How to check root cause of "Agent message code 20084. The process could not connect to Distributor" on a Pull subscription(SQL MI) and Publisher/Distributor (ON Prem SQL Server)

Question

How to check root cause of "Agent message code 20084. The process could not connect to Distributor" on a Pull subscription(SQL MI) and Publisher/Distributor (ON Prem SQL Server) The firewall and network settings looks fine. However we are running into the above when the subscriber is a SQL MI(Pull)

Answer 1

Hi Nitya V,

Thank you for reaching out and welcome to Microsoft Q&A.

I understand that you would like to know the root cause of the "Agent message code 20084. The process could not connect to Distributor" on a Pull subscription(SQL MI) and Publisher/Distributor (ON Prem SQL Server).

If you are sure that the firewall and network (include DNS) are fine. Try the followings:

• Ensure that the SQL Server Agent service accounts on both the Publisher/Distributor and the Subscriber have the necessary permissions. Such as db_owner.
• Validate connections by running this query:

sqlcmd -S <Distributor_IP>,<Port> -U <Username> -P <Password>
SELECT @@SERVERNAME;

• On both Distributor and Subscriber, check SQL Server error logs, this will let us know the root cause of the issue.

    EXEC xp_readerrorlog;
  

I hope this is helpful! Do not hesitate to let me know if you have any other questions.

** Please don't forget to close up the thread here by upvoting and accept it as an answer if it is helpful ** so that others in the community facing similar issues can easily find the solution.

Best Regards,

Sina Salam

Answer 2

Hi @Nitya V ,

Thanks for your information.

Common issues which would show the 'Agent message code 20084. The process could not connect to Distributor' include:

• The distribution login doesn't have rights on the distributor. You can run publication successfully on server, so this wasn't it.
• The subscriber is inaccessible. You said the firewall and network settings looks fine, so no chicanery.
• Some account settings are wrong.
• Some publication settings are wrong. The distributor login needs to be a member of the Publication Access List.
• You have a 32-bit alias but no a 64-bits alias. Ensure whether you have any aliases.

In addition, could you tell me what's the version of your SQL? There is one more common solution to resolve the issue:

Please make sure you have the latest Cumulative Update of your SQL Server.

If you have any confused, please feel free to share with us.

Best regards,

Lucy Chen

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Answer 3

@Nitya V

Thank you for reaching out and sorry aout the issue you are facing.

Could you please with the latest version of SSMS replication wizard.

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/azure-database-support-blog/initialize-a-managed-instance-replication-subscriber-with-a/ba-p/3698750

Regards,

Oury