Agent Processing Account

In previous post I explained how Replication agents works. It is pretty mych exe running on Distributor (or in pull replication distrib.exe on Subscriber). As always each exe is running under some kind of Windows account. Like here:

As you can see distrib.exe and logread.exe are running on SQL Service account and also you notice each if these is using RAM. That account you choosing when you configure publication (configuring snapshot and logreader processing account) and subscriber (configuring distribution agent). Every time you configuring one of these things you need to provide Security settings. There are two things that need to be provided. First processing account and second authentication account. In some cases you can use same account for both, like here:

As you can see we will be using SQL Service account for processing logread.exe and also we will use same account in order to connect to Publisher (in order to read transactions). Side note: If you choosing to do so, you need to make sure that this account has all necessary permissions on Publisher server.

Side note 2: You can modify these settings always by going to Publication settings/properties (to modify snapshot and logreader security settings) and Subscription settings/properties (to modify Distribution Agent settings).

We focusing now only on first part. Processing account this is the one that exe will be running under.

You probably wonder why I’m writing about this? Well it is to do with “noninteractive desktop heap “.

Noninteractive desktop heap

Now I would like to put small disclaimer. You may not get to this point where you will get that issue. What is the exact issue?

Let’s assume you have one remote distributor that is used to run 50,60, 100 or more distribution agents. Each of this agent is configured to run under SQL Service account. Each agent is running exe under that account and each process taking some amount of memory on that instance. It is also taking so called “noninteractive desktop heap” that is allowing running processes concurrently. That value is limited for each processing account and it means once u reach it for SQL Service account you wont be able to run any more replication agents.

Once you get to this point the replication agents just wont run… the problem is it wont give you ANY error or just fail without giving any description… it will just stuck on “Starting agent” and finally fail after sometime.

You can test if you have that issue already and just run exe command manually under your account (if you have all necessary permissions on the server) and if agent is running fine then most probably you reached that limit. How to run replication agents manually I described here:

Understanding Replication Agents Part 2

Solution:

1. Change processing account to use different Domain account. Remember it need to have proper permissions on Distributor. You will need to restart agent after you change processing account.
2. Increase Desktop Heap Size. However this need server reboot:Increasing the noninteractive desktop heap size

I normally go with solution no. 1 and create few more domain account and run agent under these accounts.