FIX: Logreader Fails with "...Could Not Execute Sp_replcmds.." Error Message (308865)

SYMPTOMS

In SQL Server 2000 Service Pack 1, the Logreader process fails with the following error message:

The process could not execute 'sp_replcmds' on 'servername'.
Repl Agent Status: 6 Status: 0, code: 18759, text: 'Replication failure. File 'S:\sql\ntdbms\srvrepl\src\replicat.cpp', line 3095.'.

NOTE: When you encounter the error message with the RTM version, the RTM version indicates a different line number:

File 'q:\sphinx\ntdbms\srvrepl\src\replicat.cpp, line 2907.'

CAUSE

This problem occurs with transactional replication during processing by the Logreader of "bounded" update log records.

Bounded update records are transaction log records that result from a multi-row UPDATE statement, which modifies a uniquely constrained column or a clustering key. These log records are bounded by BEGIN_UPDATE and END_UPDATE log records.

RESOLUTION

To resolve this problem, obtain the latest service pack for Microsoft SQL Server 2000. For additional information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

290211 INF: How to Obtain the Latest SQL Server 2000 Service Pack

Hotfix

NOTE: The following hotfix was created prior to Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Service Pack 2.

The English version of this fix should have the following file attributes or later:

   Date          Version    Size      File name
   ----------------------------------------------
   24 Aug 2001   8.00.439   7.06 MB   Sqlservr.exe

NOTE: Due to file dependencies, the most recent hotfix or feature that contains the preceding files may also contain additional files.

WORKAROUND

To work around this problem you can either:

Restart the Logreader to successfully re-process the problematic update transaction. However, note that this does not prevent failures with future bounded update transactions.

-or-
If possible, avoid multi-row updates that modify a uniquely constrained column or a clustering key.

-or-
Set ReadBatchSize to 1 for the Logreader agent.