Replication Agents failed on the Distributor

Microsoft.SQLServer.2008.Replication.Monitor.ReplicationAgentFailJobs (UnitMonitor)

This monitor checks if the following Replication agent jobs are in healthy state: Distribution agent, Merge agent, Queue Reader agent, Log reader agent or Snapshot agent. If any of the agents are in failed state, the monitor will be triggered.

Knowledge Base article:

Summary

This monitor checks the health state of the jobs for the follow replication agents: Distribution Agent, Merge Agent, Queue Reader Agent, Log reader Agent and Snapshot Agent. If any of the agents’ jobs are in failed state, the monitor will be triggered.

Causes

The Replication agent jobs can fail due to many reasons:

SQL Server Agent failure.
Agent configuration issues, such as improper parameter values.
Network issue that prevent or slow down access to the Subscriber or Distributor.
Data integrity errors, such as “row not found on Subscriber”.
Query timeouts.

Resolutions

To resolve the issue, try the following:

Make sure the SQL Server Agent is running;
Check replication monitor, or look at the agent job history for any error message and investigate/fix accordingly.
Enable verbose logging and rerun the job to obtain detailed error information.

External

How to enable replication agents for logging to output files in SQL Server:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/312292

Overrideable Parameters

Name	Description	Default Value
Alert Priority	Defines Alert Priority.	Normal
Alert Severity	Defines Alert Severity.	Warning
Enabled	Enables or disables the workflow.	Yes
Failed jobs count threshold	Failed jobs count threshold	1
Generates Alerts	Defines whether the workflow generates an Alert.	Yes
Interval (seconds)	The recurring interval of time in seconds in which to run the workflow.	300
Per-Job threshold	Per-Job threshold	1
Synchronization Time	Synchronization Time
Timeout (seconds)	Specifies the time the workflow is allowed to run before being closed and marked as failed.	300
Timeout for database connection (seconds)	The workflow will fail and register an event, if it cannot access the database during the specified period.	15

Element properties:

Target

Microsoft.SQLServer.2008.Replication.Distributor

Parent Monitor

System.Health.PerformanceState

Category

PerformanceHealth

Enabled

True

Alert Generate

True

Alert Severity

Warning

Alert Priority

Normal

Alert Auto Resolve

True

Monitor Type

Microsoft.SQLServer.2008.Replication.MonitorType.DistributorFailJobs

Remotable

True

Accessibility

Public

Alert Message

MSSQL2008 Replication: Failed jobs detected on the Distributor.

The Distributor (Name: '{0}', Server: '{1}') has detected {2} failed job(s).
{3}

RunAs

Microsoft.SQLServer.Replication.Monitoring.RunAs.Monitor

Source Code:

<UnitMonitor ID="Microsoft.SQLServer.2008.Replication.Monitor.ReplicationAgentFailJobs" Accessibility="Public" Enabled="true" Target="MS2RD!Microsoft.SQLServer.2008.Replication.Distributor" ParentMonitorID="Health!System.Health.PerformanceState" Remotable="true" Priority="Normal" TypeID="Microsoft.SQLServer.2008.Replication.MonitorType.DistributorFailJobs" ConfirmDelivery="false" RunAs="MSRL!Microsoft.SQLServer.Replication.Monitoring.RunAs.Monitor">

  <Category>PerformanceHealth</Category>

  <AlertSettings AlertMessage="Microsoft.SQLServer.2008.Replication.Monitor.ReplicationAgentFailJobs.AlertMessage">

    <AlertOnState>Warning</AlertOnState>

    <AutoResolve>true</AutoResolve>

    <AlertPriority>Normal</AlertPriority>

    <AlertSeverity>Warning</AlertSeverity>

    <AlertParameters>

      <AlertParameter1>$Target/Property[Type='MSRL!Microsoft.SQLServer.Replication.Library.GenericDistributor']/InstanceName$</AlertParameter1>

      <AlertParameter2>$Target/Property[Type='MSRL!Microsoft.SQLServer.Replication.Library.GenericDistributor']/ConnectionString$</AlertParameter2>

      <AlertParameter3>$Data/Context/Property[@Name='DistributorFailJobs']$</AlertParameter3>

      <AlertParameter4>$Data/Context/Property[@Name='Message']$</AlertParameter4>

    </AlertParameters>

  </AlertSettings>

  <OperationalStates>

    <OperationalState ID="Health" MonitorTypeStateID="Health" HealthState="Success"/>

    <OperationalState ID="Warning" MonitorTypeStateID="Warning" HealthState="Warning"/>

  </OperationalStates>

  <Configuration>

    <SqlTimeout>15</SqlTimeout>

    <ConnectionString>$Target/Property[Type='MSRL!Microsoft.SQLServer.Replication.Library.GenericDistributor']/ConnectionString$</ConnectionString>

    <ThresholdCountOfFailsForJob>1</ThresholdCountOfFailsForJob>

    <ThresholdCountOfFailedJobs>1</ThresholdCountOfFailedJobs>

    <CategoryList>Distribution</CategoryList>

    <ExcludeCategoryList/>

    <IntervalSeconds>300</IntervalSeconds>

    <SyncTime/>

    <TimeoutSeconds>300</TimeoutSeconds>

  </Configuration>

</UnitMonitor>