About this book

Sybase® Replication Server® maintains replicated data at multiple sites on a network. Organizations with geographically distant sites can use Replication Server to create distributed database applications with better performance and data availability than a centralized database system can provide.

This book, Replication Server Troubleshooting Guide, describes Replication Server troubleshooting tasks, such as dumping stable queues, debugging failures with the Data Server Interface (DSI) and Replication Server Interface (RSI), and diagnosing and correcting problems with subscriptions. It also touches on the common Replication Monitoring Services (RMS) problems.

The Replication Server Troubleshooting Guide is for Replication Server system administrators and application developers.

This book contains the following chapters:

The Sybase Replication Server documentation set consists of the following:

• The release bulletin for your platform – contains last-minute information that was too late to be included in the books.

  A more recent version of the release bulletin may be available on the World Wide Web. To check for critical product or document information that was added after the release of the product CD, use the Sybase Technical Library.

• Installation Guide for your platform – describes installation and upgrade procedures for all Replication Server and related products.

• What’s New in Replication Server? – describes the new features in Replication Server version 15.0 and the system changes added to support those features.

• Administration Guide – contains an introduction to replication systems. This manual includes information and guidelines for creating and managing a replication system, setting up security, recovering from system failures, and improving performance.

• Configuration Guide for your platform – describes configuration procedures for all Replication Server and related products, and explains how to use the rs_init configuration utility.

• Design Guide – contains information about designing a replication system and integrating heterogeneous data servers into a replication system.

• Getting Started with Replication Server – provides step-by-step instructions for installing and setting up a simple replication system.

• Heterogeneous Replication Guide – describes how to use Replication Server to replicate data between databases supplied by different vendors.

• Reference Manual – contains the syntax and detailed descriptions of Replication Server commands in the Replication Command Language (RCL); Replication Server system functions; Sybase Adaptive Server commands, system procedures, and stored procedures used with Replication Server; Replication Server executable programs; and Replication Server system tables.

• System Tables Diagram – illustrates system tables and their entity relationships in a poster format. Available only in print version.

• Troubleshooting Guide (this book) – contains information to aid in diagnosing and correcting problems in the replication system.

• Replication Manager plug-in help, which contains information about using Sybase Central™ to manage Replication Server.

Use the Sybase Getting Started CD, the SyBooks™ CD, and the Sybase Product Manuals Web site to learn more about your product:

Technical documentation at the Sybase Web site is updated frequently.

Set up a MySybase profile. MySybase is a free service that allows you to create a personalized view of Sybase Web pages.

This section describes style and syntax conventions, RCL command formatting conventions, and graphic icons used in this book.

alter user user
set password new_passwd
[verify password old_passwd]

• Curly braces and vertical bars – choose only one option.

  {red | yellow | blue}
  

• Curly braces and commas – choose one or more options. If you choose more than one, separate your choices with commas.

  {cash, check, credit}
  

• One item in square brackets – choose it or omit it.

  [anchovies]
  

• Square brackets and vertical bars – choose none or only one.

  [beans | rice | sweet_potatoes]
  

• Square brackets and commas – choose none, one, or more options. If you choose more than one, separate your choices with commas.

  [extra_cheese, avocados, sour_cream]
  

An ellipsis (...) means that you may repeat the last unit as many times as you need. For the alter function replication definition command, for example, you can list one or more parameters and their datatypes for either the add clause or the add searchable parameters clause:

alter function replication definition function_rep_def
{deliver as 'proc_name' |
 add @parameter datatype [, @parameter
datatype]... |
 add searchable parameters @parameter
  [, @parameter]... |
 send standby {all | replication definition}
   parameters}

RCL commands are similar to Transact-SQL® commands. The following sections present the formatting rules.

• You can break a line anywhere except in the middle of a keyword or identifier. You can continue a character string on the next line by typing a backslash (\) at the end of the line.

• Extra space characters on a line are ignored, except after a backslash. Do not enter any spaces after a backslash.

• You can enter more than one command in a batch, unless otherwise noted.

• RCL commands are not transactional. Replication Server executes each command in a batch without regard for the completion status of other commands in the batch. Syntax errors in a command prevent Replication Server from parsing subsequent commands in a batch.

• Keywords in RCL commands are not case-sensitive. You can enter them with any combination of uppercase or lowercase letters.

• Identifiers and character data may be case-sensitive, depending on the sort order that is in effect.

  • If you are using a case-sensitive sort order, such as “binary,” you must enter identifiers and character data with the correct combination of uppercase and lowercase letters.

  • If you are using a sort order that is not case-sensitive, such as “nocase,” you can enter identifiers and character data with any combination of uppercase or lowercase letters.

Identifiers are names you give to servers, databases, variables, parameters, database objects, and replication objects. Database object names include names for tables, columns, and views. Replication object names include names for replication definitions, subscriptions, functions, and publications.

• Identifiers can be 1 – 255 bytes long (equivalent to 1 – 255 single-byte characters) and must begin with a letter, the @ sign, or the _ character. See “Identifiers,” in Chapter 2, “Topics” of the Replication Server Reference Manual for a list of identifiers that have been extended to 255 bytes.

• Replication Server function parameters are the only identifiers that can begin with the @ character. Function parameter names can include 255 characters after the @ character.

• After the first character, identifiers can include letters, digits, and the #, $, or _ characters. Spaces are not allowed.

• Parameters in function strings have the same rules as identifiers, except:

  • They are enclosed in question marks (?), allowing Replication Server to locate them in the function string. Use two consecutive question marks (??) to represent a literal question mark in a function string.

  • The exclamation point (!) introduces a parameter modifier that indicates the source of the data that will be substituted for a parameter at runtime. Refer to Replication Server Reference Manual for a complete list of modifiers.

Replication Server supports all Adaptive Server datatypes.

User-defined datatypes are not supported. The timestamp, double precision, nchar, and nvarchar datatypes are indirectly supported by mapping them to other datatypes. Columns using the timestamp datatype are mapped to varbinary(8).

For more information about the supported datatypes, including how to format them, see Replication Server Reference Manual.

Replication Server supports a set of datatype definitions for non-Sybase data servers that lets you replicate column values of one datatype to a column of a different datatype in the replicate database. See the Replication Server Administration Guide Volume 1 for more information about heterogeneous datatype support (HDS).

Illustrations in this book use icons to represent the components of a replication system.

	Description
	This icon represents Replication Server, the Sybase server program maintains replicated data on a local-area network (LAN) and processes data transactions received from other Replication Servers on wide-area network (WAN).
	This icon represents Adaptive Server, the Sybase data server. Data servers manage databases containing primary or replicated data. Replication Server also works with heterogeneous data servers, so, unless otherwise noted, this icon can represent any data server in a replication system.
	This icon represents Replication Agent, a replication system process or module that transfers transaction log information for primary database to a Replication Server. The Replication Agent for Adaptive Server is RepAgent. Sybase provides Replication Agent products for Adaptive Server Anywhere, DB2, Informix, Microsoft SQL Server, and Oracle data servers. Except for RepAgent, which is an Adaptive Server thread, all Replication Agents are separate processes. In general, this icon only appears when representing a Replication Agent that is a separate process.
	This icon represents client application. A client application is a user process or application connected to a data server. It may be a front-end application program executed by a user or a program that executes as an extension of the system.
	This icon represents the Sybase Central Replication Manager plug-in (RM), a management utility that lets a replication system administrator develop, manage, and monitor a Sybase Replication Server environment.

This document is available in an HTML version that is specialized for accessibility. You can navigate the HTML with an adaptive technology such as a screen reader, or view it with a screen enlarger.

Replication Server HTML documentation has been tested for compliance with U.S. government Section 508 Accessibility requirements. Documents that comply with Section 508 generally also meet non-U.S. accessibility guidelines, such as the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) guidelines for Web sites.

Each Sybase installation that has purchased a support contract has one or more designated people who are authorized to contact Sybase Technical Support. If you cannot resolve a problem using the manuals or online help, please have the designated person contact Sybase Technical Support or the Sybase subsidiary in your area.