Publication Properties, General
The General page of the Publication Properties dialog box contains basic information on the publication, including name, description, and the subscription expiration policy.
Options
Name
The name of the publication (read-only).Database
The name of the publication database (read-only).Description
The description of the publication.Type
The type of publication (read-only).Subscription expiration
Select one of the options for subscription expiration: Subscriptions never expire or Subscriptions expire, with an explicit time period (Interval).For snapshot and transactional publications, Microsoft recommends that you accept the default of Subscriptions never expire.
For merge replication, Microsoft recommends that you accept the default of Subscriptions expire and set as low a value as possible for Interval. As the subscription expiration period increases, so does the amount of metadata stored, which can affect performance. Balance the need for Subscribers to be disconnected or simply not to synchronize for an extended period against the potential performance issues of storing and processing a large amount of metadata.
For more information, see Subscription Expiration and Deactivation.
Compatibility level
Microsoft SQL Server 2005 and later versions only; merge publications only. Select the minimum SQL Server version required for Subscribers that synchronize with this publication. There are a number of rules associated with determining the compatibility level. For more information, see the "Compatibility Level for Merge Publications" section in the topic Using Multiple Versions of SQL Server in a Replication Topology.