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We have a database which is set up in Merge Replication.

We accidentally updated hundreds of thousands of records in a large published table on the publisher database. We did something like this:

update LargeTable
set Field = Field

So basically, every record got updated to be the same - no data was actually changed. However, every record in the table is now being delivered to every subscriber and the whole system has come to a halt. We are very worried this will take days and days to complete.

How can we safely remove data from the msmerge_contents and msmerge_genhistory table? Are there other system replication tables to remove records from? I can see the exact records in these tables that refer to the mass update. I just don't want to remove them without knowing it is safe to do so.

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  • "Are there other tables to remove records from?" how can someone else answer that?
    – huMpty duMpty
    Commented Aug 21, 2014 at 15:43
  • Other system replication tables
    – nickthompson
    Commented Aug 21, 2014 at 15:43
  • Does it have backup databases?
    – huMpty duMpty
    Commented Aug 21, 2014 at 15:44
  • It's a massive database and would take many hours to restore, as well as being heavily used with data changing all the time. We are hoping there's a way to just tell replication not to bother to distribute those updates to the subscriber, as there's nothing to actually update.
    – nickthompson
    Commented Aug 21, 2014 at 15:46
  • It's a massive database and would take many hours to restore, as well as being heavily used with data changing all the time. We are hoping there's a way to just tell replication not to bother to distribute those updates to the subscriber, as there's nothing to actually update.
    – nickthompson
    Commented Aug 21, 2014 at 15:53

1 Answer 1

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3

There is no supported way to achieve what you want to do, aside from complete reinitialization. That said, you might be able to achieve a shortcut and retain a supported configuration, but only under direction of a Microsoft support engineer. Attempting to modify the system replication tables without that guidance risks compounding your current problems.

My advice would be to open a case under your support contract, or take the hit of reinitializing and change operating practices to prevent a recurrence of the problem in future.

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  • Paul, I agree, this is one for MS. I wondered if there was a fairly easy way to achieve this.
    – nickthompson
    Commented Aug 21, 2014 at 16:26

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