SQL Replication for RCSQL Reporting Todd Endicott

Agenda Pro’s and Con’s Pre-Req’s Service Account Setup Replication from backup

Pro’s and Con’s No downtime for end users Less system intensive during setup Sometimes easier to fix VLDB’s Must completely remove and add back in for system upgrades Not DR capable

Pre-Req’s Secondary SQL server Hard Drive space (Virtual Drive recommended) (External?) Replication components installed Service Accounts (Likely bounce of SQL services) Permissions, permissions, permissions

Service Account Windows Service Account (example - ZOLLREPL)

Service Account Must change “Log On” account for SQL and SQL Agent

Service Account Must restart SQL and SQL Agent service for the new Login’s to take effect.

Service Account Repeat steps on “Replicated” SQL server Know where your data will live (Permissions and storage availability are critical to replication performance) Recommend not using the default SQL paths just because of long path name (Example – E:\ZOLLREPL vs. E:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL10_50.MSSQLSERVER\MSSQL\REPL

Setup Replication The order of the steps is critical to success!! How do we set it up? What happens if things go wrong? Common mistakes/issues How to remove replication

Setup Distribution Database Setup “Distribution” database (Where do I put it? How large will it be? Other considerations?)

Setup Distribution Database Components not installed?

Setup Distribution Database Add necessary components to existing instance.

Setup Distribution Database

Setup Distribution Database

Setup Distribution Database (Several screenshots were skipped in showing this step. Defaults are fine on missing screens) Close the installation and re-launch SQL Management studio Don’t forget to install components on secondary server

Setup Distribution Database

Setup Distribution Database

Setup Distribution Database WARNING!!! (Probably don’t want to do this)

Setup Distribution Database Still wrong!!!

Setup Distribution Database Correct path and permissions

Setup Distribution Database MDF and LDF location

Setup Distribution Database

Setup Distribution Database

Setup Distribution Database

Setup Distribution Database

Distribution Database Where do I find it?

Setup Publication

Setup Publication Start Publication Wizard

Setup Publication Choose RCSQL database

Setup Publication Choose replication type (Transactional publication)

Setup Publication

Setup Publication Some tables WON’T replicate (Missing Primary Keys)

Setup Publication Remove “RescueNet Central Reporting Log” from replicated articles

Setup Publication

Setup Publication

Setup Publication THIS IS DIFFERENT!!!!!

Setup Publication Setup Service Account

Setup Publication

Setup Publication Will automatically use service account for log reader

Setup Publication

Setup Publication Name your publication

Setup Publication Your Article amount may differ

RCSQL Publication

RCSQL Publication Must set subscription to be able to be initialized from a backup. (Publisher properties)

RCSQL Publication Now that Publication is built Run full backup of RCSQL in production (Can be compressed) Where backup is located will be VERY IMPORTANT!! Restore backup to secondary SQL server Give DBO rights to RCSQL on both servers to service account Wait for restore to complete Possibly move BAK file back to production server (Virtual Drive vs. File Copy)

RCSQL Publication Should now have RCSQL on Production server and replicated server Make sure you can access tables on restored databases before proceeding Make sure replicated copy of RCSQL matches in size to the production copy.

Setup Subscription NO GUI? PUSH OR PULL? Check Permissions (Folders and Databases) Subscription Script

Setup Subscription /*At the publisher, run the following command */ USE [RCSQL] GO EXEC sp_addsubscription @publication = 'RCSQL Pub to DSS', @subscriber = 'ITSREPL', @destination_db = RCSQL, @subscription_type ='Push', @sync_type = 'initialize with backup', @article = 'all', @update_mode = 'read only', @subscriber_type = 0, @backupdevicetype ='disk', @backupdevicename = '\\ITSSQL\zollrepl\rcsql.bak' Change backup device name to UNC path.....

Setup Subscription

Setup Subscription

Validate Subscription Where do I find it? Push vs Pull

Validate Subscription

Validate Subscription

Validate Subscription What are the errors?

Validate Subscription Check all tabs for possible errors

Validate Subscription Job Activity Monitor (Note the red X’s)

Validate Subscription Job Activity Monitor (Note the red X)

Validate Subscription After checking permissions, notices I did not add DBO access for service account on production server. (All red X’s are gone)

Validate Subscription A “HAPPY” replication monitor

Validate Subscription Check “Undistributed Commands” tab

What Next? Make change in “RescueNet” Admin to utilize the DSS server Test reports against “Replicated” side and “Production”, validate results When satisfied, move all report functions to the replicated server (Custom reports will need to be manually pointed at report server) If Archiving, Archive first then replicate. Archive server and replication server can be the same server.

Q & A