FIX: Replication Logreader Fails with Error Message 18773

View products that this article applies to.

This article was previously published under Q276281

BUG #: 58444 (SQLBUG_70)

SYMPTOMS

When the following conditions are true:

A published table schema has one or more columns that are either text or image data type and the column is defined to allow NULL values.
A published table has a clustered index.

-and-

The following sequence of operations occurs:

A text or image column for a given row is either inserted as NULL, or the column is updated and set to NULL.
The cluster key for the row created or updated at point-in-time 1 is updated.
In a subsequent UPDATE statement, the same NULL text or image column from point-in-time 1 is updated and set to NULL (again).

The replication Log Reader fails with the following 18773 error message:

The process could not execute 'sp_replcmds' on 'PUBLISHER'.

Status: 0, code: 18773, text: 'Could not locate text information records for column # during command construction.'.

NOTE: The transactional boundaries of the preceding UPDATE statements have no affect on whether or not the bug is encountered.

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To resolve this problem, obtain the latest service pack for Microsoft SQL Server 7.0. For additional information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

301511 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/301511/EN-US/ ) INF: How to Obtain the Latest SQL Server 7.0 Service Pack

NOTE: The following hotfix was created prior to Microsoft SQL Server 7.0 Service Pack 4.

The English version of this fix should have the following file attributes or later:

   File name      Platform
   -----------------------

   s701006i.exe   x86

NOTE: Because of file dependencies, the most recent hotfix or feature that contains the preceding files may also contain additional files.

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WORKAROUND

To work around this problem either:

Use the XCALL syntax for custom replication stored procedures to replicate UPDATES as opposed to the MCALL (the default) or CALL syntax.NOTE: XCALL procedures must be "hand-coded" and cannot be automatically generated on SQL Server 7.0.

-or-
Use a combination of column DEFAULT constraints and/or INSERT triggers to prevent new rows from being inserted with NULL text and/or image columns. Use UPDATE triggers to prevent text and/or image columns from being set to NULL.

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STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed at the beginning of this article. This problem was first corrected in Microsoft SQL Server 7.0 Service Pack 4.

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REFERENCES

For more information regarding the XCALL custom procedure syntax, see the "Using Custom Stored Procedures in Articles" topic in SQL Server 7.0 Books Online.

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