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I am using merge replication with SQL 2012. I am trying to rename a published table, and rename a published field.

These operations are not permitted in merge replication.

However I can think of an action plan if these things are needed. For instance renaming a field would include,

  1. Adding the new field
  2. Migrating the data from the old field to the new field
  3. Wait for a while, perhaps a month
  4. Delete the old field

The problem is after step 2. We can force a software upgrade to the clients so that data is written into the new field.

But some data may have been modified in the old field at one of the subscribers before they do the sync which makes the schema change. This would also be before they were forced to do the update.

The migration could be done more than once, but by the time you get to step 4 its hard to know which modifications have been made to the old field, and which have been made to the new field.

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Why did you cross-post? stackoverflow.com/questions/12591588/… – Aaron Bertrand Sep 25 '12 at 23:22
Start denying access to the old column @ some point in your cut-over? msdn.microsoft.com/en-US/library/ms173724(v=sql.105).aspx – Eric Higgins Sep 25 '12 at 23:39
@Aaron Bertrand. OK The stack overflow one has been closed. – peter Oct 1 '12 at 22:22

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