So I have been trying to work with merge and replication lately. (SQL Server 2005) I am still by no means an expert, however, I ran into another issue that I would like to share how it was worked around.

We have a development box that we used at a conference to demonstrate “our” merge and replication capabilities. Brought it back to the office and started to have issues with it. Essentially the distributor was already set up on the box but nothing was connected to it and we could not get rid of it.

I was assured by our network admin that the box had been cleaned. I have my doubts though. Finally, I got tired of trying to work with the muxed up database and created a fresh named instance.

Once we got it set up in the Surface Area Configuration Manager, all worked smoothly. We were able to set up a Publication with the same box as the distributor. Today we will add subscriptions.

I guess that I just needed to vent because training someone to do what you know can be a pain sometimes. Not necessarily because of the person, but just because the technology doesn’t always function properly.

I don’t know how tech support people do it.