FIX: Distribution Agent does not retry a command if an error occurs while Distribution Agent is running the command in a transactional replication of SQL Server 2005

In a transactional replication of Microsoft SQL Server 2005, you configure Distribution Agent to use the –Output parameter. If Distribution Agent encounters an error, Distribution Agent stops executing the command and does not retry the command that failed. However, Distribution Agent is expected to retry the command.

Note By default, Distribution Agent is configured to retry the failed command every minute.

Additionally, the following error message is logged in the job history of Distribution Agent for the problem:This error message does not reflect the actual problem that causes the failure of the command.

The fix for this issue was first released in Cumulative Update 9. For more information about how to obtain this cumulative update package for SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 2, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:Note Because the builds are cumulative, each new fix release contains all the hotfixes and all the security fixes that were included with the previous SQL Server 2005 fix release. Microsoft recommends that you consider applying the most recent fix release that contains this hotfix. For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:Microsoft SQL Server 2005 hotfixes are created for specific SQL Server service packs. You must apply a SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 2 hotfix to an installation of SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 2. By default, any hotfix that is provided in a SQL Server service pack is included in the next SQL Server service pack.

To work around this problem, do not use the –Output parameter to make sure that Distribution Agent retries the failed command.

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed in the "Applies to" section.

To determine the actual problem that causes the failure of the command, examine the history of the transactional replication in Replication Monitor. Or, examine the following tables in the Distribution database:

• msdistribution_history
• msrepl_errors

After you use the -Output parameter to direct the output to a file, the error message that reflects the actual problem may not be logged in the job history of Distribution Agent.

For more information about what files are changed, and for information about any prerequisites to apply the cumulative update package that contains the hotfix that is described in this Microsoft Knowledge Base article, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

For more information about the list of builds that are available after SQL Server Service Pack 2, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: For more information about the Incremental Servicing Model for SQL Server, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:For more information about how to obtain SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 2, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: For more information about the new features and the improvements in SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 2, visit the following Microsoft Web site: For more information about the naming schema for SQL Server updates, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:For more information about software update terminology, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: