distrib.exe Many instances running

How many instances of distrib.exe should be running?

Yesterday I created multiple publications in SQL 2005. without counting, it looks like each publication has its own distrib.exe.... it this the way it is supposed to work?

Each instance it holding 8k of ram (not a problem right now) but I have many more publications to create...

Please let me know if this is the way SQL server works now?

Hi William,

I am guessing you were used to different behavior on SQL2000 where only one instance of distrib.exe is used to service multiple publications\subscriptions to the same subscriber database. The new behavior in SQL2005 is actually the result of a change in the default value of the 'independent_agent' publication property from 0 (false) to 1 (true). So, you can get the same behavior as SQL2000 by changing the 'independent_agent' property from 1 to 0 via sp_changepublication. I am also a bit curious to know why you are creating many publications. If your goal is to have finer granularity for subscription re-initialization, you can actually perform article level reinitialization using sp_reinitsubscription.

-Raymond

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Thanks for the explanation. I just wanted to make sure it was normal...

The reason for the multiple publications is not for the purpose of the subscriptions but rather the publications them selves. We have about 200 table that are changing several times a year based (data lenghts or additional columns). The table are bundles together based on when they are anticipated to change.

This is the explanation I was given when I was hired. I think it is just to make it easier to see what is what without opening the publications.