In the existing replication setup, Sometimes we need to add NEW articles. When you perform such OPERATIONS in existing setup, it will mark your snapshot invalid which results in snapshot re-initialize for all articles.

This sounds normal but considers the situation where a number of articles are very high or the size of the remaining article is huge, reinitialization can bring down your system.

SQL server provides you OPTION of generating a snapshot of only newly added article. This can be achieved by T-SQL like:-

• Set allow_anonymous property of the publication to FALSE
• Disable Change immediate_sync on the publication
• Invalidate the snapshot by setting property@force_invalidate_snapshot=1 using sp_addarticle
• Refresh subscriptions using sp_refreshsubscriptions
• Start Snapshot Agent using Replication monitor
• You can notice that bulk-insert STATEMENTS are created only for the SPECIFIC article instead of all articles
• Start log reader agent
• Re-enable Change immediate_sync on the publication
• Change back allow_anonymous property of the publication to TRUE