change distributor ?

Hi There

Ok i have the following setup.

Server 1 - OLTP publisher
Server 2 - Remote Distributor
Server 3 - Warehouse subscriber

Server 4 - New Server (new computer name etc, brand new).

I need Server 4 to be the new remote distributor for Server 1's publication.

I could disable replication and reconfigure from scratch with new server 4 as distributor.
Problem OLTP tons of data , downtime required for initial snapshot to long.

How can i do this without having to completely reconfigure replication , that is minimal downtime.

ThanxUnfortunately, there is not a way to just switch out the Distributor without reconfiguring. The good news, however, is that you can probably do this without too much fuss.

Since the Publisher and Subscriber will remain the same, you should not need to reinitialize the Subscriber; it already has all of the published data. The following should get you where you want to go:

1) Configure Server 4 as a Distributor and enable Server 1 as a Publisher.

2) Generate a script to create your publication(s) on Server 1.

3) Quiesce the old system by making sure that all replicated data has been distributed to the Subscriber.

4) Drop the subscription(s) on Server 3.

5) Disable replication on Server 1.

6) Reconfigure replication on Server 1 with Server 4 as the Distributor.

7) Run the scripts to recreate the publication(s).

8) Add the subscription(s) on Server 3, but use the no_sync option (which means that the Subscriber already has the data).

9) Start allowing changes to the replicated data.

Phillip Garding

|||Hi Phillip

Thank you very much for your input, sorry it has taken so long to reply.

The no_sync option is the trick, i will try test this scenario.

Thanx again