FIX: Merge Replication Agent Fails with "The merge process could not initialize the subscription" Error Message

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This article was previously published under Q278629

BUG #: 57826 (SQLBUG_70)

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SYMPTOMS

When a SQL Server 7.0 subscribing database has two or more merge subscriptions coming from the same merge publishing database, the Merge Agent may fail with the following error messages:

The merge process could not initialize the subscription.

-or-

The merge process could not update the list of subscriptions.

The error details in the agent history show the following:

Violation of UNIQUE KEY constraint 'unique_pubsrvdb'. Cannot insert duplicate key in object 'sysmergesubscriptions'.

-or-

Cannot insert duplicate key row in object 'sysmergesubscriptions' with unique index 'uc1sysmergesubscriptions'

This behavior only occurs when the Publisher is running Microsoft SQL Server 2000, the Subscriber is running SQL Server 7.0 and one of the merge subscriptions is a Pull subscription.

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WORKAROUND

Creating Push subscriptions in lieu of Pull subscriptions prevents this behavior.

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Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in SQL Server 7.0. This problem has been corrected in U.S. Service Pack 3 for Microsoft SQL Server 7.0. For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

274799 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/274799/ ) INF: How to Obtain Service Pack 3 for Microsoft SQL Server 7.0 and Microsoft Data Engine (MSDE) 1.0

For more information, contact your primary support provider.

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