| title | sp_mergemetadataretentioncleanup (Transact-SQL) | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| description | Performs a manual cleanup of metadata in the MSmerge_* system tables. | ||
| author | markingmyname | ||
| ms.author | maghan | ||
| ms.reviewer | randolphwest | ||
| ms.date | 06/23/2025 | ||
| ms.service | sql | ||
| ms.subservice | replication | ||
| ms.topic | reference | ||
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[!INCLUDE SQL Server]
Performs a manual cleanup of metadata in the MSmerge_genhistory, MSmerge_contents, MSmerge_tombstone, MSmerge_past_partition_mappings, and MSmerge_current_partition_mappings system tables. This stored procedure is executed at each Publisher and Subscriber in the topology.
:::image type="icon" source="../../includes/media/topic-link-icon.svg" border="false"::: Transact-SQL syntax conventions
sp_mergemetadataretentioncleanup
[ [ @num_genhistory_rows = ] num_genhistory_rows OUTPUT ]
[ , [ @num_contents_rows = ] num_contents_rows OUTPUT ]
[ , [ @num_tombstone_rows = ] num_tombstone_rows OUTPUT ]
[ , [ @aggressive_cleanup_only = ] aggressive_cleanup_only ]
[ ; ]
Returns the number of rows cleaned-up from the MSmerge_genhistory table. @num_genhistory_rows is an OUTPUT parameter of type int, with a default of 0.
Returns the number of rows cleaned-up from the MSmerge_contents table. @num_contents_rows is an OUTPUT parameter of type int, with a default of 0
Returns the number of rows cleaned-up from the MSmerge_tombstone table. @num_tombstone_rows is an OUTPUT parameter of type int, with a default of 0.
[!INCLUDE ssinternalonly-md]
0 (success) or 1 (failure).
If there are multiple publications on a database, and any one of those publications uses an infinite publication retention period, running sp_mergemetadataretentioncleanup doesn't clean up the merge replication change tracking metadata for the database. For this reason, use infinite publication retention with caution. To determine if a publication has an infinite retention period, execute sp_helpmergepublication at the Publisher and note any publications in the result set with a value of 0 for retention.
Only members of the db_owner fixed database role or users in the publication access list for a published database can execute sp_mergemetadataretentioncleanup.