SQL Server Replication: Providing High

Availability using Database Mirroring

SQL Server Technical Article

Writers: Gopal Ashok (Microsoft Corporation), Paul S. Randal (SQLskills.com)

Technical Reviewers: Hilary Cotter (Relevant Noise), Prem Mehra, Lindsey Allen, Sanjay
Mishra, Glenn Berry (SQL Server MVP), Jimmy May, Mike Ruthruff, Michael Redman,
Joseph Sack
Project Editor: Diana Steinmetz

Published: August 2008

Applies To: SQL Server 2008, SQL Server 2005

Summary:
This white paper describes how to use database mirroring to increase the availability of
the replication stream in a transactional environment. It covers setting up replication in
a mirrored environment, the effect of mirroring partnership state changes, and the
effect of mirroring failovers on replication. In addition, it describes how to use LSN-
based initialization to recover from the failover of a mirrored subscriber database.
Although brief overviews are given of both replication and database mirroring, it is
easier to understand this white paper if the reader has some experience with one or
both of these technologies, and has at least a rudimentary knowledge of database
concepts such as transactions.
Filename: 351311846 2

Copyright
The information contained in this document represents the current view of Microsoft Corporation on the
issues discussed as of the date of publication. Because Microsoft must respond to changing market
conditions, it should not be interpreted to be a commitment on the part of Microsoft, and Microsoft cannot
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This White Paper is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS,
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2008 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Microsoft, SQL Server, and the Server Identity Logo are either registered trademarks or trademarks of
Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries.

The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective
owners.

Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................1
Technologies.....................................................................................................2
Transactional Replication Architecture................................................................2
Database Mirroring Architecture........................................................................3
Deploying Database Mirroring and Replication Together.......................................5
SQL Server Replication: Providing High Availability using Database Mirroring 3

Mirroring the Publication Database...................................................................6

Configuring Replication with a Mirrored Publication Database................................6
Effect of the Mirroring State on the Replication Log Reader..................................7
Changing the Replication Log Reader Behavior by Using Trace Flag 1448...............8
Effect of a Mirroring Failover on the Replication Log Reader..................................9
Log Reader Agent Behavior if the Mirroring Partnership is Broken........................10
Mirroring the Subscription Database...............................................................11
Configuring the Distribution Retention Period....................................................12
Manual Synchronization Types for Subscriptions................................................12
How Does Initializing from an LSN Work?.........................................................13
Recovering the Replication Stream Following a Mirroring Failover........................15
Conclusion.......................................................................................................18

Introduction
Transactional replication is the mechanism that Microsoft SQL Server provides to
publish incremental data and schema changes to subscribers. The changes are
published (the replication stream) in the order in which they occur, and typically there
is low latency between the time the change is made on the Publisher and the time the
change takes effect on the Subscriber. This enables a number of scenarios, such as
scaling out a query workload or propagating data from a central office to remote offices
and vice-versa. This form of replication always uses a hierarchical hub and spoke
topology.
The addition of peer-to-peer transactional replication in SQL Server 2005 simplifies the
implementation of a bi-directional transactional replication topology, where the
replication stream flows both ways. In this topology, any participating node may read
or update the data. Properly partitioned modifications are propagated between all
nodes in a full mesh topology (as shown in Figure 1), allowing the data to be highly
available in the event that one server is unavailable. This feature has been further
improved in SQL Server 2008 with conflict detection and online changes for peer-to-
peer topologies.

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 Figure 1: Full mesh topology for peer-to-peer replication with three and four
nodes
Transactional replication topologies can be made more resilient to server failures, and
hence more highly available, by adding redundant copies of the various databases
involved. This is especially important for hub and spoke topologies. Care must be
taken, however, because replication is reliant on the server names of the servers in the
topology, so any failover to another server can result in the replication stream being
broken.
Various mechanisms in SQL Server provide database-level redundancy, such as
backup/restore, log shipping, and database mirroring (in SQL Server 2005 and later).
Database mirroring is the only mechanism that provides a real-time, exact copy of the
protected database with the guarantee of zero data loss (when the mirror is
synchronized).
This white paper describes how to use database mirroring to increase the availability of
the replication stream in a transactional environment. It covers setting up replication in
a mirrored environment, the effect of mirroring partnership state changes, and the
effect that mirroring failovers have on replication. In addition, it describes how to use
LSN-based initialization to recover from the failover of a mirrored subscriber database.

Technologies
Transactional Replication Architecture
Transactional replication and peer-to-peer replication use the same architecture to
move changes between the servers in a replication topology. The following illustration is
an overview of the components involved in transactional replication.

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SQL Server Replication: Providing High Availability using Database Mirroring 5

Figure 2: Transactional replication architecture overview

A minimum of three server roles are required for transactional replication:
Publisher, hosting the publication database
Distributor, hosting the distribution database
Subscriber, hosting the subscription database
Depending on the complexity of the replication topology, there may be multiple
Subscriber servers or, in the case of peer-to-peer replication, multiple peer servers with
the replication stream flowing in both directions between the peers. Furthermore, the
roles of the various replication servers can be played by one server or by individual
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 servers (the more common case), and it is possible for a server to play any
combination of roles. Regardless, the various servers and databases must be protected
to ensure that the replication stream is highly available.
Transactional replication relies on various agents to perform the tasks associated with
tracking changes and distributing data. These agents are:
Snapshot Agent, which runs at the Distributor. This agent prepares schema and
initial data files of published tables and other objects, stores the snapshot files, and
records information about synchronization in the distribution database.
Log Reader Agent, which runs at the Distributor. This agent connects to the
Publisher and moves transactions marked for replication from the transaction log of
the publication database to the distribution database.
Distribution Agent, which runs at the Distributor for push subscriptions, and at the
Subscriber for pull subscriptions. This agent applies the (optional) initial snapshot to
the Subscribers and moves transactions held in the distribution database to
Subscribers
Queue Reader Agent, which runs at the Distributor. This agent is only used for
transactional replication with updateable subscriptions and moves changes made on
the Subscribers back to the Publisher.
It should be mentioned that there is also a Merge Agent, but it is used only for merge
replication, which is not covered in this paper.
This white paper focus mainly on the Log Reader Agent and the Distribution Agent.
For more detailed information on SQL Server Replication, see the following "SQL Server
Replication" topics in SQL Server Books Online:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms151198(SQL.100).aspx for SQL
Server 2008
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms151198(SQL.90).aspx for SQL
Server 2005

Database Mirroring Architecture

Database mirroring works at the database level and provides a single copy of the
mirrored database that must reside on a different server instance, usually on a
separate physical server in a different location. One server instance serves the
database to clients (the principal server). The other instance acts as a hot or warm
standby server (the mirror server), depending on the configuration of the database
mirroring session and the mirroring state of the mirrored databases. The two servers
are said to be partners in the mirroring session.
When the mirrored database is synchronized, database mirroring provides a hot
standby server that supports rapid failover without loss of data from committed
transactions. When the database is not synchronized, the mirror server is typically
available as a warm standby server (with possible data loss).
A database mirroring session runs with either synchronous or asynchronous operation.
Under asynchronous operation (also called high-performance mode), transactions
commit without waiting for the mirror server to write the log to disk, which maximizes
performance. Under synchronous operation (also called high-safety mode), a
transaction is committed on both partners, but at the cost of increased transaction
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SQL Server Replication: Providing High Availability using Database Mirroring 7

latency. In high-safety mode, it is possible to allow automatic failovers by adding a

third witness server. In all other configurations, failovers must be performed manually.
The transaction safety level of a mirroring session is controlled by the SAFETY property
of the ALTER DATABASE statement. Synchronous mirroring is when SAFETY is FULL;
asynchronous is when SAFETY is OFF.
The following illustration shows an example database mirroring configuration.

Figure 3: Example database mirroring configuration

In this example, the mirrored database is Db_1, with data flowing from the principal to
the mirror server. Database mirroring maintains an exact copy of the database on the
mirror server by redoing every insert, update, and delete operation that occurs on the
principal database onto the mirror database as quickly as possible. Redoing is
accomplished by sending every active transaction log record to the mirror server, which
applies log records to the mirror database, in sequence, as quickly as possible. Unlike
replication, which works at the transaction level (by harvesting and forwarding INSERT,
UPDATE, and DELETE operations from the transaction log of the publication database),
database mirroring works at the level of the physical log record (by sending the actual
log records to the mirror server).
This white paper discusses mirroring the publication and subscription databases, and
details the behavior of the various replication agents in each case.

For more detailed information on database mirroring, see the "Database Mirroring"
topic in SQL Server Books Online:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb934127(SQL.100).aspx for SQL
Server 2008
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms177412.aspx for SQL Server 2005

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Deploying Database Mirroring and Replication
Together
The degree to which database mirroring can be combined with transactional replication
depends on which replication database is being considered, as the level of support
varies by database. Support in this case means how easily replication can continue if
the database in question experiences a failover to the mirror server. The following table
lists the replication databases and corresponding level of support for mirroring.

Replication database Support for mirroring

Distribution None
Publication Full
Subscription Limited

Table 1: Mirroring support for the various replication databases

Whether or not a replication database can be successfully mirrored depends on whether
the replication agents that connect to it are designed to cope with a mirroring failover
and automatically reconnect to the new principal database.
Care should be taken to ensure that database mirroring will perform as expected. For
more information, see Database Mirroring Best Practices and Performance
Considerations on Microsoft TechNet.
The distribution database is the simplest to consider. None of the replication agents can
cope with a failover of the distribution database. The distribution database is also where
the replication configuration is stored, and it is tightly coupled with the server name
where replication as configured. Hence, any failover of the distribution database cannot
be tolerated and so it cannot be mirrored. In the interests of high availability, this
means that it is advisable to configure the Distributor to be on a different physical
server from the Publisher (called a remote Distributor) rather than on the same server
(called a local Distributor). If a remote Distributor is configured, it should be clustered
for maximum availability.
All replication agents that connect to the publication database (that is, Snapshot Agent,
Log Reader Agent, Queue Reader Agent, and for completeness, the Merge Agent) are
mirroring-aware. They can be configured such that if a mirroring failover occurs, they
automatically reconnect to the new principal server, and replication continues.
Therefore, mirroring the publication database is fully supported, but the state of the
mirroring partnership and the specific failover scenario can affect the behavior of the
Log Reader Agent. This is discussed more fully in the next section, "Mirroring the
Publication Database. "
The subscription database is more complicated. None of the agents involved in
replication are designed to cope with a failover of the subscription database. Common
wisdom is that the only way you can reliably restart the replication stream by using
supported methods, is to drop and recreate the subscription to point to the new
principal, or to bring back the original principal within the replication retention period.
To point the Distribution Agent to a mirrored subscription database (without the

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SQL Server Replication: Providing High Availability using Database Mirroring 9

technique described in this white paper) should require a full re-initialization of the
Subscriber, which would be unrealistic and work heavily against database availability.
This white paper looks at some of the concepts, best practices, and steps that help
redirect the Distribution Agents subscription database connection to the mirror. These
steps allow a mirrored subscription database to exist in the topology and a failover of
the subscription database to be achieved with minimal downtime.

Mirroring the Publication Database

Configuring Replication with a Mirrored Publication
Database
This section provides an overview of the steps to configure replication when the
publication database is mirrored.
Note: This mechanism does not work for peer-to-peer topologies, as the
Publishers are also Subscribers. This is discussed in "Mirroring the Subscription
Database" later in this paper.
For the purposes of this section, assume the following environment, with database
mirroring already configured:
SERVERPP the database mirroring principal server and initial replication Publisher
Database TicketOrdersPub the publication database that is mirrored
Publication name TicketOrders
SERVERPM the database mirroring mirror server
SERVERD the replication Distributor
SERVERS the replication Subscriber
Database TicketOrdersSub the subscription database
Replication can be configured by using either SQL Server Management Studio or
Transact-SQL.
To configure replication with a mirrored publication database
1. Configure SERVERD as the Distributor for SERVERPP and SERVERPM
It is highly recommended that you use a remote Distributor to increase the
availability of the replication stream. If a local Distributor is used and the Publisher
becomes unavailable, the replication stream is also unavailable.
a On SERVERD:
Configure SERVERD to be a Distributor, with a named distribution
database and working directory.
Add SERVERPP and SERVERPM as Publishers.
b On both SERVERPP and SERVERPM, configure SERVERD to be the Distributor,
using the distribution database and working directory previously specified.
Note: The principal and mirror must be configured to use the same Distributor,
with identical settings.
For more information on configuring a Distributor, see the following SQL
Server 2008 Books Online topics:

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 How to: Configure Publishing and Distribution (Replication Transact-SQL
Programming) for Transact-SQL
How to: Configure Distribution (SQL Server Management Studio) for SQL Server
Management Studio
2. Create a publication and configure replication:
a On SERVERPP, create a publication using snapshot, transactional, or merge
replication.
c On SERVERS, create a push or pull subscription.
3. To configure the replication agents for failover, set the -PublisherFailoverPartner
parameter for any of the following replication agents that exist:
Snapshot Agent
Log Reader Agent
Queue Reader Agent
Merge Agent
SQL Server Replication Listener (replisapi.dll)
SQL Merge ActiveX Control
The recommended method for specifying this parameter is to include it in an agent
profile. Create a custom profile by using a system-defined profile as a template, and
then add this parameter to the profile. The custom profile can then be used when
running the replication agents.
For more information, see Replication and Database Mirroring in SQL Server 2008
Books Online.

Effect of the Mirroring State on the Replication Log

Reader
When a publication database is mirrored, Log Reader Agent behavior is governed by the
mirroring state of the database. By default, the Log Reader Agent can only replicate log
records that have been hardened in the log on the mirror server (the process in which
the mirror server writes a transaction log record to the transaction log file is termed
hardening the log). This means it cannot replicate log records with a Log Sequence
Number (LSN) that is higher than the LSN of the last log record that was hardened on
the mirror.
It is possible for the principal to become exposed (the mirror is accessible but there are
log records that have not yet been hardened on the mirror) or isolated (the mirror is
inaccessible). In both cases, if the principal is still able to serve the database, any
changes made to the database are not replicated until the corresponding log records
are hardened on the mirror.
This behavior introduces latency in the replication stream, and is done so that if a
mirroring failover occurs, it is guaranteed that replication Subscribers cannot be
ahead of the new principal database.
When the Log Reader Agent is waiting for transaction log records to be hardened on the
mirror, the following message is entered in the Log Reader Agent history:

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SQL Server Replication: Providing High Availability using Database Mirroring 11

Replicated transactions are waiting for next Log backup or for

mirroring partner to catch up.
The following table lists the default Log Reader Agent behavior for various mirroring
states. The information assumes that the principal is able to serve the database (either
because there is no witness server, or there is a witness and there is a quorum).

Safet Initial Mirroring Event Resulting State Principal Log Reader

y State Exposed? Agent
Level Behavior
FULL - Mirroring SYNCHRONIZING N Waiting (for
or OFF partnership synchronization
established to complete)
FULL SYNCHRONIZING Synchronization SYNCHRONIZED N Running
or OFF completes
FULL SYNCHRONIZED Session is SUSPENDED Y Waiting
or OFF paused
FULL SYNCHRONIZED Redo errors on SUSPENDED Y Waiting
or OFF the mirror
FULL SYNCHRONIZED Mirror DISCONNECTED Y Waiting
or OFF unavailable
FULL SUSPENDED or Session is SYNCHRONIZING Y Waiting (for
or OFF DISCONNECTED resumed synchronization
to complete)
OFF SYNCHRONIZED SEND queue SYNCHRONIZING Y Switching
grows between
Waiting and
Running

Table 2: Default Log Reader Agent behavior in various mirroring states

Changing the Replication Log Reader Behavior by

Using Trace Flag 1448
In some situations, the effect of mirroring on the latency of the replication stream is
not acceptable. A new trace flag, 1448, allows replication to continue even when the
principal database is running exposed or is isolated. In such situations, the Log Reader
Agent usually waits for log records to harden on the mirror before replicating them to
the Distributor. When the server is started with trace flag 1448 enabled, this restriction
is removed so the Log Reader Agent can continue replicating changes regardless of the
mirroring state.
The trace flag is available in SQL Server 2008, and as a hot-fix in SQL Server 2005. For
more information on obtaining the fix that implements this trace flag in SQL
Server 2005, and how to enable the trace flag in either version, see Knowledge Base
article 937041.

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 Note: Although replication latency may be of paramount importance, and so it
may seem worthwhile to always have this trace flag enabled in configurations
involving database mirroring and replication, be aware that there are some
situations where using this trace flag could cause issues after a mirroring failover.
These are explained in the next section.

Effect of a Mirroring Failover on the Replication Log

Reader
When a mirroring failover occurs, whether automatically or manually, the Log Reader
Agent should automatically connect to the new principal server and continue replicating
transactions (as long as the PublisherFailoverPartner parameter was set correctly,
as described above).
There are two situations in which this may not happen. The first is where the failover
does not succeed because the mirror server is unable to become the new principal for
some reason. This is described in Log Reader Agent Behavior if the Mirroring
Partnership is Broken later in this paper. The second case can only occur when trace
flag 1448 is enabled, as described in this section.
In a mirroring session where transaction safety is set to OFF, or the principal is running
exposed or isolated, it is possible for there to be committed transactions on the
principal that have not yet been hardened on the mirror. If the principal database goes
offline and the mirror is brought online by manually forcing service with failover, it is
recovered with data loss (transactions that were committed on the principal but not yet
hardened on the mirror are essentially lost to the application when the mirror becomes
the new principal).
Furthermore, if trace flag 1448 is enabled and this situation arises, it is possible that
some of the committed transactions from the old principal may have been replicated
but not hardened on the mirror. This means that the Distributor is effectively ahead
of the new principal when it comes online after the manual failover. This causes the Log
Reader Agent to fail with the following message:
The process could not execute 'sp_repldone/sp_replcounters' on
'SERVERB'.
There will also be a more detailed message showing the log sequence number that the
Log Reader Agent tried to read. This indicates that the Log Reader Agent has already
retrieved log records further ahead in time than the new principal has in its transaction
log.
The Log Reader Agent can be recovered by using the sp_replrestart stored procedure,
which re-synchronizes the metadata between the Publisher and the Distributor. This
can result in Subscribers potentially having more data than the Publisher. In the event
that these changes are made to the publication database again and subsequently
replicated, the Distribution Agent will fail with data consistency errors. To override
these errors use the Distribution Agent profile Continue on data consistency errors.
Note: Care should be taken when overriding these errors. For more information,
see Skipping Errors in Transactional Replication in SQL Server 2008 Books Online.

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SQL Server Replication: Providing High Availability using Database Mirroring 13

Log Reader Agent Behavior if the Mirroring

Partnership is Broken
As previously described, the Log Reader Agent will failover gracefully to the new
mirroring principal server, providing the PublisherFailoverPartner parameter is
configured correctly. As long as the mirroring partnership remains in place, the Log
Reader Agent can even be restarted after a mirroring failover and it will still connect to
the correct server (the new principal server).
If the original principal server is likely to be unavailable for a long period of time, it is
common practice to remove mirroring so that problems with transaction log growth on
the mirror database do not occur. If the mirroring partnership is broken after a failover
occurs, the Log Reader Agent continues to function as long as it is running at the time
that mirroring is removed. If it is subsequently restarted, the Log Reader Agent tries to
connect to the original principal server, which is no longer serving as the Publisher, and
fails. The Log Reader Agent history will then contain a message such as:
User-specified agent parameter values: -Publisher SERVERA
There will also be more detailed messages about the connection failure.
To force this situation for testing purposes:
1 Configure database mirroring and replication.
4. Manually fail over from Server A to Server B.
5. On Server B, remove mirroring.
6. On Server D (the Distributor), stop and restart the Log Reader Agent job.
7. Observe the failure by looking at the jobs history.
In this case, it is possible to easily make the Log Reader Agent continue to work by
creating an alias for the original Publisher on the Distributor. The steps for doing this
are as follows (continuing with the same test situation previously described), all on
Server D.
1 Start SQL Server Configuration Manager, and then:
a Expand the SQL Native Client Configuration section.
d Right-click Aliases and add a new alias, from the original principal/Publisher to
the new principal/Publisher. (In this example, the Alias Name is SERVERA and
the Server is SERVERB.)
8. Restart the Log Reader Agent job.
9. Observe that replication continues to work as expected.
When it comes time to reestablish the mirroring partnership, the sequence of steps
should be the following (continuing with the example situation):
1 Reestablish mirroring between Server B and Server A.
10. Delete the alias on the Distributor.
11. Restart the Log Reader Agent.
12. Optionally failover from Server B back to Server A.
Note: If the Distributor is not a dedicated server, the addition of an alias for the
original mirroring principal server may cause problems for other applications

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 running on the Distributor. For maximum flexibility, it is recommended that you
have a dedicated, remote Distributor.

Mirroring the Subscription Database

In a replicated environment, even though you can mirror the subscription database,
there is no support for automatic failover of the Distribution Agent if a mirroring failover
occurs. After a mirroring failover of the subscription database, the Distribution Agent
fails because it can no longer connect to the original subscription database on the
original Subscriber.
In many cases, however, customers rely on database mirroring to provide high
availability for the subscription database instead of implementing multiple subscribers.
Both solutions are valid, but there are a few reasons why database mirroring may be
preferred, such as when database mirroring is already in use in the business
environment as the high-availability solution of choice. In addition, database mirroring
provides a potentially easier and faster failover mechanism for applications than
replication does, depending on how it is configured.
This section describes how to recover a Distribution Agent that failed due to a
subscription database failover, without having to perform a full re-initialization of the
Subscriber.
For the purposes of this section, assume the following example environment:
SERVERSP the database mirroring principal server and initial replication
Subscriber
SERVERSM the database mirroring mirror server
SERVERD the replication Distributor
SERVERP the replication Publisher
Database TicketOrdersPub the publication database
Database TicketOrdersSub the subscription database that is mirrored
Publication name TicketOrders
The steps for configuring replication are similar to those previously described in
Mirroring the Publication Database.
To configure replication
1 Configure SERVERD to be a Distributor and allow SERVERP to publish through it.
13. Configure SERVERP to use SERVERD as the remote distributor.
14. Configure the transaction retention period on the SERVERD (see the next section,
Configuring the Distribution Retention Period).
15. Configure the publication on SERVERP.
So that it will be easy to redirect the Distribution Agent to the new subscription
database after a mirroring failover, the publication must be set to allow initialization
from a backup. For instructions on setting this option when creating or modifying a
publication, see:
How to: Initialize a Transactional Subscriber from a Backup for Transact-SQL
How to: Enable Initialization with a Backup for Transactional Publications for
SQL Server Management Studio

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SQL Server Replication: Providing High Availability using Database Mirroring 15

16. Configure the subscription on SERVERSP, which can be either a push subscription or
a pull subscription.
Database mirroring between SERVERSP and SERVERSM can be enabled before or after
replication is configured, but if the Subscriber will be initialized with a snapshot, it is
more efficient to configure mirroring after the subscription database has been
initialized. This is to avoid all the logging activity as a result of the subscription
initialization process being mirrored.

Configuring the Distribution Retention Period

The default minimum retention period for transactions on the Distributor is zero, which
means that transactions can be cleaned up as soon as they have been replicated to all
Subscribers. The steps required to redirect the Distribution Agent to the new
subscription database after a mirroring failover rely on the availability of replicated
transactions in the distribution database even after they have been sent to the
Subscriber. There are two main reasons why this is required:
If the subscription database is mirrored using a high-performance configuration, and
if the mirror is far behind the principal, in the event of a failover with data loss, the
recovered mirror (that is, the new subscription database) will be behind the original
principal. To bring the new subscription database to a consistent state for
replication, the Distribution Agent must re-apply all transactions that the new
subscription database has not seen. This includes the set of transactions that were
already applied to the original subscription database on the old mirroring principal
server, but had not yet been mirrored. This avoids having to completely re-initialize
the new subscription database.
In the scenario above, the Publisher server may also be lost, or the data from the
publication database is no longer available to re-initialize the new subscription
database. In that case, data loss will occur if the missing transactions are not
available on the Distributor.
To avoid data loss or extended downtime when mirroring the subscription database, it
is recommended that you set the minimum transaction retention period to a reasonable
time period. Using the above example, a reasonable time period would be the
maximum amount of time that the mirror server could be behind the principal server,
thus guaranteeing that no replicated transactions are lost.
For more information on configuring Distributor properties, see:
How to: View and Modify Publisher and Distributor Properties for Transact-SQL
How to: Set the Distribution Retention Period for Transactional Publications for
SQL Server Management Studio

Manual Synchronization Types for Subscriptions

SQL Server 2005 introduced two new synchronization types that allow easier ways to
create subscriptions by using manual synchronization (sometimes called no-sync
subscriptions). These synchronization types were introduced to address two key
aspects of manual synchronization. They:

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 Automate the tasks of preparing the subscription database for replication. This
involves automatically creating the objects required by replication when setting up a
no-sync subscription.
Reduce the down time required to set up a no-sync subscription using a backup. In
SQL Server 2000, the Publisher had to be taken offline until all the steps related to
setting up a subscription using a backup were completed.
The two synchronization types introduced in SQL Server 2005 were replication support
only, and initialize with backup. These are both widely known and used.

SQL Server 2008 introduces a new synchronization type, initializing from an LSN, which
is used internally to support online changes to a peer-to-peer topology. It is a powerful
option that is similar to initializing from a backup except that initialization proceeds
from a supplied LSN (a Log Sequence Number that identifies a point within a databases
transaction log). This means the transactions that must be applied to the new
subscription database are limited to those after the supplied LSN, providing the
transactions still exist in the distribution database. This makes the option suitable for
disaster recovery scenarios (such as in the example configuration used previously in
this paper) because the initialization of the subscription database can be much faster
than a full re-initialization, and the Distribution Agent starts from where it left off at the
time of the mirroring failover.
After a mirroring failover of a subscription database to the mirror server, it is necessary
to redirect the replication stream to the new subscription database on the new
mirroring principal server (SERVERSM in the example configuration). Although this
involves creating a new subscription, the subscription does not require a full re-
initialization in this case, because the new synchronization option in SQL Server 2008
can be used.
The following section describes how initialization using an LSN (either user-specified or
retrieved from a backup) works and how it enables the replication stream to be re-
directed to the new subscription database after a mirroring failover without a full re-
initialization.

How Does Initializing from an LSN Work?

In the simplest sense, all three manual synchronization methods rely on a consistent
starting point for replicating transactions after the subscription has been set up. When
a subscription is created using manual synchronization, the Distribution Agent must
know from what point transactions should be replicated to guarantee that no changes
are lost between the time the subscription is enabled and the changes are replicated.
This starting point is an LSN. The LSN is determined automatically in the case where
the synchronization type is replication support only. With initializing from a backup, the
LSN is retrieved from the header of the backup used to initialize the subscription. When
initializing from an LSN, the LSN is user-specified.
When specifying the LSN, the important thing is to ensure that the LSN is valid so that
the transactions corresponding to the LSN still exist in the distribution database. In a
disaster recovery situation, this is why it is important that a non-zero transaction
retention period is set. The following diagram and explanation show the various LSNs
involved after the mirroring failover of a subscription database.
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SQL Server Replication: Providing High Availability using Database Mirroring 17

Figure 4: LSNs within the distribution database

Figure 4 shows the LSNs of interest within the distribution database after a mirroring
failover of the subscription database. The LSNs are defined as follows:
LSN 1: The LSN of the oldest transaction in the distribution database. This
represents the transaction at the start of the retention period.
LSN 2: The LSN of the last transaction that was applied to the subscription database
on the mirroring principal server AND was mirrored to the mirror server.
LSN 3: The LSN of the last transaction that was applied to the subscription database
on the mirroring principal server.
LSN 4: The most recent transaction that was read from the Publisher by the Log
Reader Agent.
The difference between LSN 2 and LSN 3 represents how far the mirror server was
behind the principal server before the mirroring failover. In the case where the
principal and mirror were synchronized before the mirroring failover, LSN 2 and LSN 3
will be equal. When manually initializing the new subscription after the mirroring
failover, LSN 2 should be used with the initialize from LSN method and can be found
from the replication metadata in the subscription database.
Note: There are two reasons why the LSN on the subscriber database from the
current principal server (LSN 3) cannot be used to initialize the subscription:
There are no LSNs greater than the specified LSN in the distribution database
The specified LSN must be less than the value of min_autonosync_lsn in the
syspublications table in the publication database
The min_autonosync_lsn value is updated to the current database LSN whenever a
new article is added, schema changes take place on the existing table, or certain other
publication properties are changed. If the mirroring failover happens after the
min_autonosync_lsn value was updated but before all changes after that point have
been replicated, it is not possible to reinitialize by using the LSN value on the
subscriber.
Care must be taken after a mirroring failover because transactions will continue to be
cleaned from the distribution database, potentially allowing the transactions between
LSN 2 and LSN 3 to be lost if the re-initialization of the new subscription database does
not happen within the configured distribution retention period.
If initializing from LSN is not possible, a full re-initialization of the subscription database
must be performed by using a snapshot or a backup.

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Recovering the Replication Stream Following a
Mirroring Failover
This section presents the steps and code required to perform a manual initialization of
the new subscription database after a mirroring failover, by initializing from an LSN. For
clarity, these steps use the example environment previously described.
To recover the replication stream
1 To find the LSN of the last transaction that was applied to the new subscription
database, run the following code on the new mirroring principal server (SERVERSM)
after the mirroring failover, which will be the new Subscriber.
This code examines the Distribution Agent information for the old subscription in the
subscription database. The old subscription is the one existing on the mirroring
principal server before the failover occurred (SERVERSP). The LSN returned
(transaction_timestamp in the following code) should be saved, as it will be used
in step 3, and corresponds to LSN 2 in Figure 4.

USE TicketOrdersSub;
GO
SELECT transaction_timestamp, *
FROM dbo.MSreplication_subscriptions
WHERE publisher = 'SERVERP'
AND publisher_db = 'TicketOrdersPub'
AND publication = 'TicketOrders';
GO
17. To clean up the old subscription from the new subscription database, run the
following code on the new Subscriber.
This code cleans up the old subscription so that there is no entry for it in the
replication metadata in the subscription database. If it still exists when the new
subscription is created, the transaction timestamp is reset to 0x00, resulting in all
transactions from the distribution database being re-applied to the subscription
database, causing data consistency errors.

USE TicketOrdersSub;
GO
EXEC sp_subscription_cleanup
@publisher = 'SERVERP',
@publisher_db = 'TicketOrdersPub',
@publication = 'TicketOrders';
GO
18. To create the new subscription, run the following code on the Publisher (SERVERP).
The code defines the new subscription on the new Subscriber, using the initialize
from LSN synchronization method with the LSN/timestamp saved in step 1. This
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SQL Server Replication: Providing High Availability using Database Mirroring 19

must be done for both pull and push subscriptions. Ensure that the correct
subscription type is set in the @subscription_type parameter. Substitute the
saved LSN/timestamp from step 1 as the value for the @subscriptionlsn
parameter.

USE TicketOrdersPub;
GO
EXEC sp_addsubscription
@publication = N'TicketOrders',
@subscriber = N'SERVERSM',
@destination_db = N'TicketOrdersSub',
@subscription_type = N'pull',
@sync_type = N'initialize from LSN',
@article = N'all',
@update_mode = N'read only',
@subscriber_type = 0,
@subscriptionlsn = 0x00000013000013380004000000000000;
GO

19. If the subscription type is pull, go to step 5. Otherwise, go to step 6.

20. To finish configuring the pull subscription, if appropriate, run the following code on
the new Subscriber.
This code finalizes creating a continuously running pull subscription.

USE TicketOrdersSub;
GO
EXEC sp_addpullsubscription
@publisher = N'SERVERP',
@publication = N'TicketOrders',
@publisher_db = N'TicketOrdersPub',
@independent_agent = N'True',
@subscription_type = N'pull',
@description = N'',
@update_mode = N'read only',
@immediate_sync = 0;
GO
EXEC sp_addpullsubscription_agent
@publisher = N'SERVERP',

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 @publisher_db = N'TicketOrdersPub',
@publication = N'TicketOrders',
@distributor = N'SERVERD',
@frequency_type = 64
GO

Go to step 7.
21. To finish configuring the push subscription, if appropriate, run the following code on
the Publisher.
This code finalizes creating a continuously-running push subscription.

USE TicketOrdersPub;
GO
EXEC sp_addpushsubscription_agent
@publication = N'TicketOrders',
@subscriber = N'SERVERSM',
@subscriber_db = N'TicketOrdersSub',
@job_login = NULL,
@job_password = NULL,
@subscriber_security_mode = 1,
@frequency_type = 64,
@dts_package_location = N'Distributor';
GO

Continue to step 7.
22. To remove the old subscription, run the following code on the Publisher.
This code drops the old subscription (from SERVERSP) to ensure that its agents do
not run automatically and cause problems with the new subscription.

USE TicketOrdersPub;
GO
EXEC sp_dropsubscription
@publication = N'TicketOrders',
@subscriber = N'SERVERSP',
@destination_db = N'TicketOrdersPub',
@article = N'all';
GO

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SQL Server Replication: Providing High Availability using Database Mirroring 21

The methodology for recovering the replication stream in a peer-to-peer environment

with database mirroring for high-availability of one or more peer nodes is similar to that
described here, but is more complex and beyond the scope of this white paper. The
operations must be merged into the regular procedures for manually adding a SQL
Server 2008 node into an existing peer-to-peer topology. For more information on
these procedures, see How to: Configure Peer-to-Peer Transactional Replication in SQL
Server 2008 Books Online.

Conclusion
This white paper shows how database mirroring can be combined with transactional
replication to achieve higher availability of the replication stream.
It describes the mechanism for mirroring the publication database, along with in-depth
explanations of setup steps and options. The behavior of the Log Reader Agent is
analyzed, and trace flag 1448 discussed. By using this trace flag it is possible for
replication to continue from a mirrored publication database if the mirroring partnership
is not synchronized.
The most important part of this white paper is the description of the initialize from LSN
synchronization method introduced in SQL Server 2008. By using this new feature, it is
possible to effectively mirror the subscription database without performing a full re-
initialization in the event of a mirroring failover, leading to less downtime in the event
of a disaster.

For more information:

SQL Server Web site
SQL Server TechCenter
SQL Server DevCenter

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