Disable foreign key constraints for replication
Applies to:
SQL Server 2016 (13.x) and later
Azure SQL Database
Azure SQL Managed Instance
Azure Synapse Analytics
Analytics Platform System (PDW)
You can disable foreign key constraints for replication in SQL Server by using SQL Server Management Studio or Transact-SQL. This can be useful if you are publishing data from a previous version of SQL Server.
Note
If a table is published using replication, foreign key constraints are automatically disabled for operations performed by replication agents. The NOT FOR REPLICATION option is specified by default for foreign key constraints and check constraints; the constraints are enforced for user operations but not agent operations. When a replication agent performs an insert, update, or delete at a Subscriber, the constraint is not checked; if a user performs an insert, update, or delete, the constraint is checked. The constraint is disabled for the replication agent because the constraint was already checked at the Publisher when the data was originally inserted, updated, or deleted.
Permissions
Requires ALTER permission on the table.
Use SQL Server Management Studio
To disable a foreign key constraint for replication
In Object Explorer, expand the table with the foreign key constraint you want to modify, and then expand the Keys folder.
Right-click the foreign key constraint and then select Modify.
In the Foreign Key Relationships dialog box, select a value of No for Enforce For Replication.
Select Close.
Use Transact-SQL
To disable a foreign key constraint for replication
To perform this task in Transact-SQL, script out the foreign key constraint. In Object Explorer, expand the table with the foreign key constraint you want to modify, and then expand the Keys folder.
Right-click the foreign key constraint, select Script Key As, then select DROP and CREATE To, then select New Query Editor Window. The resulting script should look similar the following example from the
AdventureWorks2022
sample database:ALTER TABLE [Sales].[SalesTerritoryHistory] DROP CONSTRAINT [FK_SalesTerritoryHistory_SalesPerson_BusinessEntityID] GO ALTER TABLE [Sales].[SalesTerritoryHistory] WITH CHECK ADD CONSTRAINT [FK_SalesTerritoryHistory_SalesPerson_BusinessEntityID] FOREIGN KEY([BusinessEntityID]) REFERENCES [Sales].[SalesPerson] ([BusinessEntityID]); GO ALTER TABLE [Sales].[SalesTerritoryHistory] CHECK CONSTRAINT [FK_SalesTerritoryHistory_SalesPerson_BusinessEntityID] GO
In the
ALTER TABLE ... ADD CONSTRAINT
portion of the script, modify the new foreign key constraint and specify the NOT FOR REPLICATION option. For example:ALTER TABLE [Sales].[SalesTerritoryHistory] DROP CONSTRAINT [FK_SalesTerritoryHistory_SalesPerson_BusinessEntityID] GO ALTER TABLE [Sales].[SalesTerritoryHistory] WITH CHECK ADD CONSTRAINT [FK_SalesTerritoryHistory_SalesPerson_BusinessEntityID] FOREIGN KEY([BusinessEntityID]) REFERENCES [Sales].[SalesPerson] ([BusinessEntityID]) NOT FOR REPLICATION; --added to disable constraint for replication GO ALTER TABLE [Sales].[SalesTerritoryHistory] CHECK CONSTRAINT [FK_SalesTerritoryHistory_SalesPerson_BusinessEntityID] GO