sp_publication_validation
Initiates an article validation request for each article in the specified publication. This stored procedure is executed at the Publisher on the publication database.
Syntax
sp_publication_validation [ @publication = ] 'publication'
[ , [ @rowcount_only = ] type_of_check_requested ]
[ , [ @full_or_fast = ] full_or_fast ]
[ , [ @shutdown_agent = ] shutdown_agent ]
Arguments
[@publication =] 'publication'
Is the name of the publication. publication is sysname, with no default.
[@rowcount_only =] type_of_check_requested
Is whether to return only the rowcount for the table. rowcount_only is smallint, with a default of 1. type_of_check_requested is smallint, with a default of 1. If 0, perform a SQL Server 7.0 compatible checksum. If 1, perform a rowcount check only. If 2, perform a rowcount and checksum.
[@full_or_fast =] full_or_fast
Is the method used to calculate the rowcount. full_or_fast is tinyint, with a default of 2, and can be one of these values.
| Value | Description |
|---|---|
| 0 | Does full count using COUNT(*). |
| 1 | Does fast count from sysindexes.rows. Counting rows in sysindexes is much faster than counting rows in the actual table. However, because sysindexes is lazily updated, the rowcount may not be accurate. |
| 2 (default) | Does conditional fast counting by first trying the fast method. If fast method shows differences, reverts to full method. If expected_rowcount is NULL and the stored procedure is being used to get the value, a full COUNT(*) is always used. |
[@shutdown_agent =] shutdown_agent
Is whether the Distribution Agent should shut down immediately upon completion of the validation. shutdown_agent is bit, with a default of 0. If 0, the replication agent does not shut down. If 1, the replication agent shuts down after the last article is validated.
Return Code Values
0 (success) or 1 (failure)
Remarks
sp_publication_validation is used in snapshot and transactional replication.
sp_publication_validation can be called at any time after the articles associated with the publication have been activated. The procedure can be run manually (one time) or as part of a regularly scheduled job that validates the data.
If your application has immediate-updating Subscribers, sp_publication_validation may detect spurious errors. sp_publication_validation first calculates the rowcount or checksum at the Publisher and then at the Subscriber. Because the immediate-updating trigger could propagate an update from the Subscriber to the Publisher after the rowcount or checksum is completed at the Publisher, but before the rowcount or checksum is completed at the Subscriber, the values could not change. To ensure that the values at the Subscriber and Publisher do not change while validating a publication, stop the MSDTC service at the Publisher during validation.
Permissions
Unless executed by a member of sysadmin or db_owner, you must have SELECT permissions on all columns of the base table used in the article (even if the article is partitioned vertically) to execute sp_publication_validation.