Problem Getting Simple Replication to Work in SQL Server 2008/2012 I can't resolve a problem with replication. The publisher/distribution side seems just fine, but when I subscribe and view in the replication monitor I always get this error: "a required privilege is not held by the client"

I thought I had it figured out with an MSDN article explaining the SQL Agent user/pw needs to be set in SQL Config Mgr (instead of Windows Services) -- that was peculiar, but it did describe our situation. Then, we reset the user/pw using SQL Config Manager and I still get the same error.

I deleted my subscription, and setup a new one, but still the same error.

FWIW the publisher/distributor is SQL Server 2008 and the subscriber is 2012 (doing pull subscriptions).
This is a permissions issue and you can find more details in the verbose agent log.

Verify that your replication agent process accounts have the necessary permissions listed in the section Permissions That Are Required by Agents in Replication Agent Security Model.

Note that Microsoft recommends that you use a Windows accounts for replication agent process accounts.  Do not impersonate the SQL Server Agent account when you create the subscription, use a Windows account.

The Distribution Agent process account for a pull subscription requires:


Member of db_owner in the subscription database.


The account that is used to connect to the Distributor requires:


Be a member of the PAL.
Have read permissions on the snapshot share.