Merge replication between different domains

  • Hi,

    I have a merge replication set up with a distributer publishing to 3 subscribers all on the same domain.

    I now want to add another subscriber but on a different domain.  I know I can register the servers as full name (name.domain.company.org) or using their IP address and I can see one from the other etc in order to go through the motions of setting up a replciation, but it doesn't work.

    Permissions are all ok.  Error message is 'The remote server does not exist or has not been designated as a valid Publisher.  The step failed.'

    Am I correct in thinking that the publishers short name is embeded within the existing publication and therefore it will never work replicating to a different domain?

    Is it possoble to replicate between different domains?

    If I recreate my pulication (and therefore all subscriptions) from scratch using IP address rather than short name will this work?  Is there a better way that I'm missing - I hope so as I'd rather not have to start all subscribtions/send snapshots again.

    Thanks for your help

    Cayley

  • Yes, it is possible to replicate between different domains.

    The easiest way to set up replication between different domains is to create a local user account on both the servers with the same username and password. Make the account an administrator of the local machine. Then set this account as the startup account

    for the SQL Server Agent. Restart the SQL Server agent and start the merge agent. This should fix your problem.

    ------------
    Prakash Sawant

    http://psawant.blogspot.com

  • I have users set up as local admin and SQL system admin at both subscriber and publisher.

    I'm not sure it's a permissions thing, as it can't even find the server (The remote server does not exist or has not been designated as a valid Publisher.)

    Through enterprise managers from both servers I can see and use the other.  I can go through all the steps of setting up a merge replication no problem.  When it starts for the first time it says it looking for the server, but using it's short name.  From a different domain it would be impossible to find it with out using the full long name or IP address?

    Although set up the subscription using the long name for the publisher, the short name seems to be embedded.

    Or am I barking up completely the wrong tree?

    Cayley

     

  • You can try one thing first register the publisher in enterprise manager on subscriber then use that name for configuring your subscription

    Note: - all this steps & replication configuration should be done by login as the local user which is common at both the server's at the same time SQL agent on both the server should also run under this service.

     

    ------------
    Prakash Sawant

    http://psawant.blogspot.com

  • On the publisher run

    SELECT * FROM SYSSERVERS. 

    One of the rows returned should be the subscriber that you have registered in EnterpriseManager.  The srvname should be the exact name as the subscriber instance name.  If it's something different, you can always create an alias on the publisher server with the exact name as the subscriber, pointing via IP, or whatever.

  • At the publisher (DOMAIN_A\NAME1) I have registered the subscriber using it's IP address.  At the subscriber (DOMAIN_B\NAME2) I have registered it as it's IP address and registered the publisher as it's IP address.

    At the publisher it is registered as NAME1, and the original publication was set up using just NAME1.

    I have local admin users on both machines and both are SQL sys admin (same account that runs the sql server agent.

    When I set up the subscribtion on the local machine I can see the publisher, all the databases and will go through all the steps normally.

    When it tries to run in the status bar at the subscriber it says trying to connect to NAME1 (even though I set it up using IP address).  I assume this is because the original publication set up ages ago was all done using just NAME1.  Other subscribers are all on the same domain so I didn't need to use IP address (or DOMAIN.COMPANY.NAME1.ORG).

    Am I going to have to set up the whole publication (and all the other subscribers) again using just IP addresses?

    Thanks for all your comments.

    Cayley

  • We're trying to set this up on a SQL Server 2000 failover cluster. Is there an easy way to create this local user account for the SQL Server Agent on this type of environment?

Viewing 7 posts - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)

You must be logged in to reply to this topic. Login to reply