Monitoring Replication with Replication Monitor

Microsoft SQL Server Replication Monitor is a graphical tool that allows you to monitor the overall health of a replication topology. Replication Monitor provides detailed information on the status and performance of publications and subscriptions, allowing you to answer common questions, such as:

  • Is my replication system healthy?
  • Which subscriptions are 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?
  • Why is an agent not running?

To monitor replication, a user must be a member of the sysadmin fixed server role at the Distributor or a member of the replmonitor fixed database role in the distribution database. A system administrator can add any user to the replmonitor role, which allows that user to view replication activity in Replication Monitor; however, the user cannot administer replication. For more information, see How to: Allow Non-Administrators to Use Replication Monitor (SQL Server Management Studio).

The following topics provide information about Replication Monitor features.

Topic Description

Overview of the Replication Monitor Interface

Describes each window and tab in Replication Monitor and provides information on how to answer the questions listed above.

Viewing Publication and Subscription Status in Replication Monitor

Describes how status information is displayed in Replication Monitor.

Setting Thresholds and Warnings in Replication Monitor

Describes the warnings, thresholds, and alerts you can set in Replication Monitor. It is recommended that you enable warnings for your topology, so that you are informed about status and performance in a timely manner.

Monitoring Performance with Replication Monitor

Describes how to monitor performance in Replication Monitor, including information on setting performance thresholds. Includes information on article-level statistics for merge replication, which provide a detailed view of processing.

Measuring Latency and Validating Connections for Transactional Replication

Describes tracer tokens, which allow you to measure the performance of a transactional replication topology.

Monitoring Replication Agents

Describes how to find information about each replication agent.

Caching, Refresh, and Replication Monitor Performance

Describes how Replication Monitor caches data and calculations to improve performance; explains how refresh of the user interface relates to refresh of the cache.

See Also

Concepts

Monitoring Replication

Help and Information

Getting SQL Server 2005 Assistance