Hi folks.
I have a SQL Server 2000 database, published using merge replication. The subscribers are SQL Server CE on hand-held devices.
I am planning for the (inevitable) scenario where the publication database must be restored. To this end, I have read the relevant sections in books online, and carried out my own test, with unsatisfactory results.
The test I carried out was to take a backup of the database, make some changes at the subscriber, synchronise, and then restore the publication database from the backup. Therefore the publication database no longer contains the changes made at the subscriber. If I synchronise again now, the changes still do not appear in the publication database, although they are still present on the subscriber.
This seems to suggest that there is no way of recovering any changes synchronised to the publisher after the backup was taken. In fact, the databases are dangerously out of sync, suggesting that a reinitialisation is required, which definitely wipes out any changes that were made.
Can anyone please confirm that this is the case? Or am I missing something?
Thanks in advance for any help you can give,
Nick Chadwick