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.