Merge and Transactional from the same server

I need to come up with a solution to my replication issue. The solution that I come up with involves using one publisher to push transactional and merge replication. The database that is published is the same.

Would this cause any issues? Can this be done? I would think that if a table is needed for both, I would have to create a separate publication for each type right?

Is there any documentation anywhere to help prove if this is possible?

Hi, William,

It can be done if you use readonly transactional replication and merge replication on the same db (same tables). You can't enable updatable transactional replication & merge replication at the same time on the same table same db (it's not allowed) since they both will try to add a guid column to the publishing table. Yes you need to create separate tran (readonly) publication and merge publication on the same set of tables. And you will have problems if tran and merge subscription are both on the same db (I guess you will not do this, right?). The other restriction is that for transactional replication, you need to have an primary key on the publisher table, I guess you know it already.

Not sure if we have any documentation specifically for this particular configuration but I just tried to play with this configuration and it worked just fine for me.

Thanks,

Zhiqiang Feng

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So readonly for both transactional and merge? the tables I want to add readonly transactional to already have updatable merge (if I understand this correctly it is two way replication right)... The transactional will go downstream only to a server and the merge can go downstream (not to the same server as the transactional) and upstream....

It doesn't sound like this is possible does it? If not I have a backup plan..

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William,

To avoid confusion, I should say "It can be done if you use merge replication and readonly transactional replication on the same db (same tables)". For merge, there is no concept of readonly, it only has one type which you can always download & upload changes between publisher and subscriber.

Thanks,

Zhiqiang Feng

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Ok... So as long as the transactional only goes to the subscriber and not from the subscriber back to the publisher it should work with no issues? Is that what you are saying?

Sorry if I sound ignorant but I usually have only had one or the other and now I need both.

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Yes, your understanding is correct.

Thanks,

Zhiqiang Feng