SQL 2008 R2 replication error: The process could not connect to Distributor

Question

I have two servers running SQL 2008 R2 Standard, each with an instance named "MAIN". I have a small test database on my primary server (one table, 13 rows) that I want to replicate to a second server as a proof-of-concept for some larger databases that I want to replicate. I set up the primary server to be a publisher and distributor, and set the database to do transactional replication. I copied the data to the second server via a backup/restore, not via a snapshot (which I'll have to do with the larger databases due to database size and limited bandwidth). I followed the instructions here: http://gnawgnu.blogspot.com/2009/11/sql-2008-transactional-replication-and.html

Now on the subscriber, I go under Replication / Local Subscriptions / Right click / Properties on my subscription to the DB. The status of the last synchronization shows a status of: "The process could not connect to Distributor 'PRIMARYSERVER\MAIN'."

Data IS replicating from the primary to the secondary. Any record I add on the primary shows up on the secondary server within seconds.

Is the Distributor part of the Snapshot system that I'm not using, or is it part of the transaction replication stuff?

Thanks, Lance

Answer 1

Check whether Browser services is running all SQL instance. Are you using a named instance? Also see if there are an resource jobs are running.

Answer 2

The distributor is what is recording the changes from the publisher and queueing them before they are sent to the subscriber.

The default is to do a push subscription where no connectivity is needed from the subscriber to the distributor as the connection goes from the distributor to the subscriber. That being the case I'm guessing that there's a firewall blocking either UDP port 1434 on the publisher, or there's a firewall blocking the TCP port that the named instance on PRIMARYSERVER is listening on.