How Alternate Synchronization Partners Works

To enable alternate synchronization partners, create a publication and then modify its properties to allow Subscribers to synchronize with alternate partners or create a publication with the property enabled using SQL-DMO or Transact-SQL system stored procedures. Next, create a pull subscription with the synchronize on demand option.

When you need to synchronize data using an alternate partner, you can use Windows Synchronization Manager, SQL Server Enterprise Manager, or the SQL Server merge replication ActiveX® control and select from a list of available alternate synchronization partners. When synchronizing published data, the Publisher where the subscription originated is the default Publisher; however, you can choose to specify a different synchronization partner as the default in Windows Synchronization Manager.

If you are using named Subscriptions, you must enable the Subscriber at the alternate synchronization partner and create a subscription identical to the original subscription at the alternate synchronization partner.

When the Subscriber merges its published data with data at an alternate synchronization partner, checks occur verifying that the Subscriber login exists in the publication access list (PAL) and ensuring that the Subscriber is enabled at the alternate synchronization partner (for named subscriptions).

When a Subscriber using an anonymous subscription synchronizes with an alternate synchronization partner for the first time, this subscription is recorded in the subscription database. The subscription will have the same attributes as the subscription at the primary Publisher.

To enable Subscribers to synchronize with alternate synchronization partners