clean-up-merge-metadata-replication-transact-sql-programming.md

title	Clean up Merge metadata (Replication SP)
description	Progrommatically clean up data in the Merge replication tables using replication stored procedures
ms.custom	seo-lt-2019
ms.date	03/03/2017
ms.prod	sql
ms.prod_service	database-engine
ms.reviewer
ms.technology	replication
ms.topic	conceptual
dev_langs	TSQL
helpviewer_keywords	metadata [SQL Server replication] sp_mergemetadataretentioncleanup
ms.assetid	9b88baea-b7c6-4e5d-88f9-93d6a0ff0368
author	MashaMSFT
ms.author	mathoma

Clean Up Merge Metadata (Replication Transact-SQL Programming)

[!INCLUDE SQL Server] Merge replication metadata is cleaned up periodically by the Merge Agent based on the retention setting for the publication. This occurs at the Publisher and Subscriber in the MSmerge_genhistory, MSmerge_contents, MSmerge_tombstone, MSmerge_past_partition_mappings, and MSmerge_current_partition_mappings system tables. You can also programmatically clean up the data in these tables using replication stored procedures.

To manually clean up merge metadata

1. At the Publisher on the publication database, execute sp_mergemetadataretentioncleanup.

2. (Optional) Note the number of rows removed in step 1 from the MSmerge_genhistory, MSmerge_contents, and MSmerge_tombstone system tables, returned respectively in the @num_genhistory_rows, @num_contents_rows, and @num_tombstone_rows output parameters.

3. Repeat steps 1 and 2 at the Subscriber to clean up metadata on the subscription database.

See Also

Subscription Expiration and Deactivation