rs_send_repserver

Executes replication definition change requests directly at the primary database.

Syntax

rs_send_repserver_cmd ‘rs_api’

Parameters

rs_api – Contains the replication definition Replication Command Language (RCL) command and parameters you specify for rs_send_repserver_cmd. rs_api is a varchar parameter with a maximum length of 16370 bytes for Adaptive Server, 4000 bytes for Oracle, and 8000 bytes for Microsoft SQL Server.
Enclose rs_api in single quotes, and replace each single quote inside the string with two single quotes.

If the parameter length for rs_api is too short for a create or alter replication definition request, you can split the request into two or more requests.

Examples

Example 1 – Execute the “authors” alter replication definition request at the primary database to drop the address, city, state, and zip columns:
```
exec rs_send_repserver_cmd ‘alter replication
definition authors drop address, city, state, zip’
```

Example 2 – If a replication definition RCL is longer than the maximum length allowed for rs_api, you can split the request into two or more requests.

exec rs_send_repserver_cmd ‘alter replication
definition authors drop address, city’ 
go
exec rs_send_repserver_cmd ‘alter replication
definition authors drop state, zip’

Example 3 – In this example, you need to enclose “authors” in double quotes, and ‘off’ in two single quotes:
```
exec rs_send_repserver_cmd ‘alter replication definition “authors” replicate sqldml ‘‘off’’’
```

Usage

Before you use rs_send_repserver_cmd at the primary database, use admin verify_repserver_cmd to verify that you can execute the replication definition request successfully at the Replication Server.
Replication Server supports rs_send_repserver_cmd for these replication definition commands:
- alter replication definition
- create replication definition
- drop replication definition
- alter applied function replication definition
- create applied function replication definition
- alter request function replication definition
- create request function replication definition
Note: Besides Adaptive Server, Replication Server extends support for rs_send_repserver_cmd to supported versions of these non-ASE databases: Microsoft SQL Server and Oracle. See the Release Bulletin for Replication Agent for the supported database versions.
When you execute rs_send_repserver_cmd at the primary database, the Replication Agent sends the RCL command stored in rs_api to the Replication Server, which then executes the RCL command. This ensures that Replication Server replicates the primary data with the proper replication definition version—primary data before the rs_send_repserver_cmd is replicated with the old replication definition version, while primary data after the rs_send_repserver_cmd is replicated with the new replication definition version.
You do not always need to issue replication definition change requests directly from a primary data server. For example, you can execute the alter replication definition request directly from the primary Replication Server in these situations:
- If there is no subscription to the replication definition
- If there are subscriptions to the replication definition, but there is no data in the primary database log for the table or stored procedure
- If you are adding or dropping a searchable column to or from a table replication definition
- If you are adding or dropping a searchable parameter to or from a function replication definition
- If you are altering a replication definition to turn Dynamic SQL on or off

Warning! As Replication Server accepts all commands that Replication Agent sends to Replication Server, you must control access to rs_send_repserver_cmd at the primary database.