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How to: Administer a Peer-to-Peer Topology (Replication Transact-SQL Programming)

Administering a peer-to-peer topology is similar to administering a typical transactional replication topology, but there are a number of areas with special considerations. The principal difference in administering a peer-to-peer topology is that some changes require the system to be quiesced. Quiescing a system involves stopping activity on published tables at all nodes and ensuring that each node has received all changes from all other nodes. For more information, see How to: Quiesce a Replication Topology (Replication Transact-SQL Programming). For information about how to add a node to an existing topology, see How to: Configure Peer-to-Peer Transactional Replication (Replication Transact-SQL Programming).

Note

In a peer-to-peer topology, the distributor cannot be using an earlier version of SQL Server than a pull subscriber.

To add an article to an existing configuration

  1. Quiesce the system.

  2. Stop the Distribution Agent at each node in the topology. For more information, see Replication Agent Executables Concepts or How to: Start and Stop a Replication Agent (SQL Server Management Studio).

  3. Execute the CREATE TABLE statement to add the new table at each node in the topology.

  4. Bulk copy the data for the new table manually at all nodes by using the bcp utility.

  5. Execute sp_addarticle to create the new article at each node in the topology. For more information, see How to: Define an Article (Replication Transact-SQL Programming).

    Note

    After sp_addarticle is executed, replication automatically adds the article to the subscriptions in the topology.

  6. Restart the Distribution Agents at each node in the topology.

To make schema changes to a publication database

  1. Quiesce the system.

  2. Execute the data definition language (DDL) statements to modify the schema of published tables. For more information about supported schema changes, see Making Schema Changes on Publication Databases.

  3. Before you resume activity on published tables, quiesce the system again. This ensures that schema changes have been received by all nodes before any new data changes are replicated.

Example

The following example demonstrates how to add a new table article to an existing peer-to-peer replication topology that has two nodes.

-- Create the new table at both nodes.
CREATE TABLE AdventureWorks2008R2.dbo.ProductTest (column1 int, Column2 int);
CREATE TABLE AdventureWorks2008R2Replica.dbo.ProductTest (column1 int, Column2 int);
GO

REM Bulk insert data into both the publication and subscription databases.
REM The BCP format depends on the snapshot format (native or character).
REM Execute at the command prompt.

bcp AdventureWorks2008R2..ProductTest in NewTable.bcp �T �SMYPUBLISHER n/c
bcp AdventureWorks2008R2Replica..ProductTest in NewTable.bcp �T �SMYPUBLISHER n/c

--- Add the article to the publication.
DECLARE @publication AS sysname;
DECLARE @newtable AS sysname;
SET @publication = N'AdvWorksProductTran';
SET @newtable = N'ProductTest';

USE AdventureWorks2008R2

EXEC sp_addarticle 
  @publication = @publication,
  @article = @newtable,
  @source_table = @newtable,
  @destination_table = @newtable,
  @force_invalidate_snapshot = 0;
GO