For effective monitoring, you can configure your servers in the following ways:

Through electronic mail, servers can provide notice to the DBA or other users of any errors as they occur. The level of message logging is dependent on the Log Level flag (-LGLn) setting. For more information, see Message Logging.

In VIsual DBA, you set up the mail alert feature by expanding the Replication branch in the Database Object Manager and expanding the Mail Alert Users branch. For more information, see the online help topic Defining Error Mail Destinations.

In Replicator Manager, you set up the mail alert feature using the Mail Notification List window by adding the e-mail account for those users who require e-mail notification. For more information, see Create a Mail Notification List.

The Error Mail (-MLE) flag, which controls the sending of error messages, is set by default. If you set the No Error Mail (-NML) flag, no mail messages are sent.

If the volume of errors reaches a certain point (the default is 100), the Replicator Server shuts down to maintain the integrity of the system and to allow you to troubleshoot problems. The server automatically keeps track of its error count. You can control at what point the server shuts down by specifying a number that represents the maximum error count in the Maximum Error (-EMXn) flag.

If the error count of the server reaches the maximum error count, the server is automatically shut down. Each time the server is started, the error count of the server is reset to 0. If collision resolution is set on your system, be sure to increase the error count maximum to accommodate collision errors. Each collision, even if resolved automatically, counts as an error.

To change the maximum error count at any time, use one of the following methods:

Visual DBA and Performance Monitor: Use the Performance Monitor Raise Events page. For more information, see the Raising Events at the Server Level topic in Visual DBA or Visual Performance Monitor online help.

Replicator Manager: Use the Send Database Event Window in Replicator Manager.

The status of a server is sent to the Activity page in the Visual DBA Performance Monitor window or the Replication Monitor window at server startup, shutdown, and in response to a ping operation. The ping operation returns the status of the server and its error count.

You can monitor your system more closely with the Send Notifications flag
(-MON). The -MON flag causes the servers to issue activity notifications.

The -MON and Send No Notifications (-NMO) flags control whether the server issues activity notifications. Every time a row is propagated to a target and every time a transaction is committed, a notification is sent (or not sent if -NMO is selected) that updates the Incoming Records, Outgoing Records, and Activity display fields in the Performance Monitor or Replication Monitor. The -MON and -NMO flags also cause the server to notify the Performance Monitor or Replication Monitor when an error occurs. The default is -MON.

Though the -NMO flag stops the server from issuing activity notifications on errors, you can ping a server to obtain its status, overriding any -NMO flag.

When a Replicator Server starts, it creates three log files:

Periodically, you must shut down the servers to clean out the log files.

The Log Level (-LGL) flag controls which messages get written to the replicat.log file, while the Print Logging Level (-PTL) flag controls the messages written to the print.log. Both the -PTL and -LGL flags share various settings that indicate the message levels that are logged.

The message levels that require attention are the Level 1 error messages and the Level 3 warning messages. You are advised to set the -LGL flag to receive Level 1 through Level 3 messages.

Message logging levels 0 through 3 are as follows.