FIX: Merge Agent may fail with an "Invalid character value for cast specification" error message (867880)

SYMPTOMS

The Merge Agent may fail while it enumerates changes and you may receive the following error message:


Downloading data changes to the Subscriber
Processing article 'MyArticle'
The process could not enumerate changes at the 'Publisher'.
Category:NULL
Source:  Merge Replication Provider
Number:  -2147200999
Message: The process could not enumerate changes at the 'Publisher'.
Category:SQLSERVER
Source:  MyServer
Number:  0
Message: Invalid character value for cast specification

The following conditions must be present for the problem to occur:

One article participates in more than one publication.
The article is vertically filtered within one publication and the same article has no filters in other publications.

RESOLUTION

Service pack information

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

290211 How to obtain the latest SQL Server 2000 service pack

Hotfix information

The English version of this hotfix has the file attributes (or later) that are listed in the following table. The dates and times for these files are listed in coordinated universal time (UTC). When you view the file information, it is converted to local time. To find the difference between UTC and local time, use the Time Zone tab in the Date and Time tool in Control Panel.

   Date         Time   Version        Size    File name
   --------------------------------------------------------------
   19-Jun-2004  00:51  2000.80.952.0    664,128  Autoplt.dll
   19-Jun-2004  00:51  2000.80.952.0     78,400  Console.exe
   19-Jun-2004  00:51  2000.80.952.0    315,968  Custtask.dll
   19-Jun-2004  00:51  2000.80.952.0     33,340  Dbmslpcn.dll
   08-Apr-2004  21:42                   786,432  Distmdl.ldf
   08-Apr-2004  21:42                 2,359,296  Distmdl.mdf
   10-Oct-2003  18:48                       180  Drop_repl_hotfix.sql
   19-Jun-2004  00:51  2000.80.952.0  1,905,216  Dtspkg.dll
   19-Jun-2004  00:52  2000.80.952.0    528,960  Dtspump.dll
   19-Jun-2004  00:52  2000.80.952.0  1,557,052  Dtsui.dll
   19-Jun-2004  00:52  2000.80.952.0    639,552  Dtswiz.dll
   10-Oct-2003  18:48                   747,927  Instdist.sql
   10-Oct-2003  18:48                     1,581  Inst_repl_hotfix.sql
   19-Jun-2004  00:51  2000.80.952.0    352,828  Isqlw.exe
   19-Jun-2004  00:51  2000.80.952.0     82,492  Itwiz.exe
   19-Jun-2004  00:52  2000.80.952.0     90,692  Msgprox.dll
   19-May-2004  23:43  8.11.40209.0     209,408  Mssdi98.dll
   19-Jun-2004  00:52  2000.80.952.0     62,024  Odsole70.dll
   19-Jun-2004  00:52  2000.80.952.0     25,144  Opends60.dll
   19-Jun-2004  00:51  2000.80.952.0     57,904  Osql.exe
   19-Jun-2004  00:52  2000.80.952.0    279,104  Pfutil80.dll
   10-Oct-2003  18:37                   550,780  Procsyst.sql
   08-Apr-2004  21:42                    12,305  Qfe469315.sql
   08-Apr-2004  21:42                    19,195  Qfe469571.sql
   15-Jun-2004  18:11                 1,105,167  Replmerg.sql
   19-Jun-2004  00:52  2000.80.952.0    221,768  Replprov.dll
   19-Jun-2004  00:52  2000.80.952.0    307,784  Replrec.dll
   15-Jun-2004  15:43  2000.80.952.0    159,813  Replres.rll
   10-Oct-2003  18:48                 1,087,150  Replsys.sql
   10-Oct-2003  18:48                   986,603  Repltran.sql
   19-Jun-2004  00:52  2000.80.952.0    287,304  Rinitcom.dll
   19-Jun-2004  00:52  2000.80.952.0     78,416  Sdiclnt.dll
   19-Jun-2004  00:52  2000.80.952.0     66,112  Semmap.dll
   19-Jun-2004  00:52  2000.80.952.0     57,916  Semnt.dll
   19-Jun-2004  00:52  2000.80.952.0    492,096  Semobj.dll
   15-Jun-2004  16:18  2000.80.952.0    172,032  Semobj.rll
   19-Jun-2004  00:51  2000.80.952.0     53,832  Snapshot.exe
   12-Mar-2004  03:10                   117,834  Sp3_serv_uni.sql
   19-Jun-2004  00:51  2000.80.952.0     28,672  Sqlagent.dll
   19-Jun-2004  00:51  2000.80.952.0    311,872  Sqlagent.exe
   19-Jun-2004  00:51  2000.80.952.0    168,001  Sqlakw32.dll
   19-Jun-2004  00:52  2000.80.952.0     33,344  Sqlctr80.dll
   19-Jun-2004  00:52  2000.80.952.0  4,215,360  Sqldmo.dll
   19-Jun-2004  00:51                    25,172  Sqldumper.exe
   15-Jun-2004  15:26  2000.80.952.0     28,672  Sqlevn70.rll
   19-Jun-2004  00:52  2000.80.952.0    180,792  Sqlmap70.dll
   19-Jun-2004  00:52  2000.80.952.0    188,992  Sqlmmc.dll
   15-Jun-2004  16:25  2000.80.952.0    479,232  Sqlmmc.rll
   19-Jun-2004  00:52  2000.80.952.0    401,984  Sqlqry.dll
   19-Jun-2004  00:52  2000.80.952.0     57,920  Sqlrepss.dll
   19-Jun-2004  00:52  2000.80.952.0  7,581,777  Sqlservr.exe
   19-Jun-2004  00:52  2000.80.952.0    590,396  Sqlsort.dll
   19-Jun-2004  00:52  2000.80.952.0     45,644  Sqlvdi.dll
   19-Jun-2004  00:52  2000.80.952.0    106,588  Sqsrvres.dll
   19-Jun-2004  00:52  2000.80.952.0     33,340  Ssmslpcn.dll
   19-Jun-2004  00:52  2000.80.952.0     82,492  Ssnetlib.dll
   19-Jun-2004  00:52  2000.80.952.0     25,148  Ssnmpn70.dll
   19-Jun-2004  00:52  2000.80.952.0    123,456  Stardds.dll
   19-Jun-2004  00:52  2000.80.952.0    158,240  Svrnetcn.dll
   19-Jun-2004  00:51  2000.80.952.0     76,416  Svrnetcn.exe
   19-Jun-2004  00:52  2000.80.952.0     53,808  Ums.dll
   19-Jun-2004  00:52  2000.80.952.0     98,872  Xpweb70.dll

Note Because of file dependencies, the most recent hotfix or feature that contains these files may also contain additional files.

MORE INFORMATION

For additional information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

824684 Description of the standard terminology that is used to describe Microsoft software updates

Beginning with SQL Server 2000 hotfix build 8.00.798, performance enhancements were made to the Merge Agent. For additional information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

817464 FIX: Using Sp_executesql in Merge Agent operations

A new stored procedure that is named sp_MSenumchanges_direct was introduced to improve Merge Agent performance. Beginning with the 8.00.0798 hotfix, the sp_MSenumchanges procedure calls the sp_MSenumchanges_direct procedure if the following conditions are true:

The user has select permissions on a table.
No vertical filters are present in an article in any publication.
The table has no computed or timestamp columns.
The number of generations is not so high that the value of the @genlist parameter for the sp_MSenumchanges procedure would be more than 2,000 characters.

Before the 8.00.0798 hotfix, if one or more of these conditions was not true, the sp_MSenumchanges procedure called the sp_MSenumchanges_pal procedure.
The problem was that in condition 2, the Merge Agent did not check any publication except for the current publication. Also, the Merge Agent did not verify that condition 4 was true. This behavior caused the problem that is described in the "Symptoms" section. This hotfix makes the Merge Agent verify that all the four conditions are true.