FIX: No Mechanism for Cleaning Up Merge System Tables (248623)

SYMPTOMS

SQL Server 7.0 does not provide a way to clean up the contents of the MSmerge_contents and MSmerge_tombstone Merge Replication system tables. Since these tables keep track of inserts, updates, and deletes within the publications in a database, they could potentially cause storage problems.

To clean up the Merge system tables, the database should be unpublished and republished. The Merge system tables should not be modified manually.

CAUSE

Merge replication was designed to behave this way. Because this behavior has impacted performance for some customers, Microsoft is developing an easier method for cleaning up the MSmerge_contents and MSmerge_tombstone tables.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in SQL Server 7.0. This problem has been corrected in U.S. Service Pack 2 for Microsoft SQL Server 7.0. For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

254561 INF: How to Obtain Service Pack 2 for Microsoft SQL Server 7.0 and Microsoft Data Engine (MSDE) 1.0

For more information, contact your primary support provider.

MORE INFORMATION

Service Pack 2 includes a new procedure called sp_mergecleanupmetadata. You can use sp_mergecleanupmetadata to clean up MSmerge_contents and MSmerge_tombstone Merge Replication system tables. However, use this procedure with caution. If it is run with the default parameters, subscriptions will be marked for reinitialization.

It is possible to run sp_mergecleanupmetadata without reinitialization. For additional information, see "Merge Meta Data Cleanup" in the Readme.htm file that is included with Service Pack 2.