Copy SQL2k5 publisher/distributor to new server

I have seen a few threads asking about copying a complete server,
including all of replication (merge), to a new server. I notice that
the answers state that it should be possible as long as the server
name remains the same. We are in this situation today, and do not
have the luxury of recreating all of the subscribers, nor do we have
control over when they sync -( merge replication), so we want to shut
merging down, move to a new server, and restart, without our
subscribers missing a beat.
Has anyone actually accomplished this? Any gotcha's?
I appreciate any shared experiences.
Thanks,
john g.
In my experience provided you follow the guidelines for "Strategies for
Backing Up and Restoring Merge Replication" in BOL theere should be no
issues. The only extra thing I can think of is to be sure to do it all
within the retention period (history and transaction and subscription
deactivation).
Cheers,
Paul Ibison SQL Server MVP, www.replicationanswers.com

Copy rows across to another db

Hello all,

first of all please forgive me for asking what might turn out to be a very stupid question. I am new to SQL.

Here is my problem. I have to identical databases, one used for testing (db_test), the other for production (db_prod). What I want to do is to grab a row from a table in db_test and insert it into the relative table into db_prod.

Now, I know to use INSERT INTO, however I having problems specifiying which database to select from and which to insert to. I have tried specifying the full path ([db_test].[dbo].[Table1]) but it does not work. I can only get statements to work if is include the "USE [db_test]" line at the top, but I can't then access the other db.

Any suggestions?It is surprising that the cross database INSERT does not work. Perhaps you could post the query so I could see is there is an error?