Dematerialization Process

Dematerialization removes subscriptions and, optionally, data from the replicate database. It also removes subscription information from the Replication Server System Database (RSSD) at the primary and replicate sites.

When you execute drop subscription at the replicate Replication Server, the subscription status becomes Dematerializing in the replicate Replication Server rs_subscriptions table. If there are any other materializing or dematerializing subscriptions for the same replication definition and replicate database, the recovering column in the rs_subscriptions table is set to 2 to indicate that the dematerialization request is pending. The check subscription command indicates that the subscription has a Dematerializing or Pending status at the replicate Replication Server.

Subscription creation and drop requests are processed one at a time in the order entered. The request_date column in rs_subscriptions stores the time a request was entered.

There are two methods for dematerializing subscriptions:

with purge – deletes the subscription data from the replicate database.
without purge or bulk – does not delete the subscription data from the replicate database.

Both methods go through two stages:

Dematerialization – stops sending updates for the subscription to the replicate database and, optionally, deletes the subscription data from the replicate database.
Removal – deletes the subscription from the system tables of the primary and the replicate Replication Server.

with purge Dematerialization
The dematerialize with purge method is invoked by using the with purge option of the drop subscription command. The subscription status is set to Dematerializing at the replicate Replication Server, and a drop request is forwarded to the primary Replication Server.
Bulk Dematerialization
Bulk dematerialization is invoked using the without purge option of the drop subscription command. The subscription status becomes Dematerializing at the replicate Replication Server and a drop request is forwarded to the primary Replication Server.

Parent topic: Subscription Problems