Viewing Publication and Subscription Status in Replication Monitor

Microsoft SQL Server Replication Monitor displays status information for publications and subscriptions:

• The status of a publication is determined by the highest priority status of its subscriptions. For example, if one subscription to a publication has an error and another has a performance issue, a status of error is displayed for the publication.

• The status of a subscription is determined by the status of the agents that service the subscription. For merge replication, this is the Merge Agent. For transactional replication, this is either the Log Reader Agent or the Distribution Agent (the higher priority status is displayed; the status can also be determined by the Queue Reader Agent if queued updating subscriptions are used). For snapshot replication, this is the Snapshot Agent or the Distribution Agent (the higher priority status is displayed).

Tables in the following sections list the possible status values for publications and subscriptions. Three of the status values are displayed only if a threshold is met or exceeded:

• Expiring subscription

  This status value applies to all types of replication. For more information, see Setting Thresholds and Warnings in Replication Monitor.

• Performance critical

  This status value applies to transactional replication and merge replication. For more information, see Monitoring Performance with Replication Monitor.

• Long-running merge

  This status value applies to merge replication. For more information, see Monitoring Performance with Replication Monitor.

In addition to publication and subscription status, merge replication provides article-level statistics, which give detailed information about: how much longer a merge phase will take to complete; how much time was spent processing a given article; the type of connection a Subscriber is using; and other important information. The statistics are displayed in the Merge Agent window in Replication Monitor. Snapshot and transactional replication provide detailed information on Distribution Agent processing.

To view publication and subscription status

• Replication Monitor: How to: View Information and Perform Tasks for a Publication (Replication Monitor) and How to: View Information and Perform Tasks for a Subscription (Replication Monitor)

To view detailed information for agents

• Replication Monitor: How to: View Information and Perform Tasks for the Agents Associated With a Publication (Replication Monitor) and How to: View Information and Perform Tasks for the Agents Associated With a Subscription (Replication Monitor).

Publication Status Values

The following table shows publication status values and their corresponding icons in priority order.

Status	Icon
Error
Performance critical
Retrying failed command
OK	none

Subscription Status Values

The following tables show subscription status values and their corresponding icons in priority order. It is possible for a subscription to be in two states at the same time, such as Expiring soon/Expired and Retrying failed command; the highest priority status is displayed.

The status values Performance critical, Expiring soon/Expired, and Uninitialized are warnings. When a warning is displayed, Replication Monitor also displays whether an agent is running. For example, the status could be Running, Performance critical.

Transactional subscriptions

Status	Icon
Error
Performance critical
Expiring soon/Expired
Uninitialized subscription
Retrying failed command
Not running
Running

Merge subscriptions

Status	Icon
Error
Performance critical
Long-running merge
Expiring soon/Expired
Uninitialized subscription
Retrying failed command
Synchronizing
Not Synchronizing

Snapshot subscriptions

Status	Icon
Error
Expiring soon/Expired
Uninitialized subscription
Retrying failed command
Synchronizing
Not Synchronizing

See Also

Concepts

Monitoring Replication with Replication Monitor