FIX: Non-convergence Problem with Merge Replication (239015)

SYMPTOMS

Merge replication does not converge changes under the following conditions:

• A parent/child relationship exists between two published tables without defining foreign key relationships. Instead, a join filter is used to define the relationship.
  
  -and-
• At the subscriber, a row is inserted that is subsequently modified after the Merge Agent is started. A typical example of this scenario would be a case where a row is inserted in the parent table and then a large number of rows are inserted into the child table, each of which is accompanied by an update to the parent table (either as a part of the same transaction or in a trigger).

Under these circumstances, Merge Agent will request a new generation for the updates and the inserts when it begins to process records. The inserts and updates that are processed after the Merge Agent begins will be converged. However, the inserts and updates that occurred before the Merge Agent started will not be converged. This results in the data not being synchronized between the publisher and the subscriber.