MSSQL_ENG020554

Message Details

Product Name

SQL Server

Product Version

10.50

Product Build Number

 

Event ID

20554

Event Source

MSSQLSERVER

Component

SQL Server Database Engine

Symbolic Name

Message Text

The replication agent has not logged a progress message in %ld minutes. This might indicate an unresponsive agent or high system activity. Verify that records are being replicated to the destination and that connections to the Subscriber, Publisher, and Distributor are still active.

Explanation

The Replication agents checkup job runs at a specified interval (10 minutes by default) to check on the status of each replication agent. If an agent has not logged any progress messages since the last time the agent checkup job ran, error MSSQL_ENG020554 can be raised. The agent is expected at least to log history messages even if no other replication activity is occurring. Although the replication agent is not responding as expected, it has not necessarily stopped or failed (if an agent has failed, error MSSQL_ENG020536 should be raised).

The following issues can cause error MSSQL_ENG020554 to be raised:

  • The agent is busy.

    If the agent is too busy to respond when polled by the agent checkup job, the agent checkup job cannot report whether the replication agent is functioning properly. There are a number of reasons why the replication agent could be busy: there might be a lot of data being replicated, or there might be application design or configuration issues that result in processes that run for a long time.

  • The agent cannot log in to one of the computers in the topology.

    All agents have a parameter -LoginTimeOut (set to 15 seconds by default), which governs how long an agent attempts to log in to a replication node, such as a Merge Agent logging in to the Publisher. If the -LoginTimeOut value is set higher than the interval at which the replication agent checkup job runs, a login problem could be the root cause of the error: error MSSQL_ENG020554 is raised before the agent is able to raise a more specific error.

User Action

The action required depends on the cause of the error: