Merge replication between two geographically dispersed sites.
Single table publication.
Active monitoring of replication status checking the last time the merge agent completed
Periodically (typically once or twice a day) we encounter monitor alerts indicating subscriber has not been updated.
Checking the Merge Subscription Detail Window shows that the synchronisation, which normally takes less than 10 seconds to process 100-200 DML actions has taken 10-12 minutes, with Initialization phase accounting for 100% of total.
My research (see http://www.yaldex.com/sql_server_tutorial_3/ch12lev1sec4.html) suggests the Initialization phase involves startup of the merge agent and establishes connection to the Publisher and Subscriber.
There is no indication of connection failures or bottlenecks between the publisher and the subscriber.
I would welcome any troubleshooting guidance to determine what is causing this significant drop in synchronisation performance. Although it is normally short-lived it can result in false alarms for our on call support team at 3:00 am.