REPLMERG.exe cannot connect to distributor We have a SQL Express 2016 instance that is doing merge replication to a SQL 2016 box. This is an upgraded instance on both sides. We upgraded from SQL Express 2012 to 2016 and we moved the database to a SQL 2016 instance.

Merge replication triggered by a batch file with the following parameters (server, distributor, and subscription info changed to numbers)

REM -- Declare the variables.
SET Publisher=1111111
SET Distributor=2222222
SET Subscriber=3333333\SQLEXPRESS
SET PublicationDB=44444444
SET SubscriptionDB=555555555
SET Publication=666666666

REM --Start the Merge Agent with concurrent upload and download processes.
REM -- The following command must be supplied without line breaks.
"C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\130\COM\REPLMERG.EXE" -Publication %Publication% -Publisher %Publisher%  -Subscriber  %Subscriber%  -Distributor %Distributor%  -PublisherDB %PublicationDB%  -SubscriberDB %SubscriptionDB% -PublisherSecurityMode 0  -OutputVerboseLevel 2  -SubscriberSecurityMode 1  -SubscriptionType 1 -DistributorSecurityMode 0  -Validate 3  -ParallelUploadDownload 1 
pause;
exit


When the batch file is ran, it shows in the replication log file that it cannot connect to the distributor. 

ERROR: ErrNo = 0x80045901, ErrSrc = &lt;null&gt;, ErrType = 9, ErrStr = The process could not connect to Distributor '2222222'.


I can manually trigger the replication from my account (I'm a DBA).

Am I just missing a username and password for this to automatically merge when the batch file is called or am I missing something blatantly obvious in my batch file?
REPLMERG.EXE . . . -DistributorSecurityMode 0  . . .

Per the command line parameters for replmerg.exe

-DistributorSecurityMode [ 0| 1]
Specifies the security mode of the Distributor. A value of 0 indicates SQL Server Authentication Mode
(default), and a value of 1 indicates Windows Authentication Mode.

But you did not include
-DistributorLogin distributor_login Is the Distributor login name.
-DistributorPassword distributor_password Is the Distributor password.