Replication Monitor

Replication Monitor is a general troubleshooting tool provided with SQL Server. With Replication Monitor, you can easily see the whole landscape of the chosen replication topology including publisher, distributor, subscribers, agents and jobs.

According to Microsoft SQL Server TechNet, “SQL Server Replication Monitor is a graphical tool that allows you to monitor the overall health of a replication topology.”

Furthermore, Replication Monitor gives you access to a host of detailed information regarding the status and performance of publications and subscriptions. This enables you to answer critical questions such as:

• How healthy is my replication system?
• Are some subscriptions running slow?
• How far behind is my transactional subscription?
• How long will it take a transaction committed now to reach a Subscriber in transactional replication?
• Why is my merge subscription slow? or
• What is preventing an agent from running?

Any user who has been assigned the role of a replmonitor can monitor replication. A system administrator is authorized to add users as a replmonitor. Replmonitor status allows a user to view all replication activity in Replication Monitor; however, the user cannot modify or administer replication. Only a system administrator may actually make changes to planned or ongoing replication activities.

Robert L. Davis of Idera has produced a short video tutorial titled “SQL Snack: Troubleshooting With Replication Monitor”. The video and accompanying slide deck demonstrate how to decode Replication Monitor error messages and track down the specific transaction and record that are causing the error to be produced.