FTP necessary?

We will be using connecting our 2 sites through 2
firewalls, and having push subscribers.
I'm new to this type of network infrastructure so please
excuse my naive questions
(1) does this mean that we will be using a VPN?
(2) Do we have to use FTP for initialization or can we use
the normal fileshare (with/without VPN)?
Many thanks,
BB
1) not necessarily, you could get away with only having ports 1433 and 21
open. A VPN will encrypt communication end to end and will allow you to open
more ports.
2) You do not really want to use the file copy/UNC based method over the
internet as the ports you have to open will expose your server to security
threats. You should use FTP in instances like this, even though FTP isn't
the most secure method either, but it doesn't expose your server to been
exploited. Your data may be readable by hackers however. You can lock this
down to a degree.
If you use a VPN you are protected against hackers.
So with a VPN you don't have to use FTP, without a VPN you should.
Hilary Cotter
Looking for a SQL Server replication book?
http://www.nwsu.com/0974973602.html
"BB" <anonymous@.discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:1b2601c4a0d7$e843d970$a601280a@.phx.gbl...
> We will be using connecting our 2 sites through 2
> firewalls, and having push subscribers.
> I'm new to this type of network infrastructure so please
> excuse my naive questions
> (1) does this mean that we will be using a VPN?
> (2) Do we have to use FTP for initialization or can we use
> the normal fileshare (with/without VPN)?
> Many thanks,
> BB
sql

Frequency Of SnapShot Agent

How often should the snapshot agent job run with merge replication? My
schema won't be changing anytime soon but I will have new subscribers coming
on everyday until we get everyone on board.
Thanks
Tina
Hello Tina,
The snapshot agent is required in case there are schema changes, but not
only. For example, cleaning up meta data using procedure
sp_mergecleanupmetadata requires the snapshot agent to be run (more in BOL).
It also creates the latest bcp files so if you apply the snapshot to new
subscribers they start off with the latest data.
I also think having read somewhere (but I am not too sure about it) whereby
the automatic cleanup of merge tracking meta data (normally stored in
Msmerge_Contents and Msmerge_Tombstone tables) depends on periodically
running the Snapshot agent. If someone can shed some more light on this...
In your case you might want to run the agent once a day, because you would
want each subscriber to be updated using the latest snapshot data. However,
you MUST be conscious that during the running of the snapshot agent,
conflict tables ARE DROPPED and RECREATED (I am told by Microsoft Support
this is by design). So, if you have concerns with conflicts, make sure you
resolve them before running the snapshot agent.
Raj Moloye
|||Raj,
Thanks for all your input.
Tina
"Raj Moloye" <rkmoloye@.hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:uCZy0DkHEHA.1220@.tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl...
> Hello Tina,
> The snapshot agent is required in case there are schema changes, but not
> only. For example, cleaning up meta data using procedure
> sp_mergecleanupmetadata requires the snapshot agent to be run (more in
BOL).
> It also creates the latest bcp files so if you apply the snapshot to new
> subscribers they start off with the latest data.
> I also think having read somewhere (but I am not too sure about it)
whereby
> the automatic cleanup of merge tracking meta data (normally stored in
> Msmerge_Contents and Msmerge_Tombstone tables) depends on periodically
> running the Snapshot agent. If someone can shed some more light on this...
> In your case you might want to run the agent once a day, because you would
> want each subscriber to be updated using the latest snapshot data.
However,
> you MUST be conscious that during the running of the snapshot agent,
> conflict tables ARE DROPPED and RECREATED (I am told by Microsoft Support
> this is by design). So, if you have concerns with conflicts, make sure you
> resolve them before running the snapshot agent.
> Raj Moloye
>