BUG: SBS 4.5 Installations of SQL Server 7.0 do not Install All Replication DLLs (240213)

SYMPTOMS

When you run the Distribution/Merge agent on a SQL Server 7.0 installation on Microsoft Small Business Server (SBS) 4.5, the Distribution/Merge agent may fail with the following error message:

Job 'NTSERVER001-DATA-NTREMOTE001-3':Step 3, 'Detect nonlogged agent shutdown.' : Began Executing 6/1/99 3:09:05 PM Msg 14151, Sev 18: Replication-Distribution: agent NTSERVER001-DATA-NTREMOTE001-3 failed. The step did not generate any output. The step failed. [SQLSTATE 42000]

When the distribution agent is run from the command line it may report the following error message:

The process could not initialize "distributor".
Check to see if the component is registered correctly

CAUSE

Microsoft Small Business Server 4.5 installations of SQL Server do not copy the replication DLLs to this folder:

C:\program files\common files\microsoft shared\database replication

Therefore, the COM DLLs are not registered in the server.

WORKAROUND

Use these steps to work around this behavior:

Copy the following DLLs to this path:
c:\program files\common files\microsoft shared\database replication
- Rdistcom.dll
- Replprov.dll
- Replrec.dll
- Replerrx.dll
- Sqldistx.dll
- Sqlmergex.dll
Remove the read-only attribute on the DLLs copied.
Click Start on the taskbar, and then choose Run. In the Run dialog box, type:
Cmd.exe
Register the DLLs by typing the following on the command line:
regsvr32 "dllname"

MORE INFORMATION

The first test to see if the problem is related to COM DLLs is to run the Distribution agent from the command line. Run Distrib.exe from \mssql7\binn, without any command line arguments. If the DLLs are registered it should show you the usage of the command line "Distrib.exe". If not, the following error message appears: