribution on the local instance of SQL Server
(developer) and then re-enabled it and setup a publication on the Northwind
database. I set up a push subscription on my test box and SQL Server Express
to this publication. I get the message that the subscription cannot be
initialized because there is no snapshot available. So, I go back to my dev
box and right click on the publication and click "View Snapshot Agent
Status" and it says the agent has never been run. So, I click start in the
View Snapshot Agent Status dialog and it spins for a moment and then stops
and again displays the message that the agent has never been run.

What am I missing here?

S
[quoted text, click to view]

Maybe I'm not reading this correctly but I notice that at no point do you
mention running the snapshot agent. What happens if you start the snapshot
agent manually from the SQL Server agent?
Cheers,