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You can adjust the schedule of the job running the agent.  I'm guessing that the agent is running continuously.  If you change it to run every 5
minutes or so, it will automatically restart itself when errors occur.

The parameters for each agent profile are documented in SQL Server Books OnLine.  Look at the topic "Merge Agent Profile".

Increasing the Query Timeout parameter is a workaround, but won't solve the actual problem.  "Timeout Expired" messages are normally
related to network connectivity problems between the distributor and subscriber.  It's also possible that there is a performance issue on one
of those machines and the agent cannot complete its task within the Query Timeout value you've specified.

Regards,
Shirley Kelly, MCSE, MCDBA
SQL Server Support

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

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No, you don't have to break replication to change the agent schedule.  Go to the merge agent in Enterprise Manager, then right click on the
agent and select "Agent Properties".  Go to the Schedules tab and click on Edit.  Change the radio button to "Recurring", then you can click
on "Change" to select the new schedule.  The new schedule will take effect the next time the Merge Agent is started.

Regards,
Shirley Kelly, MCSE, MCDBA
SQL Server Support

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

Are you secure?  For information about the Strategic Technology Protection Program and to order your FREE Security Tool Kit, please visit
http://www.microsoft.com/security.

Edit the job schedule, not the job steps.  If you change the job to run every 10 minutes, the merge agent job will attempt to start every 10 minutes
(or whatever interval you specified).  Go to the Replication Monitor folder in SQL Enterprise Manager, then to the Agents/Merge Agents folder.  
Find the Merge agent and right click on Properties, then change the schedule in the Schedules tab.

Regards,
Shirley Kelly, MCSE, MCDBA
SQL Server Support

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

Are you secure?  For information about the Strategic Technology Protection Program and to order your FREE Security Tool Kit, please visit
http://www.microsoft.com/security.