Setting up the publication provides no problems, but when I try to run the
snapshot agent, I have been recieving problmes (different on different
systems :) and all have exactly the same hardware/software.

I should also mention that I have it running well on 2 of 5.

The issues seem to be either that I have an "incompatable stub"... or just a
generic "suspect agent" error.

Neither error points to a specific file or stored proc.

Any ideas welcome!!!!

the suspect agent problem can be fixed by right clicking on Replication
Monitor and selecting Refresh Rate and Settings, Then set Inactivity
Threshold to something larger. You MUST monitor your agents to ensure that
they are doing something on the subscriber - as they could be hung.

--
Hilary Cotter
Looking for a SQL Server replication book?
http://www.nwsu.com/0974973602.html

Looking for a FAQ on Indexing Services/SQL FTS
http://www.indexserverfaq.com

What you described sounds like some sort of DCOM
configuration problem. Either the replication agent COM
servers are not registered properly on some of your
machines or DCOM is disabled\improperly configured on
them. To diagnose the issue further, you may want to try
the following:

1) Try running snapshot.exe manually from the command
line; snapshot.exe can be found at %ProgramFiles%
\Microsoft SQL Server\80\COM. If running snapshot.exe
without arguments displays the usage screen, chances are
good that it is a DCOM activation issue. To further
confirm that this is indeed the case, you can try running
the other replication agents such as distrib.exe,
logread.exe, qrdrsvc.exe, and replmerg.exe from the same
location.
2) Try starting the other replication agents from
enterprise manager and see if they fail with the same
symptoms as the snapshot agent. If so, chances are real
good that you have a general DCOM activation problem.
3) If you think that you have a general DCOM activation
problem, check out the system\application event log and
see if you can find any messages that will point you in
the right direction of what the problem may be.
4) As a way to give you a better feel of what the problem
may be, you should open taskmanager when you try to start
any replication agent from enterprise manager and see if
the corresponding replication agent process
(snapshot.exe,distrib.exe, ...etc.) is started.

If you suspect that the replication agents are not
registered properly, you can manually registered them by
doing the following from %ProgramFiles%\Microsoft SQL
Server\80 (you may want to try it anyway):

regsvr32 replagnt.dll
snapshot.exe /RegServer
distrib.exe /RegServer
replmerg.exe /RegServer
logread.exe /RegServer
qrdrsvc.exe /RegServer

If nothing that I have suggested so far works for you, you
should check out the Microsoft KB for some of the more
arcane DCOM activation issues.

HTH

-Raymond

Hillary, no error numbers :) it would be nice, but the errors are too
generic and have no additional information.

I will post back and let you know how it pans out..

Rob

PS After running an @@version on 4 of the effected servers the I got the
results below. (SVR005 is the only one that is working :(  ? )

No difference in the install process.

Running command on svr005
;      
Microsoft SQL Server  2000 - 8.00.760 (Intel X86)
        Dec 17 2002 14:22:05
        Copyright (c) 1988-2003 Microsoft Corporation
        Standard Edition on Windows NT 4.0 (Build 1381: Service Pack 6)

Running command on svr001
;      
Microsoft SQL Server  2000 - 8.00.760 (Intel X86)
        Dec 17 2002 14:22:05
        Copyright (c) 1988-2003 Microsoft Corporation
        Standard Edition on Windows NT 4.0 (Build 1381: Service Pack 6)

Running command on svr010
;      
Microsoft SQL Server  2000 - 8.00.760 (Intel X86)
        Dec 17 2002 14:22:05
        Copyright (c) 1988-2003 Microsoft Corporation
        Standard Edition on Windows NT 4.0 (Build 1381: Service Pack 6)

Running command on svr083
;      
Microsoft SQL Server  2000 - 8.00.760 (Intel X86)
        Dec 17 2002 14:22:05
        Copyright (c) 1988-2003 Microsoft Corporation
        Standard Edition on Windows NT 4.0 (Build 1381: Service Pack 6)

Now I am not seeing the RPC stub error..

What seems to happen now is that I can start the Snapshot agent, but it
timeouts(after an interval of 4 min)

I have just cranked the failure time up to 15 min to see if this helps..

When I run the Snapshot from the command prompt I get an instant snapshot
(Using the systemadmin sql login - but running from em gives me a stub error
- after a good long timeout)

I am about to go home and bring down the bumps with some good cold beer..
Let you know how things go tomorrow

EM fails but Command line always works....

Suggestions?

TIA

One cheap workaround that you can use is to run the
replication agent from the CMD subsystem of SQLServerAgent
but that is strictly the last resort.

HTH

1) If you haven't done this after you re-register the
dlls, stop and restart SQLServerAgent.
2) What is the service account of SQLServerAgent for the
machines that are giving you trouble?
3) Do you have any kind of fire wall running that may
affect DCOM\RPC traffic?

Raymond,

I have tried stopping and restarting the sqlserveragent and that had no
effect, the event log shows nothing special - just the incompatible stub
message (message at the bottom).

I don't think it could be a firewall issue as the problem shows up when you
log on locally (but there is no firewall there anyway.)

The account used by SQLServer the SQLServerAgent are both a member of the
domain/administrators group.

I am wondering if it could be an NT4 with SQL2K issue, but both are running
the latest sp's, and of course 1 is working fine :)

Do you know where or how sql runs its replication tasks. Is it via a stored
proc call or does it run via some internal dll code?

By the way, thanks for all your help so far. It is nice to have a fresh set
of brains working on this issue.

I compared the files in two of the servers bin and the COM directorys and
have found some small differences.. Wondering if this could be the issue..

There are also some files on the one that doesn't work that are missing on
the one that does, but I doubt that will have much of an impact...

At this moment I have tired moving cmdwrap.exe over and also the contents of
the com dir (and reregistered + stop and start service) still no go...

Rob

(server that works)
(Binn)
04/17/01  11:22p                21,056 cmdwrap.exe
04/27/00  07:25p                 4,516 sqlctr.h
04/27/00  07:25p                19,984 sqlctr.ini
08/05/00  08:51p                32,825 sqlboot.dll
12/17/02  05:24p                25,152 opends60.dll
12/17/02  05:25p                33,336 ssmsad70.dll
12/17/02  05:25p                33,336 SSmsVI70.dll
12/17/02  05:25p                33,344 SSmsSH70.dll
12/17/02  05:26p                25,152 xpsqlbot.dll
(Com)
08/06/00  11:17a                91,648 replerrx.dll
08/06/00  01:51a                98,376 repldts.dll
08/06/00  01:50a                28,745 repldsui.dll

I went throught all the sql direcotorys and looked for file date differences
and copyied them over then registered what I could then tried again..

Same result!

Latest thinking...
If the builtin command fails (replciation command) but the command shell
verison works, then I will change all the replication tasks to use
xp_cmdshell..

http://search.microsoft.com/search/results.aspx?
st=b&na=88&View=en-
us&qu=Incompatible+version+of+the+RPC+stub

Most of the links returned mention something along the
line of mismatched OLE\COM dlls installed by various
programs. I would strongly encourage you to check those
out and see if they help.

What worked (and seems quite reliable - but I wil continue to watch it)

Step1. Setup Distributer
Step2. Setup Publisher
Setp3. Setup Publication
Step4. (critical) - run exec sp_changepublication    
@publication='northwind', @property='independent_agent',   @value='TRUE'
 (Where northwind is the name of your publication)
Step5. Setup your subscribers - don't sync or initialize the publication
--- Below here is where the automatic agent would fail ----
Step6. Create a task (or execute in QA) the following SQLStatement
(replace your servername etc, all following examples use a publication of
northwind and everything else about it is northwind...)

exec master..xp_cmdshell '"c:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL
Server\80\COM\SNAPSHOT.EXE" -Publisher  yourPublicationServerName
-PublisherDB Northwind -Publication northwind -Distributor
yourDistributionServerName-DistributorSecurityMode 1 '

Note DistributorSecurityMode 1 sets up Integrated Secutity
This will successfully create the initial Snapshot..

Step7. Publish your Snapshot (make sure the database exists first - on the
subscriber, this processess won't create a db, just the tables and data)

exec master..xp_cmdshell '"c:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL
Server\80\COM\Distrib.EXE" -subscriberDB northwind -Subscriber YourSubscriber
-Publisher  YourPublisher -PublisherDB Northwind -Publication northwind
-Distributor YourDistributer -DistributorSecurityMode 1 '

Now the data will exist in the remote location (you will need 1 statement
per subscriber - a good thing to script)

Step8. Run a log reader to make see if there is any new data to move...
exec master..xp_cmdshell '"c:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL
Server\80\COM\LogRead.EXE" -Publisher  YourPublisher -PublisherDB Northwind
-Distributor YourDistributer -DistributorSecurityMode 1 '

At that point you just setup tasks to alternate between step 8 and 7..
YOu can read the return of 8 and based on transactions existing execute 7)

Phew!L@O&*^&^$

What a long 4 days!!

Rob

PS gratitude goes to

fm...@hotmail.com who has a great resource on replication
http://www.geocities.com/priyadarshu/tech/Repl.htm
also
SQL Server 2000 Security - Part 8 - Introduction to Replication Security
By Marcin Policht
http://www.databasejournal.com/features/mssql/article.php/3383221

Brad Syputa - MS
http://www.windowsforumz.com/-incompatible-rpc-stub-ftopict188785.html
who started my thinking into xp_Cmdshell...

And last, but certainly NOT LEAST Raymond Mak.. Thanks for pointing me at
the Agents in the COM directory. This was the Breakthrought that enabled me
to finally put it all together!!!!

YOU DA MAN!!

Raymond, I got a good night sleep and then chased a lead you gave me
yesterday. It pointed to a file called mcrepair.exe..

It came from one of the MSDN articles and strangly enough is a "Microsoft
Money" tool. I ran it this morning and Bingo!! replce oleaut and a couple
more and we were good to go.

Of course now I neeed to work out what I broke when I replaced those udpated
and later files :)

But I don't care. Now I have replciation working!!!

What worked (and seems quite reliable - but I wil continue to watch it)

Step1. Setup Distributer
Step2. Setup Publisher
Setp3. Setup Publication
Step4. (critical) - run exec sp_changepublication    
@publication='northwind', @property='independent_agent',   @value='TRUE'
 (Where northwind is the name of your publication)
Step5. Setup your subscribers - don't sync or initialize the publication
--- Below here is where the automatic agent would fail ----
Step6. Create a task (or execute in QA) the following SQLStatement
(replace your servername etc, all following examples use a publication of
northwind and everything else about it is northwind...)

exec master..xp_cmdshell '"c:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL
Server\80\COM\SNAPSHOT.EXE" -Publisher  yourPublicationServerName
-PublisherDB Northwind -Publication northwind -Distributor
yourDistributionServerName-DistributorSecurityMode 1 '

Note DistributorSecurityMode 1 sets up Integrated Secutity
This will successfully create the initial Snapshot..

Step7. Publish your Snapshot (make sure the database exists first - on the
subscriber, this processess won't create a db, just the tables and data)

exec master..xp_cmdshell '"c:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL
Server\80\COM\Distrib.EXE" -subscriberDB northwind -Subscriber YourSubscriber
-Publisher  YourPublisher -PublisherDB Northwind -Publication northwind
-Distributor YourDistributer -DistributorSecurityMode 1 '

Now the data will exist in the remote location (you will need 1 statement
per subscriber - a good thing to script)

Step8. Run a log reader to make see if there is any new data to move...
exec master..xp_cmdshell '"c:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL
Server\80\COM\LogRead.EXE" -Publisher  YourPublisher -PublisherDB Northwind
-Distributor YourDistributer -DistributorSecurityMode 1 '

At that point you just setup tasks to alternate between step 8 and 7..
YOu can read the return of 8 and based on transactions existing execute 7)

Phew!L@O&*^&^$

What a long 4 days!!

Rob

PS gratitude goes to

fm...@hotmail.com who has a great resource on replication
http://www.geocities.com/priyadarshu/tech/Repl.htm
also
SQL Server 2000 Security - Part 8 - Introduction to Replication Security
By Marcin Policht
http://www.databasejournal.com/features/mssql/article.php/3383221

Brad Syputa - MS
http://www.windowsforumz.com/-incompatible-rpc-stub-ftopict188785.html
who started my thinking into xp_Cmdshell...

And last, but certainly NOT LEAST Raymond Mak.. Thanks for pointing me at
the Agents in the COM directory. This was the Breakthrought that enabled me
to finally put it all together!!!!